Cognitive Dissonance Theory in slave training

Cognitive Dissonance Theory, developed by Leon Festinger (1957), is concerned with the relationships among cognitions. Applied to a D/s relationship it says that when a slave's attitude conflicts with her other personal beliefs or the behavior her Master requires of her, it causes a mental discomfort (conflict and or resistance). The slave tends to seek consistency in her beliefs and perceptions. So when one of her beliefs conflicts with another previously held belief? The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feeling of discomfort that results from the slave holding two conflicting beliefs. When there is discrepancy between beliefs and behaviors, something must change or give in, in order for her to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.

The following explains how changing a slave's behavior and resistance to change often collide in training  and how a skilled Master can focus the slave to changes her behavior accordingly. 

 This motivates her to change either her attitude or behavior to reduce dissonance." 

A Master completely controls his slave's behavior therefore her attitude must change in order for her to reduce the mental conflict. she is "helpless" in changing her behavior because it is entirely determined by her Master.  Her Master has taken over the "legitimate power" to control her behavior therefore something has to give in and her only option is changing her attitude.  However,  resistance to the change is to be expected initially.

The term "helpless" means that she is helpless to change her behavior and still maintain her slavery (upholding the contract with her Master and pleasing him).  Yes, she could change her behavior to one that is not what her Master's wishes but that would be outside of her slavery.  

Her behavior is determined by her Master and her attitude changes to reflect that behavior, if 

1) A Master's "legitimate power" is well established and strong,

2) the slave believes her Master has the skills necessary to train her (expert power), and

3) she has a sense or desires a sense of belonging to her Master (reverent power). 

If the above exist, then reward and coercive power can be used to change behavior and overcome resistance. See the section  Interpersonal Forms of Power  for more detail.

How can a Master help reduce his slave's Cognitive Dissonance

There are three key strategies to reduce or minimize her cognitive dissonance:

• Focus her mind on more supportive beliefs that outweigh the dissonant belief or behavior.
• Reduce the importance of the conflicting belief in her mind through hypnotheraphy.
• Change her attitude to the conflicting belief so that it is consistent with other beliefs or behaviors enforced by her Master.

Cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgments, decisions and evaluations. Becoming aware of how conflicting beliefs impact the decision-making process is a great way to improve your ability to make faster and more accurate choices. 

If dissonance is experienced as an unpleasant drive state,the individual is motivated to reduce it. Now that the factors that affect the magnitude of this unpleasantness have been identified, it should be possible to predict what we can do to reduce it:

• Changing Cognitions If two cognitions ar discrepant, we can simply change one to make it consistent with the other. Or we can change each cognition in the direction of the other.
  
• Adding Cognitions If two cognitions cause a certain magnitude of dissonance, that magnitude can be reduced by adding one or more consonant cognitions.
  
• Altering importance Since the discrepant and consonant cognitions must be weighed by importance, it may be advantageous to alter the importance of the various cognitions.

What is slavery in a BDSM sense?