December 16, 2015

December 16, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Students,

This is my sixteenth response to “Epistemological Barriers to Radical Behaviorism” (O’Donohue et al., 1998). Unfortunately, these authors seem to be thinking that they have “traced the epistemological barriers that a student or scientist encounters on his or her path to the study of human behavior.” The fact is, however, they completely overlooked the biggest obstacle, namely: how do we actually talk about radical behaviorism? How does the radical behaviorist teacher, as a speaker, affect the student, the listener? And,more importantly, how does the speaker affect him or herself as the speaker-as-own-listener? 

Lack of interest in this question tells us other things are considered to be more important. I am interested in how our way of talking can make radical behaviorism more available to a wider audience. Although radical behaviorism is only one part of the Principles of Psychology class that I teach, I teach that perspective and everyone knows this.

The semester has come to an end and almost all my students are telling me how much they love being in my class, where they are challenged to experiment with themselves and verify the distinction between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). The SVB/NVB distinction is practical and they have written and spoken about the validity this new knowledge has for everyday life. In yesterday’s last class there was an atmosphere of gratitude, peace and celebration and the cumulative effects of my teaching were noticeable and audible. 

What matters for teaching radical behaviorism also matters for the teaching the SVB/NVB distinction: “the student should be forewarned that this is an approach that challenges many popular beliefs and may initially seem strange.” Only the teacher who knows about SVB will be able to “contact the student at the place where the student begins.” Like Skinner, I also “wish to testify that, once you are used to it, the way is not so steep or thorny after all (Skinner, 1975, p. 49).” I am proud of my students, who know about radical behaviorism because of SVB. They know, while radical behaviorists don’t know, that SVB is a radical behaviorist construct. They also know more than any therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist or teacher and they have acknowledged over and over again that these professionals don’t know about the SVB/NVB distinction, which is needed to achieve a better spoken communication.