An Introduction to Transactional Analysis

Every human being is born a Prince or a Princess ; early experiences convince some that they are frogs ,and the
rest of the pathological development follows this'
Eric Berne 1966
BACKGROUND AND BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
TA is a form of therapy devised by Eric Berne and modified by others. It is based on some basic
assumptions . These are founded on the quotation (from Berne) and on the basic statement that
People are OK. '
It expands this as in the following way:
1. People are OK (I'm OK - You Are OK.)
Everybody has a capacity to think (most people unless they have some damage to their brain) )
People decide their own destiny and can change
2. Secondly, that people have an in-built drive towards both mental and physical health.
People live in two different, but related, worlds. These worlds are :
* An Inner World
This is a world of dreams, emotions, fears, hopes and memories. This world contains feelings
and images of both ourselves and others. It is our private world.
* An Outer World
In this outer world we act out our beliefs and feelings. This is the world where we
act out our ' games ', roles' and transactions'.
How and what we do in our inter-personal relationships depends upon the relationship we have
between these two worlds.. Are they congruent or in conflict. These states of congruency or
conflict vary with time and circumstances. Berne was originally a psychoanalyst and TA has its
roots in this approach or model of counseling. However, it has (like Gestalt) developed over
many years in the Humanistic Approach to counseling and it uses many of the concepts of
Person Centered Counseling. It is a highly experiential model and requires a mainly practical
and not a theoretical approach. However, it has a strong theoretical foundation. This series of
notes will deal with the theoretical aspects but will be backed up by a complementary series of
practical exercises which will influence our approach to all our work in TA.
TA is technique to understand the dynamics of self and its relationship to other. It provides a
method and approach of analyzing and understanding interpersonal behaviour.
According to the International Transactional Analysis Association, [1] TA 'is a theory of personality
and a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change'.
1.
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.
The same model helps explain how people function and express their personality in their
behavior

2.
It is a theory of communication that can be extended to the analysis of systems and
organizations.
3.
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.
4.
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.
5.
Outside the therapeutic field, it has been used in education to help teachers remain in
clear communication at an appropriate level, in counseling and consultancy, in management
and communications training and by other bodies.
So we can say TA is technique to understand the dynamics of self and its relationship to other. It
provides a method and approach of analyzing and under sting interpersonal behaviour.
Kinds of transactions
There are basically three kinds of transactions:
1.

Reciprocal/Complementary (the simplest)

2.

Crossed

3.

Ulterior - Duplex/Angular (the most complex)

Reciprocal or Complementary transactions

A simple, reciprocal transaction occurs when both partners are addressing the ego state the other
is in. These are also called complementary transactions. Example 1:
A: "Have you been able to write the report?" (Adult to Adult)
B: "Yes - I'm about to email it to you." (Adult to Adult)
Example 2:
A: "Would you like to skip this meeting and go watch a film with me instead?" (Child to
Child)
B: "I'd love to - I don't want to work anymore, what should we go and see?" (Child to Child)
Example 3:
A: "You should have your room tidy by now!" (Parent to Child)
B: "Will you stop hassling me? I'll do it eventually!" (Child to Parent).
Communication like this can continue indefinitely. (Clearly it will stop at some stage - but this
psychologically balanced exchange of strokes can continue for some time).

Crossed transactions
Communication failures are typically caused by a 'crossed transaction' where partners address
ego states other than that their partner is in. Consider the above examples jumbled up a bit.
Example 1a:
A: "Have you been able to write that report?" (Adult to Adult)
B: "Will you stop hassling me? I'll do it eventually!" (Child to Parent)
This is a crossed transaction likely to produce problems in the workplace. A may respond with a
Parent to Child transaction. For instance:
A: "If you don't change your attitude, you'll get fired."
Example 2a:
A: "Is your room tidy yet?" (Parent to Child)
B: "I'm just going to do it, actually." (Adult to Adult)
This is a more positive crossed transaction. There is however the risk that A will feel aggrieved
that B is acting responsibly and not playing their role, and the conversation will develop into:
A: "I can never trust you to do things!" (Parent to Child)
B: "Why don't you believe anything I say?" (Child to Parent)
... which can continue indefinitely.
Ulterior transactions
Another class of transaction is the ulterior transactions, where the explicit social conversation
occurs in parallel with an implicit psychological transaction. For instance:
A: "I need you to stay late at the office with me." (Adult words), body language indicates
sexual intent (flirtatious Child)
B: "Of course." (Adult response to Adult statement), winking or grinning (Child accepts the hidden
motive).
SELF-AWARENESS
SELF-AWARENESS INCLUDES A RECOGNITION OF OUR PERSONALITY, OUR
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES, OUR LIKES AND DISLIKES. A PREREQUISITE FOR
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION RELATIONS,AND MANAGING CONFLICT AS WELL AS FOR
DEVELOPING EMPATHY FOR OTHERS.
The Johari window is a technique created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955[1] in the
United States, used to help people better understand their relationship with self and others. It is
used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise.

Charles Handy calls this concept the Johari House with four rooms. Room 1 is the part of
ourselves that we see and others see. Room 2 is the aspects that others see but we are not
aware of. Room 3 is the most mysterious room in that the unconscious or subconscious part of
us is seen by neither ourselves nor others. Room 4 is our private space, which we know but
keep from others.
The concept is clearly related to the ideas propounded in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
program, which in turn derive from theories about the personality first explored by psychologist
Carl Jung.
An alternative mechanism for determining an individual's Johari Window is to plot the scores from
the Personal Effectiveness Scale (PES). The Scale comprises three factors : Self-Disclosure,
Openness to Feedback & Perceptiveness. The Self-Disclosure score is to be plotted
horizontally, whereas the Openness to Feedback score is to be plotted vertically. The Johari
Window formed naturally displays the sizes of the Open, Hidden, Blind Spot & Unknown areas,
giving a perspective into the individual's personality.

The individual may also plot another Window, the Dream Johari Window. The sizes of the
areas in the Dream Johari Window may be different from the sizes of the same areas in the
current Johari Window. The Dream Johari Window represents what an individual wants his/her
personality to be like. The individual having a Dream Johari Window identical to the current
Johari Window may have a balanced personality. The Perceptiveness score from the PES
indicates how likely it is for the individual to achieve the Dream Johari Window. For example, a
LOW score on the PES indicates less possibility of transition.

Open: Adjectives that are selected by both the participant and his or her peers are placed into
the Open quadrant. This quadrant represents traits of the subjects that both they and their
peers are aware of.
Hidden: Adjectives selected only by subjects, but not by any of their peers, are placed into the
Hidden quadrant, representing information about them their peers are unaware of. It is then up
to the subject to disclose this information or not.
Blind Spot: Adjectives that are not selected by subjects but only by their peers are placed into
the Blind Spot quadrant. These represent information that the subject is not aware of, but
others are, and they can decide whether and how to inform the individual about these "blind
spots".
Unknown: Adjectives that were not selected by either subjects or their peers remain in the
Unknown quadrant, representing the participant's behaviors or motives that were not
recognized by anyone participating. This may be because they do not apply or because there is
collective ignorance of the existence of these traits.

PERSONALITY AND EGO STATES

Our basic personality is based on many things. Much of it is unknown - unconscious and, as
many psychoanalysts believe, primitive. It is affected by many influences - family, culture,
religion social life etc. However, self- awareness, and encouragement of its growth, enables us
to understand our two worlds and to make sense of their congruence and conflict. This conflict
often takes the form of an' inner dialogue'. The task of TA counseling, and all growth in self awareness, is to allow individuals to get in touch with this inner dialogue, make sense of it and
grow towards their full and true potential.
EGO STATES
Berne called the parts of us that contribute to the inner dialogue - Ego States. This links with the
Psychoanalytical and Freudian concept of the ' ego' . But Berne insisted that these states were
real - they allow us to contact reality. Initially we will examine three (3) basic states.
Other sub-states exist and these will be examined in later notes. These 3states begin, and
continue, to develop throughout our life. All states are equally important in developing our true
potential.
PARENT
This is our collection of attitudes, behaviors, feelings and thoughts , which we have taken in
( copied from the past ) , usually unconsciously , from significant parental figures and role
models.
BORROWED EGO -STATE
ADULT
This is our collection of attitudes, behaviors, feelings and thoughts , which are directress sponge
in the here and now
PRESENT EGO-STATE
CHILD
This is our collection of attitudes, behaviors, feelings and thoughts, which are replayed from our
childhood our own past
ARCHAIC EGO STATE
We will now explore the above through participating in a complementary exercise. This will be
followed by a series of presentations ( with notes) and other exercises.
Transactions and Strokes

Transactions are the flow of communication, and more specifically the unspoken
psychological flow of communication that runs in parallel. Transactions occur simultaneously at
both explicit and psychological levels. Example: sweet caring voice with sarcastic intent. To read
the real communication requires both surface and non-verbal reading.

Strokes are the recognition, attention or responsiveness that one person gives another.
Strokes can be positive (nicknamed "warm fuzzies" or negative ("cold pricklies"). A key idea is
that people hunger for recognition, and that lacking positive strokes, will seek whatever kind
they can, even if it is recognition of a negative kind. We test out as children what strategies and
behaviours seem to get us strokes, of whatever kind we can get.

People often create pressure in (or experience pressure from) others to communicate in a way
that matches their style, so that a boss who talks to his staff as a controlling parent will often
engender self-abasement or other childlike responses. Those employees who resist may get
removed or labeled as "trouble".
Transactions can be experienced as positive or negative depending on the nature of the strokes
within them. However, a negative transaction is preferred to no transaction at all, because of a
fundamental hunger for strokes.
The nature of transactions is important to understanding communication.
Using TA for effective communication
For effective communication you need to keep the transaction complementary i.e. focus on
sender to receiver and receiver to sender where the message is sent to the ego state from
which you expect a reply. Using ego states we can look at how others communicate and how
we communicate with others. Its possible to identify which ego state we are in and which ego
state we are expecting a reply from.
We can also use TA to help us plan transactions. For example we can identify which ego state
would be most valuable for us to send the message from and which ego state it would be better
for it to be received by. If we receive a reply from the wrong (non expected) ego state then we
can either try to shift the other persons ego state; or if we cannot do this it may be better to stop
the communication and try again another time when the person may be in a different ego state.
We can listen to peoples communication to identify if they are habitually in one ego state and
then decide if communication to that ego state would be appropriate or not.
TA therefore can be used to elicit the reactions you want from other people (and this will happen
consciously or unconsciously).
We can help communication if we need to by trying to shift the other persons ego state by
inviting people to move into a different ego state (they may not always move into it though,
particularly if someone is habitually in one ego state).
Do this by acknowledging their current ego state (by the appropriate message or response) and
then invite them into another ego state by the words (and body language) which you use.
Invite them to move into Adult by:

Asking a question
Stating a few facts
Asking for their opinion
Asking for their preference
Asking for their view

Invite them to move into Nurturing Parent by:

Asking for their help

Asking for their advice

Asking for their expert opinion
Communicating your fears/worries

Invite them to move into Natural Child (Free Child) by:

Being one yourself

Showing the funny side of the situation

Going to nurturing parent

Being enthusiastic

Showing an unconventional way of looking at things.

TA implies that you can have considerable impact on modifying unsatisfactory behaviour by the
way you communicate with others. You use your Adult ego state to think about what behaviour
is appropriate. The Adult ego state has the capacity to control the other two ego states.
Life positions
In TA theory,"Life Position" refers to the general feeling about life (specifically, the unconscious
feeling, as opposed to a conscious philosophical position) that colours every dyadic (i.e. personto-person) transaction. Initially four such Life Positions were proposed:
1.

"I'm Not OK, You're OK" (I-U+)

2.

"I'm Not OK, You're Not OK" (I-U-)

3.

"I'm OK, You're Not OK" (I+U-)

4.

"I'm OK, You're OK" (I+U+)

However, lately, an Australian TA analyst has claimed that in order to better represent the Life
Position behind disorders that were not, allegedly, as widespread and/or recognized at the time
when TA was conceptualized as they are now (such as borderline personality disorder and
narcissistic personality disorder) the above list requires alteration. Also, two additional Life
Positions are proposed:[8]
1.

"I'm not-OK, You're OK" (I-U+)

2.

"I'm not-OK, You're not-OK" (I-U-)

3.

"I'm not-OK, But You're Worse" (I-U--)

4.

"I'm not-OK, You're Irrelevant" (I-U?)

5.

"I'm a Bit More OK Than You Are" (I++U+)

6.

"I'm OK, You're OK" (I+U+)

7.

"I'm OK, You're Irrelevant" (I+U?)

The difference between one's own OK-ness and other's OK-ness captured by description "I'm
OK, You're not-OK" is proposed to be substituted by description that more accurately captures
one's own feeling (not jumping to conclusions based only on one's perceived behavior),
therefore stating the difference in a new way: "I'm not-OK, but You're worse" (I-U--), instead.
Life (or Childhood) script

Script is a life plan, directed to a reward.[9]

Script is decisional and responsive; i.e., decided upon in childhood in response to
perceptions of the world and as a means of living with and making sense of the world. It is not
just thrust upon a person by external forces.

Script is reinforced by parents (or other influential figures and experiences).

Script is for the most part outside awareness.

Script is how we navigate and what we look for, the rest of reality is redefined (distorted)
to match our filters.

Each culture, country and people in the world has a Mythos, that is, a legend explaining its
origins, core beliefs and purpose. According to TA, so do individual people. A person begins
writing his/her own life story (script) at a young age, as he/she tries to make sense of the world
and his place within it. Although it is revised throughout life, the core story is selected and
decided upon typically by age 7. As adults it passes out of awareness. A life script might be "to
be hurt many times, and suffer and make others feel bad when I die", and could result in a
person indeed setting himself up for this, by adopting behaviours in childhood that produce
exactly this effect. Though Berne identified several dozen common scripts, there are a
practically infinite number of them. Though often largely destructive, scripts could as easily be
mostly positive or beneficial.
Benefits and uses TA

Developing positive thinking

Interpersonal effectiveness

Motivation

Organization development

Limitation of TA

Difficult to understand ego states and transactions b/w people in practice

May lead to more cuteness

Can be used as a put-down in inter-personal relation