July 28, 2014

July 28, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

A quick note to describe what is going on. This verbalizer stayed up late to read a very interesting paper about the history of behaviorology. He now considers himself a Verbal Behaviorologist, because he agrees with behaviorology. The natural science of human behavior had to come into its own and had to separate itself from main stream psychology. Unlike psychology, behaviorology doesn't subscribe to an imaginary behavior-causing agent, such as a self or psyche. It helps to know that these academic battles for acceptance took place and this writer is happy to he was not involved in this ugly battle. Now that he knows about behaviorology, which is basically an attempt to establish behaviorism as a science in its own right, he feels that his struggle for acceptance is behind him.  

Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) is the spoken communication in which speakers and listeners, better described as verbalizers and mediators, are no longer considering themselves as doers of their actions. In SVB, neither the speaker does the speaking nor the listener does the listening. Speaking and listening are dependent variables, which are a function of environmental independent variables. Moreover, in SVB, there is no distinction between variables inside or outside our skin. In Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), by contrast, speakers and listeners view themselves as either the speaker or the listener. 

When someone considers him or herself to be a speaker, such a person is not very likely to consider him or herself to be a listener. And, when someone considers him or herself to be a listener, such a person is equally unlikely to view him or herself as a speaker. That is, in NVB, communicators view the speakers as separate from the listeners. In SVB, on the other hand, communicators view themselves and each other as verbalizers as well as mediators. The joining of speaking and listening behavior which occurs in SVB sets the stage for an entirely different conversation. Such a SVB conversation is needed to clarify the important behavioral cusp of speaking and listening simultaneously.  A cusp is a behavioral skill which, once accomplished, leads to increased reinforcement opportunities. When speaking and listening are no synchronized, we engage in NVB, in which opportunities for reinforcement are much smaller than in SVB.  

On his way to work, while driving on the freeway, this writer was thinking out loud about not causing his own behavior. He was trying to explain to himself how it was that he was driving and keeping his car on the road. A lady attracted his attention, who was walking along the highway and talking on her cell phone.