August 26, 2014

August 26, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

Behavior that is reinforced increases and  a person's dominant behavior is therefore more reinforced than other behavior. The question is not what kind of behavior gets reinforced? The question is why behavior gets reinforced? What discriminative stimuli will set the stage for this response and due to what consequences is this behavior increasing or decreasing? Does the behavior occur even in the absence of others? It may be a person’s response to his or her private speech. 

The opposite is also true: when behavior is punished, it decreases. If behavior only occurs at a minimal level, it is likely that it is punished. If, over time, behavior decreases and eventually disappears, it is said to extinguish. Such behavior is no longer reinforced and to the extent that it is punished, it will extinguish faster. 

If behavior is punished, it will decrease, but if it is still being reinforced, it will continue, even in spite of the negative consequences. In such a situation, the person  continues his or her way, because he or she is still experiencing the positively reinforcing consequences. Someone who is looking to decrease the negative consequences of the problem behavior of such a person is likely to overlook the reinforcing consequences that continue to stimulate and maintain that behavior.  

When individuals attempt to increase a certain behavior, they often try to do so in the illusion that they can make themselves do it. This illusion is so pervasive that people try to increase or decrease their own behavior and they try to increase or decrease the behavior of others. In each case, the change of behavior is assumed to be done by the person who increases or decreases his or her own behavior. We say things like “You can do it” and "Go for it." However, this is completely against everything we know about how behavior is increased or decreased. 

No individual increases or decreases his or her own behavior, because increases or decreases of behavior are functions of variables in the environment. Only under certain environmental circumstances can and will these increases or decreases reliably occur. The false notion that we can cause behavioral change by ourselves is the reason that we don’t change and that we prevent ourselves from changing.