August 7, 2014

August 7, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist 

Dear Reader, 

Whether we want to hear it or not, are willing to study it or not, or are offended by it or not, it is a fact that all forms of behavior,  the verbal behavior of human animals included, are environmentally selected by its consequences. Meaningless nature versus nurture debates continue only among those who don’t know what they are talking about. It is not circular to insist that the functional analysis of our verbal behavior is impossible without words, but that our words depend on others.

It makes no sense to address functional relationships without also considering the forms that emerge from them. Since one needs the other, and since form can be verbal and nonverbal, we need a way of speaking about the action that is our verbal behavior, which is based on the events that control it. 

What we say is a function of how we say it. In other words, when we are angry, anxious, frustrated, sad, or terrified, when we have negative emotions, we speak a different language than when we are safe, supported, happy, trusting, peaceful and excited. We will not produce Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) under the former conditions, which will elicit Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). However, scientific verbal expressions, which are the precise and sensitive descriptions of verbal and nonverbal behavior, are less likely to occur when we experience negative emotions. 

The aversiveness of our negative emotions sets the stage for Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) and makes us produce a sound with our voice which is an aversive stimulus. In NVB, there is no necessity for describing our negative emotions. Negative emotions go unchecked, because nothing in NVB stimulates us to develop a language to accurately describe our emotions. In SVB, by contrast, there is more a likelihood that we develop what we have normally described as consciousness. Indeed, only when we experience positive emotions will we be stimulated to talk about talking and think about thinking. 

Paradoxically, we will only be able to meaningfully think and talk about our negative emotions if we can stimulate, achieve and  maintain our positive emotions again. Recognizing our negative emotions is important because they perpetuate NVB. Only when negative emotions have been analyzed in SVB, can they be recognized as NVB. During healthy development the positive emotions of care must come first. Of course, there will always be exposure to negative emotions, but these can be accepted, expressed and understood due to the conditioning of SVB. To the extent that we have received SVB, we will be able to learn how to deal with our negative emotions. Our inability to deal with negative emotions has nothing to do with negative emotions itself, but with the absence of positive emotions. SVB is based on the ongoing expression of our positive emotions.