February 13, 2016

February 13, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

In Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971, p. 172) Skinner describes how someone like me is able to devote his life to the exploration and the implementation of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB). He writes “A person who designs a piece of equipment for his own use presumably takes the interest of the user into account, and the person who designs a social environment in which he is to live will presumably do the same. He will select the goods or values which are important to him and arrange the kind of contingencies to which he can adapt.” 

I design social environments by arranging as often as I can the contingencies which make SVB possible and which will decrease and ultimately extinguish Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). I do this as SVB feels comfortable to me. My only interest in NVB is in enhancing my ability to avoid the environment in which it happens.  

Skinner writes (p. 177) “What is needed is more “intentional” control, not less, and this is an important engineering problem. The good of a culture cannot function as the source of genuine reinforcers for the individual, and the reinforcers contrived by cultures to induce their members to work for their survival are often in conflict with personal reinforcers.” If the culture adopts SVB, however, it will “function as a source of genuine reinforcers for the individual.” 

SVB solves the “engineering problem” as it evokes the “intentional” control that Skinner is referring to. The fact that the goods of previous cultures could not “function as the source of genuine reinforcers for the individual” was determined by the way in which people have talked; they have predominantly engaged in NVB. Stated differently, the contingency that made SVB possible was never an “intentional” part of the culture.  The contingency that set the stage for NVB, created a conflict between personal reinforcers and those which guarantee the survival of our culture, but SVB will solve this conflict.