January 25, 2016

January 25, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

In his book “Freedom and Dignity” (1971, p. 25) Skinner explains that “a scientific analysis shifts both the responsibility and the achievement to the environment.” His writing is a form of public speech and a teacher will speak about behaviorism with his or her students.  Depending, however, on whether this teacher finds him or herself in a hostile or safe environment, he or she will teach about behaviorism in a Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) or a Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) manner.  

These two different ways of teaching will select different behaviors in students. Those who were taught in a NVB manner acquire different values and use behavioral technology to another end than those who were taught in a SVB manner.  Someone who was taught in a SVB manner will not be interested in power and prestige. He or she will turn away from such harmful stimuli, which are ubiquitous in academia. This operant conditioning process is called negative reinforcement as avoidance and escape behaviors occur in environments which aversively affect the organism.  Behaviorists who were taught in a NVB manner aren’t even aware of how they are affected by negative environments, yet, they are continuously struggling. In spite of their behavioristic knowledge they act just like everyone else: as if their behavior is caused by an autonomous self. 

On the other hand, if one was taught behaviorism in a SVB fashion, avoidance behavior would be emphasized as the royal path to relationship, sanity and health.  Skinner’s life signified that he was not interested in constructs like self and freedom, which don’t explain behavior. His explanation of freedom as a biological mechanism to reduce aversive stimulation becomes apparent if we apply it to how we communicate.  We all have a natural tendency to turn away from NVB. Denial of this and other natural human tendencies cause us enormous problems.  Skinner is absolutely correct in stating “the struggle for freedom is mainly directed toward intentional controllers – toward those who treat others aversively in order to induce them to behave in particular ways.”  We have not yet fully acknowledged how others condition us to remain in their NVB environments.