June 19, 2016

June 19, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Behavioral Engineer

Dear Reader, 

This is my fifth response to “Epistemological Barriers to Radical Behaviorism” by Donohue et al. (1998). When people have trouble understanding each other and one party is trying to explain things, while the other is trying to understand, this often does NOT result in understanding. The more attention people give to explaining things with what we say, the less attention they have for how they say it. 

The more those who try to understand what is being said focus on what is being said, the more they are distracted by how the speaker speaks. During Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) the speaker fixates on what he or she says. There can be no congruency between the content and how he or she speaks. The difference between what we say and how we say it is the difference between our verbal and our non-verbal expressions. 

Listeners only make an effort to understand NVB speakers. They don’t need to make any effort to understand a Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) speaker as such a speaker will be effortlessly understood. We don’t notice or acknowledge this, but the listener’s effort that is involved in understanding the speaker is always a consequence of NVB. 

Donohue et al. (1998) posit that “overcoming epistemological barriers to understanding a position” is not as important as “overcoming barriers to accepting a position.” Presumably, if we would do a better job at “overcoming barriers to accepting a position”, we are more likely able to overcome the barriers involved in “understanding a position.” In SVB experience is most important thing and understanding is a by-product.  Only when the speaker and the listener experience SVB will they be able to understand under what circumstances they are having it.