December 20, 2015

December 20, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Students,

This is my fourth response to “The Personal Life of the Behavioral Analyst” by D. Bostow (2011). What is not discussed by Bostow (or other behaviorists) is that the improvements and changes of behavior by “successive approximations” depend on our vocal verbal behavior. Since the enhancement of the behaviors that are needed to develop positive relationships require specific ways of communicating, not much progress could be made as long as we hadn’t acknowledged the great difference between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). 

As long as we believed to be communicating, while, in reality, we were dominating, arguing, fighting, defending, intimidating and aversively influencing each other, something about our interaction remained terribly wrong. We don’t do any of these negative things if we really communicate. SVB could make many behaviors more effective, but unfortunately SVB is not the kind of communication we are conditioned by and mostly involved in. 

We are all familiar with and impacted by NVB, which, at best, is merely an attempt at interaction, and, at worst, the pretention of interaction. Although NVB is beginning to become recognized by some behaviorists, NVB is and has always been the way of talking which perpetuates our pre-scientific, negative view of human behavior. Most behaviorists (like non-behaviorists) seem to believe the-world-goes-to-hell-in-handbasket as “our cultural contingencies now favor behaviors that produce immediate small consequences at the expense of alternative behaviors that produce delayed but larger consequences” (Grant, 2007). 

Rather than addressing the vocal verbal behavior that reinforces excessive consumption behavior as well as many other destructive and pathological behaviors, Bostow advocates for the application of “contingency-management skills to one’s own behavior in a manner similar to controlling the behavior of another person.” SVB is the ultimate self-management skill. Its response rate remains high as we don’t depend on others for it. Moreover, SVB is immediately reinforcing. Bostow’s notion of self-management behavior as weak, “because the consequences of emitting it are often delayed and uncertain” derive from NVB. Controlling repertoires  based on the analysis ofthe science of behavior will have reinforcing consequences, but this would be even more enhanced if behaviorists would differentiate between SVB and NVB. Only SVB public speech can enhance SVB private speech!