SEEMA KHANNA

2010SMZ8209

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 WHAT IS TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

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TA outline

According to the International Transactional Analysis

Association

TA 'is a theory of personality and a systematic

psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change'.:

As a theory of personality, TA describes how people are

structured psychologically. It uses what is perhaps its best
known model, the ego-state (Parent-Adult-Child) model to do
this. This same model helps explain how people function and
express their personality in their behavior

It is a theory of communication that can be extended to the

analysis of systems and organisations.
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 It offers a theory for child development, by explaining
how our adult patterns of life originated in childhood

This explanation is based on the idea of a "Life (or

Childhood) Script": the assumption that we continue to
re-play childhood strategies, even when this results in
pain or defeat. Thus it claims to offer a theory of
psychopathology.

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 In practical application, it can be used in the
diagnosis and treatment of many types of
psychological disorders, and provides a method
of therapy for individuals, couples, families and
groups.

Outside the therapeutic field, it has been used in

education, to help teachers remain in clear
communication at an appropriate level, in
counselling and consultancy, in management
and communications training, and by other
bodies

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 Transactional Analysis is underpinned by the philosophy
that:

people can change

we all have a right to be in the world and be accepted

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 What is Transactional Analysis?
Developed by Eric Berne who believed that the majority of
our life experiences are recorded in our subconscious
minds in an unaltered fashion and become a part of the
way we behave
The behavior is subconsciously designed to get
reactions and determine how others feel about us.
A method of dealing with behavioral disorders
Can be used to manage classroom behavior if we
understand that children’s acceptable and unacceptable
behavior is designed to ascertain how others feel about
them

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Transactional Analysis
Eric Berne was born in 1910 in Montreal, Canada. His
father was a doctor & his mother was an editor.
His father died at age 38, when Eric was 9
Earned an MD in 1935 from McGill Univ
Became a US citizen and served in Utah during
WWII, practicing group therapy

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Transactional Analysis
Was denied membership in the Psychoanalytic
Institute in 1956
This brought about his rejection of psychoanalysis
and was a turning point in his life
Wrote the book Games People Play
Died of a heart attack in 1970 at the age of 60

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 Before Berne

While there were many theories purporting to explain human behavior

before Eric Berne, the most frequently cited and known is the work of
Sigmund Freud. 
Freud emerged in the early 20th century with his theories about personality. 
Freud believed that personality had three components, all of which must
work together to produce our complex behaviors. 

These three components or aspects were the Id, Ego, and the Superego. 

It was Freud's belief  that these three components needed to be well-

balanced to produce reasonable mental health and stability in an individual.

According to Freud, the Id functions in the irrational and emotional part of

the mind, the Ego functions as the rational part of the mind, and the
Superego can be thought of as the moral part of the mind, a manifestation
of societal or parental values.

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 But perhaps Freud's greatest contribution (and the one that
influenced Berne) was the fact that the human personality is
multi-faceted. 

Regardless of the classification or name given to a particular area

of personality (id, superego, etc.), each individual possesses
factions that frequently collide with each other. 

these collisions and interactions between these personality

factions that manifest themselves as an individual's thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors

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 Another scientist whose contributions impacted Dr. Berne in his
development of Transactional Analysis is Dr. Wilder Penfield, a
neurosurgeon from McGill University in Montreal. 

Penfield's experiments focused on the application of electrical

currents to specific regions of the brain. 

Penfield discovered that, when applying current to the temporal

lobe of live and alert patients, he would stimulate meaningful
memories. 

In addition, not only were vivid pictures of that person's past

revealed, but also the feelings and emotions associated with that
event were uncovered. 

These patients would recite these events, even though in many

cases they were events that the patients were unable to recollect
on their own

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Transactional Analysis
Four methods of understanding & predicting human
behavior
Structural analysis – within the person
Transactional analysis – 2 or more people
Game analysis – understanding transactions that lead
to bad feelings
Script analysis – understand a person’s life plan

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Transactional Analysis
Structural analysis –
Natural child – spontaneous, impulsive, feeling
oriented, self-centered & pleasure loving
Adaptive child – compliant, conforms to the wishes &
demands of parental figures

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Transactional Analysis
Nurturing parent - comforts, praises and helps others
Critical parent – finds faults, displays prejudices,
disapproves and prevents others from feeling good
about themselves
A major goal is to figure out which ego state a person
is using

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Transactional Analysis
Transactional analysis - Transactions between people
are seen as having 4 levels:

Complementary – both people are operating from the

same ego state

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Types of Transactions
Complementary Transactions: Appropriate and
Expected Transactions indicating healthy human
relationships.
Communication takes place when transactions are
complementary. A stimulus invites a response; this
response becomes a stimulus inviting further
response and so on.

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 Duplex

This is a transaction that can appear simple, but

entails two levels of communication, one often
implicit. At a social level, the transaction might be
adult to adult, but at a psychological level it might
be child to child as a hidden competitive
communication.

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 Angular

Here, the stimulation appears to be aimed at one

ego state, but covertly is actually aimed at another,
such as the use of sarcasm. This may then lead to a
different ego state response from that which might
be expected.

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Types of Transactions
Crossed Transaction: This causes most difficulties in
social situations.
“May be, you should improve your teaching”.
“You always find fault with me whatever I do”
Parent-Child interaction.

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 As a result, where there are crossed transactions, there is a
high possibility of a negative development to a
conversation, often resulting in confrontation or bad
feeling.

There is also a time element to transactional analysis,

taking place over both the short and long term. Over a
short term period, Berne identifies a number of types of
transaction.

Firstly the 'ritual' where the transaction follows a specified

pattern, perhaps where two people say hello each morning .

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 Secondly the idea of work-related transactions which again tend to
be short, but less structured.

Thirdly the 'game', which develops as a socially competitive

interaction. Here, the instigator is manipulating the situation for
their own advantage. The victim, or mark, is perceived as having a
weakness that can be used as a gimmick to hook the individual.
This might be a bad temper, or an aversion to conflict. The crucial
point in the transaction is the use of the switch by the instigator to
catch out the mark, who then feels inferior or stupid and therefore
ends the conversation leading to a payoff for the instigator. Such
'games' lead to negative relationships, as there is an underlying
power struggle and negative reinforcement in terms of self-esteem.

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Transactional Analysis
Game analysis - ulteriorly motivated transactions that
appear complimentary on the surface but end in bad
feelings:
1st Degree games – minor upset, played socially end up
with minor discomfort
2nd Degree games – more intimate end up w/bad
feelings
3rd Degree games - usually involve physical injury

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Transactional Analysis
Very few games have a positive or neutral outcome
In these games, people play one of three positions:
Victim
Persecutor
Rescuer

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Transactional Analysis
Script analysis – everyone develops a life script by age 5
& these scripts determine how one interacts with
others based upon the interpretation of external
events
A negative life script occurs when the person receives
lots of injunctions by the parents that used the word
DON’T

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Transactional Analysis
Common negative life scripts:
Never – one never gets to do what one wants
Until – one must wait until a certain time or until
something is done to be able to do something they
want to do
Always – one must continue to do what one has
always done

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Transactional Analysis
After – a difficulty is expected after a certain event
Open-ended – one does not know what to do after a
given time
Mini-scripts: Hurry up! Try harder! Be perfect! Be
strong! Please someone! These drivers allow for
temporary escape from life scripts

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Transactional Analysis
Three Ego States
Parent Ego State
Child Ego State
Adult Ego State

Four basic life scripts:

I’m OK, you’re OK – ideal
I’m OK, you’re not OK – get away from me
I’m not OK, you’re OK – I’ll never get anywhere
I’m not OK, you’re not OK – get rid of each other
Individuals need to feel adequate

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The Three Ego States
 Parent Ego State – It consists of experiences from the first five years
in life. It is the state from which behaviors to control others are
employed.
The parent ego state is characterized by the need to establish
standards, direct others, instill values and criticize. There are two
recognized sub-groups of this ego state, being controlling parents
who show signs of being authoritarian, controlling and negative, and
nurturing parents who tend to be positive and supportive, but who
can become suffocating

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 Child Ego State – It is “recorded” during the parent ego state. State
when feelings rule.

The child ego state is characterized by a greater demonstration of

emotion, either positive or negative.

As with the parent, there are sub-groups of this ego state, in this
case three.

The natural child state, with uninhibited actions, which might

include energy and raw enthusiasm, to curiosity and fear. It is
essentially self- centred.

The adapted child state is a state where emotions are still strong,
but there is some attempt to control, ending in compliant or
withdrawn behaviours.

Finally, the 'little professor' is a child ego state that shows
emerging adult traits, and a greater ability to constrain emotions.

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 Adult Ego State – By monitoring the parent and child ego states, it
alters automatic behaviors that would normally occur

The adult ego state is characterized by the ability to act in a

detached and rational manner, logically as a decision maker
utilizing information to its maximum. The archetypal example
of this ego state might be Mr Spock!

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Four Life Positions
They describe how individuals feel about themselves
and others.
I’m Ok
Obtained when an individual feels capable and
acceptable
You’re OK
Obtained when an individual makes it known that
acceptance is wanted

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Transactional Analysis
Three Basic Concepts: Parent, Adult and Child
Transactions: Among P, A and C
P < -- > P
A < -- > A
C < -- > C
There are 9 possible transactions

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The Three Ego States
Parent- “Do as I do”
Child- “What shall I do?”
Adult- “I will be frank with you”

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We Are
Child
Adult
Parent in our Transactions.
Biological conditions are irrelevant to these ego
states.
We shift from one ego state to another in
transactions.

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Shift in Ego States
Parent- “Why don’t you prepare a time-table?”
Child- “What is the point when one cannot follow it?”
– Becomes an Adult.

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Transactional Stimulus and
Response
The initiator of the transaction is called the
transactional stimulus.
The response of the respondent is called transactional
response.

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Typical Games
Between A shop keeper and a house wife:
“This one is better, but you cannot afford it”
Between A Teacher and a Student:
“This is a good topic, but you cannot handle it.”
Between an Expert and a Candidate:
“What you just said is totally wrong”

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Individuals Need to Feel Adequate
Strokes are essential for children to thrive and
survive.
Children play “games” (i.e. uproar, clown, stupid, chip
on his shoulder, make me, late paper) in order to
obtain strokes. However, the “games” often result in
the reinforcement of negative feelings. Teachers
should supply necessary stroking instead of playing
games.

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Transactional Analysis
Other techniques –
TX contract – agreed upon responsibilities
Interrogation – speaking to the adult ego state until
an adult response is given
Specification – identification of the ego state that
started the transaction
Confrontation – pointing out inconsistencies in
behavior & speech

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Transactional Analysis
Explanation – teaching about TA
Illustration – elaborates a point
Confirmation – points out a recurrence of a
previously modified behavior
Interpretation – explains to the child ego state the
reasons for a client’s behavior
Crystallization – final step, the client gives up playing
games

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Strengths
Supported by a great deal of research on the subconscious
mind
Promotes self-analysis and self-correction
Applications go beyond the classroom, into the student’s
personal lives
Helps children understand their own messages and those of
others
Helps children avoid destructive roles that are often played
in interpersonal relationships
Provides a framework for communication and
understanding.

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Weaknesses
 Only appropriate for individual guidance
Cannot be used as an intervention technique
Overcoming the automatic behaviors from the parent
and child ego state may be difficult
Cannot be applied as readily to discipline problems
other than those involving verbal exchanges
Students may not have the language, cognitive, or
reasoning skills necessary to use this technique
Making distinctions between the ego states is difficult
Training for teachers can be lengthy and time
consuming.
Difficult to maintain throughout the year

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 References:

 http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/transactional-analysis-classroom-710
 http://www.businessballs.com/transactionalanalysis.htm
 http://www.ericberne.com/Games_People_Play.htm

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