January 25,
2016
Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer
Dear Reader,
In his book
“Freedom and Dignity” (1971, p. 25) Skinner explains that “a scientific
analysis shifts both the responsibility and the achievement to the
environment.” His writing is a form of public speech and a teacher will speak about behaviorism with his or her
students. Depending, however, on whether
this teacher finds him or herself in a hostile or safe environment, he or she
will teach about behaviorism in a Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) or a Sound
Verbal Behavior (SVB) manner.
These two
different ways of teaching will select different behaviors in students. Those who
were taught in a NVB manner acquire different values and use behavioral
technology to another end than those who were taught in a SVB manner. Someone who was taught in a SVB manner will
not be interested in power and prestige. He or she will turn away from such
harmful stimuli, which are ubiquitous in academia. This operant conditioning
process is called negative reinforcement as avoidance and escape behaviors
occur in environments which aversively affect the organism. Behaviorists who were taught in a NVB manner
aren’t even aware of how they are affected by negative environments, yet, they
are continuously struggling. In spite of their behavioristic knowledge they act
just like everyone else: as if their behavior is caused by an autonomous self.
On the other
hand, if one was taught behaviorism in a SVB fashion, avoidance behavior would
be emphasized as the royal path to relationship, sanity and health. Skinner’s life signified that he was not
interested in constructs like self and freedom, which don’t explain behavior.
His explanation of freedom as a biological mechanism to reduce aversive
stimulation becomes apparent if we apply it to how we communicate. We all have a natural tendency to turn away
from NVB. Denial of this and other natural human tendencies cause us enormous
problems. Skinner is absolutely correct
in stating “the struggle for freedom is mainly directed toward intentional
controllers – toward those who treat others aversively in order to induce them
to behave in particular ways.” We have
not yet fully acknowledged how others condition us to remain in their NVB
environments.
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