Verbal behavior: people who talk too much

What explains the behavior of a person who talks nonstop? Discover the 4 explanations of psychology for excessive verbal behavior and its opposite

Hello friends!

There are basically 4 reasons that explain the verbal behavior of people who talk too much: cognition, motivation, environment and body (brain). I write this introductory text to the study of verbal behavior based on the request of our dear reader Raquel.

The question is: how to explain the behavior of some people who talk too much? Who can’t stop talking?

Well, the first point we must understand is that, despite what it may seem at first, there is not much difference between verbal behavior and covert or private verbal behavior. In other words, talking and thinking are similar behaviors, the only difference being the possibility of being observed by one or more people.

I say despite this because we tend to consider thinking as something else and it is not uncommon to find metaphysical or transcendental explanations about what thinking consists of.

In order to simplify we can observe a child. For example, these days I was on a bus trip and a little boy, about 6 years old, was telling his mother (loud and clear) about the difference between the phonemes Ti and Di. He said that before he didn’t know how to say ti and di correctly and so he confused all the words that had ti and di. And like every child, he was fascinated by his discovery.

So he said it and said it again until his mother asked him to stop saying ti and di.

In this simple observation of a child’s verbal behavior we can see how what the child thinks and says are practically the same thing. That is, what she thinks she says and what she says she is thinking out loud. In the same way, when learning to read, the child reads aloud and only with time learns to read to himself, “in a low voice”.

From this perspective, we begin to notice that thinking and speaking are not so different behaviors. A person who talks little is certainly a person who thinks a lot. He thinks but does not speak. And the person who talks a lot, thinks, while talking.

But then what explains the difference between a hyper-shy person and a person who is so talkative that it bothers those around them?

From what I could understand so far in my studies of different areas of psychology, there are 4 plausible explanations for the verbal behavior of people who talk too much.

1) Cognition

Cognition here concerns everything we think, mainly through images and through sounds. When I say that a person who speaks little, thinks a lot, I say it with complete conviction, not because I have been given the privilege of seeing people’s minds, but because we can do several experiments that will prove people’s difficulty to remain silent.

For example, if we do a simple exercise in meditation, yoga or a concentration task on a problem, we will soon see that people will report that their mind wanders, going to other places, to the past and to the future.

If we ask the person to be silent, he will later tell us that it is practically impossible to remain silent – ​​internal – for even a few minutes.

Therefore, we prove that all people think a lot. Some studies show that we have about 60,000 thoughts every day…

Finally, the explanation for a person who talks too much and a person who talks too little should not be sought in the difference in cognition. After all, both also think excessively.

However, people who dedicate themselves to an introspective, religious or spiritual life tend to be quieter. An example of this are the monks of the East and, closer to us, some priests through whom we notice a calm and peaceful tone of voice – which is a reflection of their lifestyle and their thinking.

So, although most people will probably have a cognition a thousand, some others who seek a different lifestyle, try and end up being able to silence their mental flow.

2) Motivation and affection

Although we have to theoretically differentiate between motivation and affect, we will put the two concepts together here for the sake of brevity.

A person who was talkative until last month, but who has simply stopped talking and responds monosyllabically, shows a noteworthy behavioral change. She may be, for example, experiencing depression.

The change in affect and motivation, typical of depression and other mental disorders, explains the change in behavior, from talking a lot to talking almost nothing. In the opposite direction are the manic and hypomanic states in which the patient who spoke with a normal frequency started to talk non-stop.

Of course, we don’t have to talk about mental disorders to show that a difference in emotional state will affect verbal behavior. In addition to nosologies, we have the days when we are more excited and talk more and the days when we are more discouraged and talk less.

3) The environment

According to behavioral psychology, verbal behavior is a behavior like any other and must be understood from what happens before and what happens after like any other behavior.

For example, a person is quiet. If we ask him what time it is, this will be the before behavior which, in turn, will increase the probability that the person will answer “- now it’s noon”. What comes next – “thank you” – will also affect the person’s future tendency to respond to a question.

A real scene that happened to a friend was as follows. She arrived at a bus stop and asked a woman who was there: – “Do you know if the Carioca bus has already passed?” And the woman replied: “And am I obliged to answer you?”

This scene, which we laughed a lot about afterwards, amazed our friend. After all, the woman was very rude. The point is that our friend’s tendency to ask whether or not a bus has passed will tend to decrease in the future, as the consequence she got (the woman’s response) was aversive.

Examples like this also happen in everyday life, among friends and family. And with pleasant and unpleasant consequences, we discover which talk and with whom to speak. So, we talk about football with those who like football and astrophysics with those who are fascinated by the subject…

So whoever talks too much either has not had aversive external experiences or has not given importance to them. A contrary example is the case of selective mutism, diagnosed in the DSM-IV.

4) The brain and the body

Another alternative to explain excessive verbal behavior is the functioning of the brain and body. If you ingest a substance like alcohol, the chemistry of the substance will interfere with your brain, and with that, there will be a greater tendency to talk more.

Extreme cases of head trauma, strokes or the use of stronger drugs (such as mushroom tea) also prove that the alteration in brain physiology will directly affect speech.

A little-known phenomenon that also has effects is the modification of body posture and musculature that involves speech. Releasing what Reich called character armor – in the mouth and throat – can also transform a quiet person instantly into a talkative person.

I have already given the example here of a person who went to the dentist and, after receiving more anesthesia than necessary, felt his mouth loose (this was his description). And with his mouth loose he began to speak everything he had saved during the last 30 years.

Conclusion

Therefore, I think we can conclude that there are several reasons that explain the fact that a person talks too much. It is important to remember that anyone we meet you will think too much. However, due to upbringing, circumstances, body posture, and motivations and affects, behavior will vary from silence to uninterrupted talking.

Want to know more? See our Skinner Course – Verbal Behavior

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