June 20, 2016

June 20, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Behavioral Engineer

Dear Reader, 

This is my sixth response to “Epistemological Barriers to Radical Behaviorism” by Donohue et al. (1998). I think the authors are on the right track in their “focus on epistemological barriers to accepting a position.”

Translated by someone who is knowledgeable about the Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) / Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) distinction, they would be in favor of having SVB over NVB, as only SVB can bring our attention to the different contingencies that maintain SVB or NVB.

Emphasis on “accepting a position” applies to both a position purported by a SVB speaker as well as one purported by a NVB speaker. By accepting the difference between bi-directional and uni-directional exchanges, we realize that only SVB can be considered communication.

Everyone who has explored the SVB/NVB distinction agrees that NVB is NOT communication as it is a one-way-street, from the speaker to the listener. Certainly, the NVB speaker can force the listener to do all sorts of things and there are many reasons why the listener will allow this to happen, but the coercion and effort involved in NVB will always have different consequences than the effortlessness, the absence of aversive stimulation and the presence of comfort and safety in SVB.  

As the aversive control, which characterizes NVB, sets the stage for counter-control, it makes total sense to consider NVB as our greatest barrier to accepting a position. Participants who explore the SVB/NVB distinction will agree that NVB always involves a struggle for attention.

It is the experience of struggle, more than anything else, which is the barrier in accepting a position.  I agree with the authors “that the clarity of presentation is not usually the issue in psychology and also believe that there is rarely much prerequisite knowledge needed to initially understand positions in psychology.” However, rather than focusing on what we say, how we say it needs to get the attention.