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Coldnosesandfluffytails
Those of you who are into psychometrics and psychologicial assessments may be interested in taking an assessment that empowers you to ascertain your susceptibility forming irrational decisions based, in part, on inapprorpriate external influences whether they be of your own making or those purposely inflicted upon you by others.
It's called the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale or DAS.
While the complete version might be not be readily available, or somewhat expensive to take, there's an abbreviated version in the cognitive behavior therapy book "Feeling Good" by Dr. David Burns that is extremely user-friendly and yet very effective and revealing of one's psychological vulnerabilities in this context. And even better, the book continues by showing you clinically proven strategies to strenghten and improve those areas of your psyche where you may have scored low.
This is particularly germane here since so many cult, cult-like and mlm techniques seem purposely designed to ellicit irrational emotional feelings and responses for the express purpose of manipulating individuals to pay money for some product and/or service that is misrepresented to alleviate such negative feelings.
CNFT
Here I go talking to myself again... :wink:
I wish the public school system made the dsyfuncation attitude assessment (DAS) a regular part of school and even job-based counseling. It points out where people are susceptible to undue influence, and in conjunction with cognitive behavior therapy it empowers the individual to strenghten their cogntive defenses against such manipulations.
The mini DAS in the book "Feeling Good" consists of the following assessment categories:
1. Approval: Our tendency to base self-esteem based on how others react to us or how we *think* others react to us. A relative low score would indicate one who is susceptible to emotional manipulation.
2. Love: This assesses the tendency to base self worth on whether or not one is loved. A negative score is suggestive of a "love junkie" who sees love as a "need" rather than something that is to be shared between two equals. People who score lower may adopt inferior, put-down roles in their relationships for fear of losing the relationship. One of two things often happens: Ironically such an attitude repels the very people they cling to so desperately, or, worse, it make the needy individual susceptible to being manipulated and used.
3. Achievement: " A negative score suggests a workaholic with a constricted sense of self-identity that's more like a commodity than a human being. Joy and self worth are overly correlated to productivity. If productivity lags for whatever reason, self-esteem invariably lags with it. "Your work is your primary worth" is the ugly little subconscious assumption undlying this attitude.
4. Perfectionism: A negative score indicates one who is perpetually searching for utopia. Perfection is paramount at all times, mistakes are taboo, failure is worse than death and even negative emotions are a disaster. Hence people with a low score in this area irrationally think that they're supposed to look, feel, think and behave superbly at all times. Anything less plunges the person into extreme anxiety and guilt. Just being yourself, just being human is not okay for someone in this irrational mindset. Ironincally althought such people relentlessly drive themselves at an insane pace, their satisfaction is meager. Even when they achieve a goal, another more distant goal instantly replaces it, so they never experience the reward of getting to the top of the mountain. Eventually they begin to wonder why the promised payoff from all the compulsive effort never seems to materialize. Ironically life becomes a joyless, tedious treadmill. One has doomed themselves to perpetual failure by demanding perpetual perfection; a goal that no human being has ever achieved or ever will.
5. Entitlement: A negative score indicates that one feels "entitled" to things--love, success, money, having freeway conditions their way. Such individuals expect and demand that their wants be met by other people, society and the universe. When this does not happen--as is often the case--they either react with depression or become irate and/or violent.
Thus they consume an ENORMOUS amount of energy feeling frustrated, angry, resentful, fearful, anxious...and guilty for expressing all the aforementioned emotions and behaviors. Many in the throes of this irrational cognition complain loudly and often, but actually do little to solve such problems. After all: They feel entitled to have them solved buy the aforementioned, so why should they put in any effort?
5: Omnipotence: People who score low on this section of the assessement
commit the irrational cognition of personalization; they inappropriately blame themselves for the negative actions and attitudes of others (or even inanimate objects) who are not really under their control. Consequently such individuals are plagued with irrational guilt and self-condemnation. Paradoxically, the attituded that one should be omnipotent and all-powerful cripples and leaves one anxious and ineffectual. Again, just being yourself *isn't good enough* so such individuals are doomed to a lifetime of perpetual failure, anxiety, guilt and perhaps worse.
6: Autonomy: A negative score indicates one who believes that happiness comes from the outside; that you one has less control over their lives than other people or perhaps none at all. Moods end up being determined by external factors. Rather than take responsibility for their feelings and thus empower themselves, such an attituded does just the opposite.
As one looks over these, it's fairly clear how a low score in one or more of the aforementioned categories would make one susceptible to undue influence. While it was tempting to explicitly illustrate this, I think I'll leave it up to the reader to discover these truths on their own. It's more satifisfying and provides a better and more enduring learning experience.
The important thing to remember though is that CBT does not accept the concept of heaping contempt and guilt upon people who score low in these areas as so many sectarian and non-sectarian psychological systems inappropriately so often do.
It's not a character flaw to feel depressed, anxious or experience other mood disorder. Rather such are quantifiable thinking disorders that can be treated by CBT, and have over 30 years of clinical research to prove it. I'll take that any day over the nutty "feel goodisms" and verse quotings that far often seem more about feeling smug and then judging, labeling and condemning people rather than helping them.
It does no good to tell people that they should change if you then also cannot also tell them how. For many CBT finally provides the "HOW."
CNFT