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The Language of the Tribe: Comments on B. F. Skinner’s “A World of Our Own”

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ingunn Sandaker at ingunn.sandaker@hioa.no As Skinner points out, verbal behavior, like other behavior is selected by its consequences, and so is the verbal behavior of scientists. So far, the variation of verbal behavior by cognitive psychologist seems to have a better fit with the selecting contingencies than the verbal behavior ofa our scientific community. The one notable exception is the treatment of autism. I will not comment on the reason why experimental and applied behavior analysis within the field of autism has been such a global success, but it is thought-provoking. I will, however, comment on whether or not we should break out of the so -called ghetto or strengthen its walls, as Skinner formulates it in the article “A World of Our Own” (1993/2014). The premise seems to be that the behavior analyst community is more or less a closed system. Like all living organisms and systems, the behavior analysis community is dependent on energy. Closed systems that do not match the complexity of their environments will die (Bar-Yam, 1997). Thus, whether behavior analysis should become an open system is not the issue. The complexity of our societal challenges calls for variation. Closed systems that do not interact with their environment will not be selected. The question is rather; in what kind of habitat can the endangered species best survive and expand? The editors raise the question of whether that should be together with psychology, or as a discipline on our own. It is strange position for a selectionist scientist to accuse the contingencies or the environment for not selecting their science. A variation is selected by the current contingencies, or it is not. I do not think writing correctional letters to editors who publish stories from lay psychology is a viable strategy for making behavior analysis more influential. Punishing leading representatives in the environment for lacking the technically correct vocabulary is a very bad idea for anyone pretending to be specialist in behavior analysis.