how atti­tude effects bdsm slave training

A slave’s atti­tude is a com­bi­na­tion of learned beliefs and feel­ings that effect behav­ior. It addi­tion, research shows chang­ing behav­ior (act­ing “as if”) can change atti­tude. Atti­tudes are set within our pri­vate logic. Pri­vate logic is the way we see our­selves, oth­ers and life and is our per­sonal phi­los­o­phy that our lifestyle is based upon. Changing a slave’s atti­tude about a par­tic­u­lar object is not always easy. Atti­tudes are based on what she thinks about the object and what they think about the object and resis­tance to change is often based on sev­eral factors.

Epicte­tus, a Roman slave turned philoso­pher, said that

“when an event hap­pens to you in life, you have in your power only one thing; your atti­tude toward it! You can­not change an event, but you can change your atti­tude toward it.”

In may cases a slave is pow­er­less over events because she is fol­low­ing the direc­tion of her mas­ter.  her atti­tude about the event is important.

It may be help­ful to exam­ine the com­po­nents of atti­tude in order to assist a Mas­ter in the train­ing of his slave and pro­vide insight into chang­ing attitudes.

Def­i­n­i­tion of Attitude:

Atti­tude is defined as a pre­dis­po­si­tion to respond to a par­tic­u­lar object in a gen­er­ally favor­able or unfa­vor­able way. Atti­tude is influ­enced by the way we per­ceive and respond to the world and is acquired through learn­ing. An atti­tude is expressed in the present, but is a reflec­tion of past expe­ri­ences and learn­ing. It is pos­si­ble to change an atti­tude with a present tense focus, but it is often advis­able to exam­ine the past and dis­cuss when, where, how and why the atti­tude developed.

Because atti­tudes are an impor­tant influ­ence on a slave, a Mas­ter and the rela­tion­ship, they deserve a cen­tral place in train­ing. Chang­ing atti­tudes (when needed) is a com­po­nent in the re-socialization of a slave.

Atti­tude and Goals

Always remem­ber that proper atti­tude is key to hav­ing proper moti­va­tion to achieve goals.

The com­po­nents of an atti­tude: (Beliefs, eval­u­a­tion and behavior)

As dis­cussed in other sec­tions on this web­site, we first, think, then feel, then act. What we think about an object causes an emo­tion and in return causes a par­tic­u­lar behavior.

An atti­tude about some­thing requires a label and a set of cog­ni­tions or knowl­edge struc­tures asso­ci­ated with that label. Know­ing that an atti­tude is based upon label­ing is a use­ful tool in training.

An atti­tude also has an eval­u­a­tion ele­ment. The eval­u­a­tion has both a direc­tion and inten­sity. In other words, what we think about an object causes an emo­tional reac­tion that is pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive and the reac­tion can range from a mild to strong reac­tion, depend­ing on what we think about the object.

Because we have a cer­tain belief and eval­u­a­tion about an object, we have a behav­ioral pre­dis­po­si­tion related to the object. There­fore, behav­ior is based upon beliefs.

How atti­tudes are formed:

Atti­tudes are formed about a par­tic­u­lar object by direct expe­ri­ence with the object, repeated asso­ci­a­tion that pro­duces a response, and observ­ing others.

An atti­tude serves one or more of the fol­low­ing three purposes:

1.  We develop favor­able atti­tudes toward objects that reward or aid us and unfa­vor­able atti­tudes toward objects that thwart or pun­ish us.
2.  It pro­vides a schematic or knowl­edge func­tion and a means to group cat­e­gories together. It sim­pli­fies life by allow­ing us to group objects per­ceived to be sim­i­lar under the same label. It allows us to quickly base an opin­ion about an object based upon past expe­ri­ences and learn­ing about a sim­i­lar object. One key to chang­ing atti­tude about an object is to change the label asso­ci­ated with the object to a more favor­able one.
3.  It defines one’s self and main­tains self-worth. Many atti­tudes express basic val­ues and rein­force self-image.

 

A person’s atti­tude about an object is usu­ally not iso­lated, but is embed­ded in a cog­ni­tive struc­ture, linked with a vari­ety of other atti­tudes. That is why it is dif­fi­cult to change a person’s attitude.

 

Atti­tudes have a ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal structure:

Ver­ti­cal struc­ture means that a pri­mary belief will effect many minor beliefs under it. An attempt to change a minor belief will not effect the major struc­ture of an atti­tude. The source of the atti­tude must be exam­ined. Just telling a slave that she has a bad atti­tude will not cause a change. A core belief can cause atti­tudes about a wide range of objects.

Hor­i­zon­tal struc­ture is when an atti­tude is linked to two or more dif­fer­ent jus­ti­fi­ca­tions. An atti­tude with two or more hor­i­zon­tal link­ages or jus­ti­fi­ca­tions is more dif­fi­cult to change than one based on a sin­gle prim­i­tive belief. Chang­ing a belief about one link­age will not change over­all atti­tude because a sec­ond belief also upholds the atti­tude. Each link­age must be exam­ined and the thought process related to it must be challenged.

Some ques­tions to ask about an attitude:

How long have you held this belief?

What hap­pened that caused you first to feel this way about the object?

What were you doing when you first remem­ber act­ing that way?

Why do you feel that way about the object?

Is this atti­tude help­ing or hurt­ing your slavery?

 

Tech­niques for chang­ing attitude:

 

If you change a slave’s atti­tude, then you can change her behav­ior. Accord­ing to social psy­chol­ogy, a Mas­ter can change a slaves atti­tude by one of the fol­low­ing tech­niques: (Note: I don’t con­sider it a com­plete list)

1) Foot-in-the-Door Tech­nique. To get some­one to change an atti­tude or grant a favor, begin with a small atti­tude change or favor. The the­ory is that a sec­ond change is eas­ier after the first one. This is the method used on Amer­i­can POW’s dur­ing the Korean War.

2) Door-in-the-Face Tech­nique. First, ask for an out­ra­geous atti­tude change or favor, then reduce it to a much smaller and more rea­son­able one. It works best if there is not much time between requests.

3) Ask-and-you-shall-be-given Tech­nique. Peo­ple will respond by giv­ing to what is seen as a good cause.

4) Low­balling Tech­nique. A per­son is influ­enced because they per­ceive a low stake in it. Once the deci­sion is made, the stakes can be increased.

5) Mod­el­ing. Mod­el­ing the behav­ior of some­one else increases the like­li­hood that they will change.

6) Incen­tives Tech­niques. Incen­tives work well for chang­ing behav­ior but not atti­tude. A per­son can go to work for the money, but still dis­like the job.

7) Role Play­ing. Role refers to behav­iors that are expected of some­one in a par­tic­u­lar social set­ting. A slave is expected to act as a slave and there­fore her behav­ior will change to meet her behavior.

 

Dif­fer­ent views on how atti­tude is changed:

Below are three the­o­ries of how atti­tudes are changed:

1) Cog­ni­tive Dis­so­nance Theory:

Cog­ni­tive dis­so­nance is a men­tal dis­com­fort (con­flict) caused by a dis­crep­ancy between two or more per­sonal beliefs or between beliefs and behav­ior. This pro­vides moti­va­tion to change either an atti­tude or behav­ior to reduce dissonance.

In slave train­ing, the slave knows that she can’t change her behav­ior, because it is struc­tured by her Mas­ter, there­fore she is moti­vated to change her atti­tude to main­tain a balance.

 

2) Reac­tance Theory:

When a slave feels her free­dom of choice is being unjustly restricted, she is moti­vated to re-establish it. (see sec­tion on Resis­tance & Reac­tance for more detail.

 

3) Self-Perception Theory:

This the­ory states that atti­tude and emo­tions are inferred from behav­ior. It states that peo­ple don’t know their atti­tude, until they stop and exam­ine their behav­ior. They will first search for an exter­nal expla­na­tion and if none exists, they will turn to inter­nal ones.