December 12, 2015

December 12, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Students,

This is my twelfth response to “Epistemological Barriers to Radical Behaviorism” (O’Donohue et al., 1998). The authors quote Skinner who stated to “accept the task, is to change, not people, but rather the world in which they live” (Skinner, 1975, p. 48). I feel so fortunate that I have discovered Radical Behaviorism and that my extension of Skinner’s work, with what I call Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), is not about changing individuals, but about changing the situation. 

This new perspective has also led to changes in my situation. As a psychology instructor I create situations which are beneficial to my students as well as myself. I emphasize that my student’s behavior is caused by environmental variables and not by an inner self. I let them feel, that by being in my class, they are in a different environment than they are used to. They acknowledge this is true and they describe the changes of their behavior. They appreciate my passion and say that my class is not boring. They are stimulated because I challenge them. 

“The practical problem in continuing the struggle for freedom and dignity is not to destroy controlling forces but to change them, to create a world in which people will achieve far more than they ever have achieved in art, music, literature, science, technology and above all in the enjoyment of life (Skinner, 1975, p.47).” Our struggle ends and freedom and dignity are experienced and enjoyed during SVB. This is possible by bringing in one variable that was missing when we were having Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB): the speaker-as-own-listener. Our conversation changes as we listen to ourselves while we speak. 

We are each other’s environment and we either stimulate each other to listen to ourselves while we speak or we don’t. We can only stimulate each other to listen to ourselves while we speak if we ourselves listen to ourselves while we speak. We must practice to listen to ourselves while we speak when we are alone. Only to the extent we have done that are we capable of stimulating others to listen to themselves while they speak. If we haven’t done this we can’t stimulate others to listen to themselves while they speak. So, the “practical problem” is to change the way in which we talk. We talk to others in the same way as we talk with ourselves. Our way of talking creates the situation.