July 6, 2016

July 6, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Behavioral Engineer

Dear Reader,

This is my twenty-first response to “Epistemological Barriers to Radical Behaviorism” by Donohue et al. (1998). Is there a reason why cognitive psychologists think it is “unnecessary to causally account for the origins of the mental causes themselves?” (Charter & Oaksford, 1997; B. R. Smith, 1997). Cognitive psychologists are bound to have higher rates of Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) than behaviorists.

In NVB the speaker basically doesn’t want to be held accountable by the listener and as a consequence this listener is not allowed to become a speaker. Moreover, in NVB the speaker doesn’t become a listener; he or she is neither listening to him or herself nor to others. Behaviorists, by contrast, are more likely to account for the speaker’s as well as the listener’s side, which both make up the complete verbal episode.

When cognitive psychologists, as speakers, declare “free will,” they superimpose some kind of man-made law onto reality, onto the listener, which is similar to the American constitution and which has nothing to do with science. They might as well say it: all men are created equal.

The essence of forceful NVB is the so-called “free will” of the speaker to imprison the listener. Thus, NVB is also characterized by the lack of accountability of the speaker.  In NVB the speaker can get away with whatever he or she says or does as he or she is having more power and has a higher status than the listener. Indeed, in NVB there is always a separation between the speaker and the listener, because presumably the speaker is more important in the social hierarchy than the listener.

The fictitious idea of “free will” has covered up a whole lot aversive behavioral control by the speaker. Where is the “free will” for the listener, who is not allowed to speak? And, where is the “free will” in the speaker, who is incapable of listening to and engaging in the feedback he or she is receiving from the listener? Without the listener, the speaker dissociates and is no longer grounded in reality.