February 12, 2016

February 12, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

In Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971, p. 171) Skinner writes “The great problem is to arrange effective counter control and hence to bring some important consequences to bear on the behavior of the controller.” As described in yesterday’s writing, the counter control that is elicited by the Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) speaker in the listener, when he or she becomes a speaker, only increases the NVB response rate. Our participation in NVB only enhances it, but doesn’t and can’t decrease it. 

Although occasionally there may be some moments in which the NVB speaker allows the listener who becomes a speaker to express some Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), this will only be used by the NVB speaker to strengthen his or her control over the listener. The only way in which NVB can be reliably decreased is by not participating in it. Stated differently, NVB can only be decreased by the extent to which we are able arrange for the circumstances which will create and maintain our SVB. Nothing can be done directly about NVB.  

As SVB increases, NVB will decrease. The lawfulness of this fluctuation can be observed in our own lives. Although at any given moment we will be experiencing increases of NVB and decreases of SVB, the more we discriminate between these two response classes, the more we will notice a steady increase in SVB and a decrease in NVB. This occurs because we get better at recognizing and avoiding NVB. 

Interestingly, Skinner notes (p.172) “Self-government often seems to solve the problem [of counter control] by identifying the controller with the controlled. The principle of making the controller a member of the group he controls should apply to the designer of a culture.” By becoming a member of the SVB culture, the controller will have solved the issue of counter control. In NVB, the controller cannot identify with the controlled and, consequently, the issue of counter control will only be further exacerbated.