March 30, 2016

March 30, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

In “Religion as Schedule-Induced Behavior” (2009) Strand writes about the “changes in religiosity”, which “are preceded by monumental life events” such as death.  However, there are other events, which “are bigger than that too”, which “include events that prompt verbal behavior involving life’s big questions.” In this example, Strand, like any other behaviorist, focuses on the content of verbal behavior. It should be noted here that the verbal behavior involved in “life’s big questions” is primarily a person’s private speech.  And, as a person’s private speech is a function of the kind of public speech this person was conditioned by, we should look at public speech for answers. 

This writer wants the reader to focus on public speech. He wants the reader to be able to analyze “monumental life events” by using the Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB)/ Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) distinction, which hones in on how we actually interact with each other. In SVB, we stimulate and prolong our positive emotions, but in NVB we reinforce and express our own and each other’s negative emotions. Obviously, negative emotions play a big role in dealing with death and loss. Also, such negative emotions accompany our questions about the meaning of life which we ask ourselves when we are faced with bitter personal defeat or needless suffering. In other words, these events involve a lot of NVB in both our public as well as our private speech. 

Our ability to cope with negative events will be determined by the amount of SVB that we have experienced, which will be used to interpret these events. In other words, if we don’t have much history with SVB, we will lack the ability to deal with these “monumental life events”.  The fact that people become religious or change their religion due to negative life events, doesn’t explain why, in hindsight”, they are identified as turning points, toward hopefulness and purposefulness and away from despair and aimlessness.”  Rather than looking at “religious behavior as a response class” and viewing it as a response “induced by exposure to monumental life events” (Segal, 1972), this writer wants the reader to think about how we sound, when we are in happy or unhappy circumstances. SVB and NVB are the two response classes which make it possible or impossible to “engage in verbal behavior about a nonmaterial existence that is the basis for religious behavior” (Hayes, 2001).