October 16, 2016

October 16, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

It is as simple as this: our common way of talking prevents behavioral change. Most of our talking is Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) in which the speaker dominates the listener. Although many things are getting done in this way, we haven’t acknowledged the fallout from the fact that most of our behavior is controlled by aversive contingencies.

Every time the speaker’s sound is experienced by the listener as an aversive stimulus, this listener asserts some sort of counter-control. In other words, as forceful, dominating, insensitive, but also stressful, anxious, uptight, aggressive and demanding speakers, we elicit negative emotions in the listeners, who as speakers will do the exact same thing.

The NVB speaker continuously punishes his or her listener. Punishment occurs in two different ways. It may involve the reduction of behavior via application of an aversive stimulus, called positive punishment or punishment by addition. The second form of punishment is known as negative punishment also known as punishment by subtraction in which behavior is decreased by the removal of an appetitive stimulus. NVB is the kind of speech in which behavior cannot be changed as it is only reduced. To increase behavior Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) is needed.

Only in SVB speakers reinforce listeners. SVB is needed to change behavior and learn new behavior. Reinforcement happens in two ways.  When we speak with a sound which is experienced by the listener as appetitive, we add a positive stimulus to our speech. The sound of the speaker is experienced by the listener as a positive reinforcer.

The second kind of reinforcement is called negative reinforcement or reinforcement by subtraction. After SVB and NVB have been properly discriminated the probability of SVB is increased as a consequence of the withdrawal of the pleasant-sounding voice of the speaker. Once we know how good speech can be we will be motivated to have SVB again.

When I as a teacher don’t sound as good anymore to my students, they have been instructed to stop the lecture and to change my NVB into SVB. They signal this by point their hands. By doing this together we are learning to switch from NVB to SVB. All my students report they experience an increase in their SVB and a decrease their NVB over the course of the semester with their friends, family and colleagues.

Reinforcement is key to teaching SVB or any other kind of prosocial behavior, but punishment, which always results into counter-control, fosters a decrease of prosocial behavior and therefore it stimulates anti-social behavior. Yes, NVB is and promotes anti-social behavior.

The point of today’s writing is: we need SVB to be able to experience, stimulate, shape and maintain novel behaviors. As long as we haven’t acknowledged that NVB is our dominant way of talking, we continue to expect to see behavioral change which cannot and will not occur.

Our NVB will be increased as long as we still lack knowledge about the SVB/NVB distinction. Our failure to really communicate and to have SVB results into admiration, celebration and reinforcement of violence and coerciveness. We accept NVB as normal, but once we know the difference between NVB and SVB, we recognize that NVB should be seen as abnormal as it prevents and undermines any social development.

The only way to change our own and each other’s behavior is by talking. NVB makes false promises, but SVB delivers the predicted results. Our harmonious relationships are made possible by how we interact. During SVB, the speaker’s voice is experienced by the listener as something he or she can and wants to listen to; in SVB listeners like to listen.

October 15, 2016

October 15, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

It is in the middle of the night and I am sitting on the floor with my legs crossed. Kayla our cat sits next to me on her pillow and Bonnie my wife is asleep. I woke up at 2:30am. It was a busy day yesterday, but now it is quiet. I like to think and write about my distinction between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB).

Certain things can only be said about this distinction if one, like me, explores what one is saying to one self. Private speech happens silently; it is only available to us individually. However, this private speech can be made public. In SVB, we make our private speech public. This is not possible in NVB. In NVB we try in vain to keep our private speech out of our public speech. It cannot be done, but we pretend to be doing it.

We make it seem as if how we speak with others has nothing to do with how we speak with ourselves. In SVB, we find out that, although how we speak with ourselves is caused by how others have spoken with us, how we speak with others is related to how we talk with ourselves.

There is nothing circular or mysterious about these links of causation. We can only really talk with ourselves and be in contact with ourselves to the extent that others have really talked with us. Our ability to talk with ourselves is diminished if we can’t talk with others and this will only further increase our isolation, loneliness, confusion and despair.

When in NVB our public and private speech are kept separate, speakers and listeners are also separated. In NVB, we don’t talk with each other, but we talk at each other. All our problems are created and maintained by NVB. Without SVB we cannot address let alone solve our problems.

October 14, 2016

October 14, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

Every day I write about the distinction between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). There hasn’t been a day in which I haven’t discovered something new. I promise that you will have similar experiences when you become familiar with this distinction.

My prediction comes true for my students and for my therapy clients. My writing is stimulated by them and is for them, but if you become interested as you realize what I say is true then I write for you too. You only understand me if you take me serious by verifying if it works.

I care about the soundness of my assertions, but I can’t be bothered with those who are unwilling to put what I say to the test. This wasn’t always the case. For a long time I was very upset about not being taken serious. However, there are now enough people who practice my work.

Enough people have taken me serious and I don’t get upset anymore about those who don’t care. My work is validated every day and that is why I can keep reaching out even to those who don’t seem to care about what I say, but who somehow have become my face book friends. 

I befriend anyone who is willing to be in contact with me. Everyone can learn about, implement, verify and be benefitted by the SVB/NVB distinction. I am confident that if you would take the time to read what I have written that it would begin to make more sense to you.

I promise that my words are capable of expanding your short attention span, which is a product of NVB. Once you read my work you will find that your concentration will improve. You will also notice that different things begin to happen when you talk and listen. You will be intrigued.

October 13, 2016

October 13, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

There was a time when technology had not yet advanced far enough to combine recorded sound with motion pictures. In these so-called silent movies dramatic music was played to bring the muted play, which was acted out by means of gestures and mime, alive. Also, title cards were showed to explain the plot and to provide fragments of the dialogue.

The first moves with sound were referred to as talkies, sound films or talking pictures and when our technology made synchronization possible film production moved into the sound era in which music and sound effects began to play a bigger and bigger role. Nowadays, we are drowned in and overwhelmed by sound, and it is much more difficult to notice when communicators engage in Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) or in Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) than in the days of the silent movie.

In NVB the sound of the speaker’s voice is experienced by the listener as an aversive stimulus, but in modern movies that sound is enhanced by sound effects much more than the SVB speaker. The listening behavior of movie goers has been shaped by the sound of coercion and violence.

A similar phenomenon has occurred in our news reporting and in many other TV programs. Newsreaders and actors produce increasingly more hyped up and demanding sounds and yank audience experiences around from one sensation to the next. Everyone demands our attention.

When actors in shows say something funny, we hear canned laughter. There are attention-grabbing commercials which interrupt any kind of ongoing dialogue. Due to NVB, we are constantly distracted by what we hear (and see). We think we are entertained, but we are conditioned to trivialize the vital importance of calmness, continuity and attunement.

October 12, 2016

October 12, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

I am proposing an easy and effective way to treat our mental health problems and to stimulate and maintain healthy and happy relationships. We sound the way we do because of people we were with and are with. By focusing on how we sound while we speak we can keep things simple while we explore and learn about more complex phenomena. 

No topic is left unaddressed during Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), but during Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) one topic always becomes more important than another. We sound different when we engage in SVB or NVB. As we overvalue what we say, we have not paid much attention to how we sound. We often keep getting carried away by what we say.

The sound of our voice is only available to be listened to in the moment that we produce it. We are only able to hear our sound when we listen to ourselves while we speak. Our speaking and listening behavior, that is, production and observation of our speech, occur in the here and now.

During SVB we are sensitive, conscious speakers, who embody their speech, but during NVB we are insensitive, unconscious, disembodied talking heads. Our psychological problems are problems of repetition, but we can only become aware of that by listening to how we sound.

By listening to ourselves while we speak we are aware, we don’t become aware. As we were mostly engaged in and conditioned by NVB, we don’t listen to ourselves while we speak. I stimulate my clients as well as my students to listen to their voice while they speak and each time they do that the solution to their problems becomes available to them.

People recover from mental health problems only to the extent that they listen to themselves. By decreasing NVB and by increasing SVB they discover another way of talking with others and with themselves. Regardless of what diagnoses they have, all my clients are improving.

My students are surprised that my class is so different from any other class. They hesitatingly acknowledge, engage in, explore and appreciate that they are actually enjoying genuine communication. They become more open, more talkative and more at ease. They agree, as the semester progresses, that SVB is increasing and NVB is decreasing.

Similarly to my mental health clients, my student’s learning experience is enhanced by the SVB/NVB distinction which provides an acceptable formulation of their behavior. Although in each class there is a fair amount of skepticism about my analysis, they realize that it works.

Even students who don’t say very much in class convey in their papers how much they enjoy SVB. It is evident from the feedback that people who have no background in radical behaviorism are capable of using my extension to produce a functional analysis of their own behavior. They repeatedly let me know that my teaching has great value for them.

As a teacher and as a therapist I am proud to see, hear and read about my student’s and client’s progress. The changes in behavior that occur are visible, audible and permanent. It is rewarding to be able to predict these changes and to create the situation which makes them possible.

I affect my students and clients with the sound of my voice. They get more attuned to my sound and each time we speak they also become attuned to their own sound.. I induce SVB in them and they induce SVB in me. I have great confidence that things will only get better as we go.

I take my job as a psychology instructor very serious and I call myself a verbal engineer. I am grateful to my clients who trust me to practice the science I have dedicated my life to.  I teach everyone that there is nothing to be gained from the superficiality and coerciveness of NVB.

Understanding of your behavior requires another way of talking. Once you know that SVB is possible and necessary, you become responsible for the environment in which it can and will occur. We are each other’s environment; we either co-regulate or we dysregulate each other.