Transactional Analysis

Is a model of people and relationships that was developed during

the 1960s by DR. ERIC BERNE. It is based on 2 notions:

a. that we have 3 parts or “ 3 EGO states” to our personality;

b. that these converse with one another in transactions.

It is a popular self – development system, enabling people to understand and improve their relationships and become more assertive.

PHILOSOPHY OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

People are OK; thus each person has validity, importance, equality of respect.

Everyone (with only few exceptions, such as the severely brain-damaged) has the capacity to think.

People decide their story and destiny, therefore these decisions can be changed.

The aim of change under transactional analysis is to move toward autonomy , spontaneity, intimacy, problem solving as opposed

to avoidance or passivity, cure as an ideal rather than merely making progress and learning new choices.

KEY IDEAS OF TA

THE EGO STATE- is a consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to

a corresponding consistent pattern of behavior.

"It will be demonstrated that Parent, Adult, and Child are not concepts, like Superego, Ego, and Id, or the Jungian constructs, but

phenomenological realities."5 Stated another way, Freud's ego states are unobservable, theoretical states; but Berne's three ego

states can be confirmed with observable behaviors.

PARENT ("exteropsyche"): a state in which people behave, feel, and think in response to an unconscious mimicking of how their parents (or other parental figures) acted, or how they interpreted their parent's actions. For example, a person may shout at someone out of frustration because they learned from an influential figure in childhood the lesson that this seemed to be a way of relating that worked.

- When in Parent mode a person can be Nurturing or Controlling. And there are positive and negative aspects to each of these. For example, a Positive Controlling Parent sets boundaries and gives people space; a Negative Controlling Parent can be domineering and strongly opinionated.

ADULT ("neopsyche"): a state of the ego which is most like a computer processing information and making predictions absent of major emotions that could affect its operation.

- When in Adult mode a person operates in an objective, rational, logical way.

- the Adult in us is the 'grown up' rational person who talks reasonably and assertively, neither trying to control nor reacting aggressively towards others. The Adult is comfortable with himself and is,

for many of us, our 'ideal self'.

CHILD ("archaeopsyche"): a state in which people behave, feel and think similarly to how they did in childhood. For example, a person who receives a poor evaluation at work may respond by looking at the floor, and crying or pouting, as they used to when scolded as a child. Conversely, a person who receives a good evaluation may respond with a broad smile and a joyful gesture of thanks. The Child is the source of emotions, creation, recreation, spontaneity and intimacy.

In any 'transaction' between two people each will tend to move into a particular ego state.

The purpose of TA is to help people to deal with such difficult situations, and to

enable them to have a win-win, 'I'm OK, you're OK' outcome.

When two people communicate, one person initiates a transaction with

the transactional stimulus. The person at whom the

stimulus is directed will respond with the transactional response. Simple Transactional Analysis involves identifying which

ego state directed the stimulus and which ego state in the other person executed the response.

2 TYPES OF TRANSACTIONS

1. Complementary transactions. In a complementary transaction, the response must go back from the receiving ego state to the sending ego state. For example, a person may initiate a transaction directed towards one ego state of the respondent. The respondent's ego state detects the stimuli, and then that particular ego state (meaning the ego state to which the stimuli was directed) produces a response. According to Dr. Berne, these transactions are healthy and represent normal human interactions.

2. Crossed transaction.  In a crossed transaction, an ego state different than the ego state which received the stimuli is the one that responds.

Complementary transactions

Crossed transaction

It is important to note that when analyzing transactions, one must look

beyond what is being said. According to Dr. Berne, one must look

at how the words are being delivered (accents on particular words,

changes in tone, volume, etc.) as the non-verbal signs accompanying those words (body language, facial expressions, etc.). Transactional Analysts will pay attention to all of these cues when analyzing a

transaction and identifying which ego states are involved.

According to Dr. Mehrabian, when an individual is speaking, the listener focuses on the following three types of communication:

Actual Words - 7% The Way words are delivered (tone, accents on certain words, etc.) - 38%

Facial expressions - 55%

In the above statistics, the percentage figure indicates the degree of importance the listener places on that type of communication. One can see

that facial expressions play a far more important role in communication (and thus, Transactional Analysis) than the actual words exchanged.

Thank you!