Inter­per­sonal forms of power:  How they are cen­tral  to the con­trol of a slave, insure com­pli­ance to her master’s  rules, moti­vates his slave to achieve his goals and obtains her obe­di­ence. These are the author­i­ties she gives him to rule her.  Not only are strong inter­per­sonal forms of power nec­es­sary to prop­erly train a slave, they are essen­tial in her long-term man­age­ment.  Loy­alty and obe­di­ence are cen­tered in their strength.   With­out them being strong a Mas­ter can’t man­age his slaves in a long-term rela­tion­ship.  It is impor­tant for a Mas­ter to gain as much knowl­edge as he can about the BDSM lifestyle and slave train­ing.   Knowl­edge plays an impor­tant role in a Master’s author­ity and con­trol over his slave and her training.

Inter­per­sonal forms of power: (the ways one per­son has author­ity over another)

Reward  - abil­ity to con­trol the reward a slave wants. This pro­vides rein­force­ments for cor­rect behav­ior or changes in behav­ior or atti­tude. The slave com­plies in order to obtain rewards con­trolled by the Master,

Coer­cive  - abil­ity to cause a slave to have an unpleas­ant expe­ri­ence. It is also defined as the power to give or with­hold pun­ish­ment. It is also asso­ci­ated with using force to com­pel com­pli­ance. The slave com­plies in order to avoid pun­ish­ments con­trolled by the Master.

Legit­i­mate  - is based on posi­tion or mutual agree­ment. The slave agrees to accept her Mas­ter and grants him author­ity. Often this is for­mal­ized in a con­tract. The slave com­plies because the Mas­ter has the right to make the request or issue the order and she has the oblig­a­tion to com­ply. Legit­i­mate power is very impor­tant is a Master/slave relationship.

Rev­er­ent — an elu­sive power that is based on inter­per­sonal attrac­tion. It is the per­cep­tion of being a ref­er­ence point or role model. The slave iden­ti­fies with her Mas­ter and the Mas­ter is indi­vid­u­al­is­tic and respected by his slave. Rev­er­ent power infers a per­sonal con­nec­tion between Master/slave. The slave com­plies because she admires or iden­ti­fies her Mas­ter and wants to gain the her Master’s approval.

Expert  - spe­cial­ized knowl­edge or skills the slave desires and/or needs. The slave com­plies because she believes that her Mas­ter has the knowl­edge nec­es­sary to cor­rectly do something.

Derived from a the­ory by social psy­chol­o­gists  John R. P. French and Bertram Raven in 1959

Three con­di­tions must exist for expert power to be effective:

1) trust,

2) knowl­edge that is rel­e­vant and useful,

3) per­cep­tion as an expert by the slave.

If used alone each of the three fol­low­ing types of inter­per­sonal author­i­ties leads to com­pli­ance. (Reward, coer­cive and legit­i­mate) Rev­er­ent power is the most effec­tive. Expert power has the strongest rela­tion­ship with per­for­mance and satisfaction.

The Master/slave rela­tion­ship relies heav­ily on rev­er­ent, expert and legit­i­mate Pow­ers. If the Mas­ter has a strong rev­er­ent power and she believes he has the knowl­edge and abil­ity to train her (expert power), the more legit­i­mate power she is will­ing to grant her Master.

The Master’s abil­ity to prop­erly train her depends on hav­ing legit­i­mate power.

Sources of a Master’s Power used in slave training:

Reward power is Reward based

Coer­cive Power is fear based

Legit­i­mate Power is posi­tion based

Expert Power is knowl­edge based

Rev­er­ent Power is per­son­al­ity based.

Reward  Power: In slave train­ing, reward­ing a slave for good behav­ior is a pow­er­ful tool because it shows her that she is pleas­ing you. Pleas­ing her Mas­ter is very impor­tant to a slave and any reward by a Mas­ter to a slave for good behav­ior is well received by her. The reward should be given to a slave while she is demon­strat­ing proper behavior.

In gen­eral, the 4:1 rules should apply, that is apply four times as much pos­i­tive rein­force­ment (reward power) as pun­ish­ment (coer­cive power).

Note:  Some add a sixth power,  Infor­ma­tion power is much like expert power and may be a sub­set of it.  It means hav­ing the abil­ity to present infor­ma­tion clearly, log­i­cally and in an under­stand­able way to your slave.  Infor­ma­tion power makes exper­tise use­ful and  just abstract knowl­edge and  enables a Mas­ter to explain his wants and needs and moti­vate his slave.

These forces will be dis­cussed sev­eral times through­out the web­site and you may need to review as you study from time to time.