January 22, 2016

January 22, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

Not too long ago, I couldn’t think that one day I would enjoy writing as much as I do today. This winter break between the Fall and the Spring Semester allows me to take it easy for a couple of weeks. I am at home alone and that sets the stage for this writing. Skinner opens his book Verbal Behavior (p. 1, 1957) with the sentence: “Men act on the world, and change it, and are changed by it in turn by the consequences of their action. Certain processes, which the human shares with other species, alter behavior so that it achieves a safer and more useful interchange with a particular environment.” 

I enjoy my break so much because the Fall Semester was a great success. As a teacher, I have acted on the world, that is, I have acted on my students. In turn, I am changed by their positive feedback about my teaching. Skinner makes an important point by focusing on behavior that “achieves a safer and more useful interchange with a particular environment.” This relates to Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). We only create a “safer and more useful interchange” with SVB. In NVB we don’t feel safe and we cannot have “a more useful interchange.” The “particular environment” which causes SVB is different from “a particular environment” which causes NVB. 

In SVB as well as NVB speakers assert an indirect effect upon their environment, that is, “upon other men”, but only in SVB do they do so without any aversive stimulation. In NVB, the coercive speaker may also accomplish a so-called “useful interchange” by means of threat and intimidation, but he or she doesn’t create any safety. The “useful interchange” made possible by safety is only achieved during SVB.