December 17, 2015

December 17, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Students,

Today is my first response to “The Personal Life of the Behavioral Analyst” by Darrell Bostow (2011). The title of this paper attracts me as I want to write about my personal life. I want to illustrate the reinforcing consequences of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and the relief which comes with the ability to discriminate, avoid and decrease our involvement in Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). Bostow is concerned about global warming. We need to recognize that critics who are disclaiming the human cause of global warming are ignorant about and, consequently, against behaviorism. They can’t believe human behavior, that is, their behavior, can cause something at such a large scale. 

“It is widely believed that technology will solve predicted energy problems, a belief that is nurtured by our media as well as governmental leaders.” Global warming is caused by how we talk. Our belief in technology is maintained by high rates of NVB. It is unbelievable that even behavioral analysts have not yet caught on to this. As long as we don’t address the SVB/NVB distinction, we keep going around in circles. The author seems to describe what prevents the acknowledgment of the SVB/NVB distinction: “We cannot trust feelings themselves as a guide to those contingencies that have desirable strengthening of behavior because the referents for feelings are not yet subject to an objective scientific analysis. In the present discussion, pleasing versus strengthening is a rough vernacular distinction between the byproducts of reinforcement contingencies. The former term emphasizes respondent byproducts; the latter emphasizes the future utility of operant behavior.” 

SVB and NVB are “byproducts of reinforcement contingencies.” Moreover, the former “emphasizes the future utility of operant behavior” while the latter “emphasizes respondent byproducts.” However, in SVB we trust “feelings themselves” to inform us about “the contingencies that have desirable strengthening of behavior”. Since we are benefitted by SVB each time we engage in it, we don’t depend on the approval from “objective scientific analysis”. It is precisely because SVB is so “pleasing” to us that it “strengthens” our behavior. “Replacement” of “byproducts of operant strengthening (sometimes called satisfaction)” by “the pursuit of pleasurable by-products called “pleasurable feelings”” was brought about by something else than “technological advances”: genuine communication. Stated differently, “Pleasing consequences eclipsed strengthening ones” because of how we talk.