TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

ASS. PROF. DR. CEM GÜNEY

ÖZVEREN
Id: das Es

Superego: das Uber-Ich

Ego: das Ich

WELCOME TO THE WORLD………….
Transactional Basis

 Id– Pleasure Principle

 Ego- Realistic Principle

 Super-Ego- Ethical Principle

 THE MIND (CONT.)

 Anxiety
 uncomfortable feeling that results from inner
conflicts between the primitive desires of the id
and the moral goals of the superego
 id, superego conflict
 ego caught in the middle
 ego’s continuous negotiations to resolve conflict
causes anxious feelings
 ego uses defense mechanisms to reduce the
anxious feelings
Narcissists
3 Types of Personality

 Narcissists are the complete

opposite in that they are motivated
by self-love. They are visionary,
daring and have strong charisma in
order to attract followers. Their
motivation is not to be loved but
rather to be admired and put on a
pedestal. Narcissists are strong-
minded and this can either work for
or against them.
Obsessives
3 Types of Personality

 Obsessives are conscientious and

have high moral standards. Their
strive for continuous improvements
in themselves and others and are
especially good at maintaining rules
and order. Obsessives make great
Managers because they are critical
and cautious.
EROTICS
3 Types of Personality

 Erotics are those whose motivation is to love

and be loved back. They are typically
concerned with the welfare of others and are
dependent on being accepted by others. For
this reason, Erotics tend to avoid conflicts
and make supportive
friends/colleagues. You would find Erotics in
roles as teachers, nurses, social workers.
• Ego Defense mechanisms
• Processes that operate at unconscious levels and that use self-
deception or untrue explanations to protect the ego from
being overwhelmed by anxiety and other emotions like anger,
guilt, sadness, fear.

• Two ways to reduce anxiety:

• can take realistic steps for reducing anxiety
• use disfunctional defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety
 THE MIND (CONT.)

• Rationalization
• involves covering up the true reasons for actions, thoughts,
or feelings by making up excuses and incorrect explanations
Denial

• Denial
• refusing to recognize some anxiety-provoking event or piece of
information that is clear to others
• Repression
• involves blocking and pushing unacceptable or threatening
thoughts, feelings, wishes, or experiences into the
unconscious
• Projection
• falsely and unconsciously attributes your own unacceptable
feelings, traits, or thoughts to individuals or objects
• Reaction formation
• involves substituting behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are
the direct opposite of unacceptable ones
• Displacement
• involves transferring feelings about, or response to, an object
that causes anxiety to another person or object that is less
threatening
 THE MIND
 Id, ego, and superego
 Id: pleasure seeker
 first division of the mind to develop
 contains two biological drives: sex and
aggression
 id’s goal is to pursue pleasure and satisfy
the biological drives
 Pleasure principle
 id operates according to the pleasure
principle
 satisfy drives and avoid pain, without
concern for moral restrictions or society’s
regulations
 THE MIND (CONT.)

 Id, ego, and superego

 Superego: regulator
 third division of the mind develops from the
ego during early childhood
 superego’s goal is to apply the moral values
and standards of one’s parents or caregivers
and society in satisfying one’s wishes
 moral standards of which we are conscious
or aware and moral standards that are
unconscious or outside our awareness
 THE MIND (CONT.)
 Id, ego, and superego
 Ego: executive negotiator between id and
superego
 second division of the mind, develops from the id
during infancy
 ego’s goal is to find safe and socially acceptable
ways of satisfying the id’s desires and to
negotiate between the id’s wants and the
superego’s prohibitions
 large part of ego is conscious

 smaller part is unconscious

 Reality principle
 satisfying a wish or desire only if there is a
socially acceptable outlet available
Transactional Analysis (T.A.)

A psychoanalytic theory of psychology

developed by psychiatrist Eric
Berne in the late 1950’s
Very useful for
 Analysing interactions with others

 Improving communication with

others
Transactional Analysis:
~Essential Principles

 People’s interactions are

made up of transactions

 These involve a stimulus

and response
Transactional Analysis:
Essential Principles

3 Ego States:
 Parent
 Adult
 Child
We Can be:

 Child
 Adult

 Parent in our Transactions.

 We shift from one ego state to

another in transactions.
(T.A.) The Parent
 Unconsciously
acting in similar
ways to our
parents
Can be:
 Nurturing:
permission,
security, guidance
 Critical: controlling
 (T.A.) The Adult

 Living in the present

and responding to
situations through
rational thought.
(T.A.) The Child

Unconsciously reverting to childhood

behaviours
 Primitive

 Impulsive

 Demanding

 Creative
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

Critical Lecturing, Judging, Traditions, Criticizing, Should & Don’t

Parent

Nurturing
Parent Consoling, Sympathy, Advising, Guides, Taking Care Of

Adult Objective, Data, Rational, Problem Solving, Less Emotion

Adapted Manipulative, Submissive, Conform To Adult Expectations

Child

Natural
Child Playful, Impulsive, Curious, Creative, Fun, Rebel
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

Critical
Parent
• Can’t you turn in a
report on time just
once?
• What? It takes 1
week to answer an
email?
• I’m surprised at you.
The quality of this
work is terrible.
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

• I’m only trying to

Nurturing help you
Parent
• Let me clean up that
desk for you
• You’ve done a good
job
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

• What are the

alternatives
• Can’t we reach
some sort of
agreement?
Adult
• What consequences
will this action have?
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

• Anything you say

sir.
• Sorry, I’ll try to
improve.
• What would we do
without you?

Adapted
Child
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

• Nobody follows that

rule anyway
• Forget about it. He
is just the boss
• Let’s take off work
today. Who wants to
work Friday
afternoon anyway?

Natural
Child
 P P

A A

Ego States – Parent Clues C C

• Physical
• Furrowed brow, pursed lips, pointing
finger, head wagging, horrified look, foot
tapping, hands on hips, arms folded,
wringing hands, tongue licking, sighing,
patting another on the head, & other
individual ones
 P P

A A

Ego States – Parent Clues C C

• Verbal
• Stupid, naughty, ridiculous, disgusting, shocking,
lazy, poor thing, sonny, honey, ridiculous,
disgusting, now what, not again,
• How dare you?
• I’m going to put a stop to this
• I can’t for the life of me..
• Now always remember..
• If I were you..
• How many times..
• The use of “always” & “never”
• The use of “should” & “ought”
 P P

A A

Ego States – Child Clues C C

• Physical
• Tears, quivering lips, pouting, temper
tantrum, high pitched whining, rolling eyes,
shrugging shoulders, downcast eyes,
teasing, laughter, delight, hand raising, nail
biting, squirming, giggling
 P P

A A

Ego States – Child Clues C C

• Verbal
• I wish, I want, I dunno, I don’t care, I
guess, when I grow up, bigger, biggest,
better, best, look no hands
• Why, what, where, who, when, & how are
the Adult operating in the little person
 P P

A A

Ego States – Adult Clues C C

• Physical
• Continual movement of the face, eyes,
body
• Non movement is non listening – cultural?
• Head tilted is listening with an angle
• Adult allows the curious & excited child to
show it’s face
 P P

A A

Ego States – Adult Clues C C

• Verbal
• Why, what, where, who, when, & how
• How much, in what way, true, false,
comparative, probable, possible, unknown,
objective, I think, I see, it is my opinion
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

• Parent
• Prejudicial views (not based on logic or facts) on things
such as: religion, dress, salespeople, traditions, work,
products, money, raising children, companies
• Nurturing views: sympathetic, caring views
• Critical views: fault finding, judgmental, condescending
views
• Adult
• Thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behavioral patterns based
on objective analysis of information (data, facts)
• Make decisions based on logic, computations,
probabilities, etc., not emotion
• Child
• Thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behavioral patterns based
on child-like emotions, impulses, feelings we have
experienced
• Child-like examples: impulsive, self-centered, angry,
fearful, happy, pleasure seeking, rebellious, curious,
eager to please
 P P

A A

Ego States C C

• All are present

• All have value
• Child – intuition, creativity, spontaneous drive, enjoyment
• Adult – survival, dealing with the world, mediate Parent &
Child
• Parent – parent of children, automatic responses
• One is usually dominant
• Different States for different communications
• Different States for different people
• Message sent and received from different States
• How people say something (what others hear) is just
as important as what is said
• Parent runs on ‘old tapes’ – 20+ years old
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
The Three Ego States

•Parent- “Do as I do”

•Child- “What shall I do?”
•Adult- “I will be frank with you”
Exercise:
Have you ever been a ‘difficult’ client?

Think of a time when you were very unhappy with a service you
were receiving e.g. retail, hospitality, medical, etc.
• How did you respond to this?
• How were you treated?
• How was the situation resolved?
What is a ‘difficult’ client?

• The non-stop talker

• The do-nothing client
• The self-sabotaging client
• The victim
• The angry client
• The boundary pusher
• The chaos merchant
• The aggressive client
What makes a ‘difficult’ client?

• When your needs and the client’s do not coincide

• When the client is unclear about expectations
• When client has problems with managing socially
acceptable behaviour
• When client is stressed
• When client is unwell
(T.A.) Transactions

3 Kinds of Transaction:
• Complementary
• Crossed
• Ulterior
 P P

A A

Transactions C C

Complimentary Crossed Ulterior

Parent Parent Parent Parent Parent Parent

Adult Adult Adult Adult Adult Adult

Child Child Child Child Child Child

Parent Parent
Parent Parent Parent Parent

Adult Adult
Adult Adult Adult Adult

Child Child Child Child

Child Child

Expected Response Produce Conflict Non Verbal

No Conflict Stop Communication Psychological Level
Hurt Feelings
Social Level
(T.A.) Transactions

Complementary:
‘What time is it?’
‘Three o’clock.’
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.
(T.A.) Transactions

Crossed:
‘What time is it?’
‘Forget about what time it is, get
that report finished.’
Types of Transactions (Con..)

• 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.
(T.A.) Transactions

Ulterior
‘What time is it?’
‘What time do you think it is?’
‘Beer o’clock?’
‘Exactly!’
 P P

A A

Transactions - Ulterior C C

• Disguised Communication
• Non Verbal communication arrows
• May or may not be in conflict
• May or may not be communication breakdown

Angular Parent Parent Duplex Parent Parent

Adult Adult Adult Adult

Child Child Child Child

1. The Sale ends tomorrow 1. Please come into my office

2. I’ll have one of those 2. I’m a little busy right now
 Four life positions
• The phase "I'm OK, You're OK" is one of four life positions that
each of us may take. The four positions are:
1. I'm Not OK, You're OK
2. I'm Not OK, You're Not OK
3. I'm OK, You're Not OK
4. I'm OK, You're OK
TA Life Positions

•I’m not OK,

you’re not OK
‘This is terrible, we’ll never
succeed’
TA Life Positions

•I’m not OK, you’re

OK

‘I wish I could do it as well

as you do’
TA Life Positions

•I’m OK, you’re

not OK
‘You’re not doing it
right, let me show
you’
TA Life Positions

•I’m OK, you’re

OK
‘
We’re making good
progress here’
Shakespeare