November 27, 2014

November 27, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

This author had a great skype conversation with his behaviorist Dutch friend. His wife is undergoing chemo therapy and it is not sure how long she will be able to live. He was talking about how living in such uncertainty has affected his life. It is very uncomfortable for him and due to the illness of his wife, his life has grinded to a halt. On the other hand – and this was what most of the conversation was about – it has also intensified his life in many ways, causing unexpected positive events. His  love for his wife is deep. He is a committed family man and his children are successful and happy. 

My Dutch friend was recently at a retirement ceremony of a colleague, who spoke with authentic emotional appreciation and love about the support he had felt from his wife, who had made his career possible. When after that another colleague, the dean, had spoken, he had felt infuriated, because with just few words it completely destroyed the beautiful atmosphere of openness and gratefulness, which had come about because the retiring man who had expressed his true feelings. 

This story illustrates the enormous difference between the Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) of the retiree and the Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) of the mean dean. From one moment to the next SVB was no longer possible because the contingencies were altered by the words of the dean. After the ceremony had ended, my Dutch friend went to the reception, but once he saw the dean, he was still so upset about what the dean had done that he went home without shaking the hands with the retiree. He was telling me that insensitivity is very common in academia and that because of his wife's illness he is less and less capable of tolerating it. 

This author's Dutch friend, who recognizes SVB, realized that it made no sense to have NVB and he simply left the situation. More reinforcing to him are the sun panels on his roof, which save money on utility bills. Government programs in the Netherlands subsidize citizens to make environmentally friendly decisions. It has nothing really to do with environmental awareness, but the money being saved is a great example of smart behavioral engineering. Once we know more about the lawfulness of behavior, we can create contingencies which reduce our ‘carbon-footprint’ behavior. This author was reminded of the little bags dog-owners can find on poles in the park. They can take a bag to pick up the dog poop. However, there something went wrong with the behavioral engineering, because the little bags with dog shit in it can be seen thrown around all over the park. Many took a bag, collected their dog poop, but threw the bag on the ground, when they couldn’t find a trashcan to throw it in.