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TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
NATURE AND INTRODUCTION:
TA is designed to increase the communication effectiveness of individuals. Knowing about T
A can be very useful for improving our communication skills. TA is about how people are str
uctured psychologically and is both a theory of communication and a theory of child develop
ment.

Transactional analysis or TA is a branch of psychotherapy developed by Eric Berne. His defi

nition of it is “a theory of personality and a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth a
nd change”. TA examines the social transactions we make with one another on a daily basi
s.

Talking without listening is not productive.Talking without looking is not productive.

To engage in effective communication you must both listen to the message and pay attenti
on to the messenger.

Transactional Analysis assumes that our present life, the "here and now" is affected to us by
what happened to us in the past. (a causal view of human nature). We can recreate the emo
tional state of events which happened long ago.
TA stresses that we have memories of past events, and that these memories can bring forth
emotions as well.Sometimes, our present emotional state "mirrors" a past emotional state.

EGO STATES:
Berne’s model is a three part ego-state model. An ego state is

“A consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to a corresponding consisten

t pattern of behaviour”.
There are three ego states in Berne’s model:

• Parent,
• Adult,
• Child.

Each one of these ego states has a particular way of communicating.

Parent ego : Parent Ego State is in control when we act or feel or think like those who rai
sed us.
Parent ego state is divided into:

• Parent into Critical Parent CP – which is negative, unsupportive, critical.

• Nurturing Parent NP – which is supportive, helpful, nurturing, comforting.

Child Ego: Child Ego State is in control when we behave or feel as we did when we were
a very young child.When we are extremely playful, or carefree, then our child ego state is in
control.
Child ego state is divided into:

• Free Child FC (sometimes referred to as Natural Child NC) which is spontaneous, free-
wheeling, playful, self-indulgent, curious, rebellious.
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• Adapted Child AC – which is toned down behaviour that has been learnt in res
ponse to the reactions from other people to us and our behaviour. The learne
d or adapted responses are more likely to generate a given result from the re
ceiver.

Adult ego: When examining facts, or making careful decisions, our Adult Ego Sta
te is in Control.As an adult, we take in information, recall things from memory, calcu
late and direct action.

An important (vital) part of TA is to be able to recognize what ego state is in control

when we are communicating with other people. Both verbal and non-verbal cues ca
n be used to identify theparticular ego state we are currently in.

The next step is to be able to recognize what ego state other people are in.

By understanding our ego state and the other person's ego state , wewill be able to
tailor our communication most effectively, depending upon what ego state we are t
alking to.

Blocked Ego States

One way of examining psychopathology or maladjustment is to determine whether t

he individual has access to all three ego states.

Healthy individuals can change their ego states as the situation demands.
Maladjusted Individuals, however, may suffer from a blocked ego state

If my child ego state is blocked, I may become a joyless workaholic in adulthood. (O

CD)

If my adult ego state is blocked, I will have great trouble perceiving reality. Decisio
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n making will be based on "shoulds" and "should nots" , and not on a realistic asses
sment of the various decision alternatives. (Borderline Personality Disorder)

If my parent ego state is blocked, than I may live an amoral life and appear to funct
ion without a conscience. (Sociopath)

Transactional analysis - life positions

Life positions are basic beliefs about self and others, which are used to justify decisi
ons and behaviour.
When we are conceived we are hopefully at peace, waiting to emerge into the world
once we have grown sufficiently to be able to survive in the outside of the womb. If
nothing untoward happens we will emerge contented and relaxed. In this case we ar
e likely to perceive the world from the perspective of I am OK and You are OK.
However, perhaps our mother had some traumatic experiences, or the birth was diff
icult or even life threatening. This experience is likely to have an effect on the way
we experience the world, even at the somatic level. In which case we might emerge
sensing that life is scary and might, for example, go into "I am not OK and You ar
e not OK either".
Let's take it that the pregnancy went fine, and the birth was easy enough. What the
n? Well life experiences might reinforce our initial somatic level life position, or cont
radict it. If we were treated punitively, talked down to, and not held, we may begin t
o believe "I am not OK and You are OK". This might be the only sense we can m
ake of our experiences.
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Let's take another situation. Perhaps we were picked on and bullied as a child. We l
earnt that the way to get by was to bully others and that way we felt stronger and i
n control. Our behaviour then comes into the I am OK and You are not OK quadra
nt. Of course this may cover up our belief that we are really not OK, but nobody see
s that. They just see our behaviour, and in fact we may have forgotten all about our
negative feelings about ourselves as we have tried so hard to deny the pain of belie
ving we are not OK.
These life positions are perceptions of the world. The reality is I just am and you just
are, therefore how I view myself and others are just that "views" not fact. However,
we tend to act as if they are a fact. Just like when somebody says "I can't do this,
I'm useless". Rather than "I don't know how to do this. Will you show me?" The latte
r is staying with the fact that they do not yet know how to do it, whilst the former lin
ks being useless with not being able to do something.
There are a number of ways of diagramming the life positions. Franklin Ernst drew t
he life positions in quadrants, which he called the OK Corral (1971). We have put th
ese into red and green to show the effective and ineffective quadrants for communi
cation and healthy relationships. By shading in the quadrants according to the amo
unt of time we think we spend in each we can get an idea of the amount of time we
spend in each. Ernst used the term 'Corralogram' for this method of self-assessment
using the OK Corral matrix.
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TRANSACTIONS: Transaction are of 3 types. They are

1. Complementary transaction

2. Crossed/ Blocked transaction

3. Ulterior /Covert transaction

1. Complementary Transactions :A simple, reciprocal transaction occurs wh

en both partners are addressing the ego state the other is in.The message is
sent from one ego state and the reply is from the expected ego state. The tra
nsaction is complementary.

Example of Critical Parent to Critical Parent.

“The government “They are

is making us all it’s

really annoying”

criminals by putting

speed cameras everywhere”

Example of Adult to Adult.

“what time is “It’s du

e at

the train due?” one fift

een”

Example of Adapted Child to Nurturing Parent.

“Oh, I’m really “Don’t worry,

I’ll

struggling with give you a h

and
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all this painting” right now”

Example of Free Child to Free Child.

“Oh what the “yeah, grea

t idea

hell, let’s have make that

2 drinks

another drink and a pudding, and so

me

pudding” gateaux”

2. Crossed/ Blocked Transaction: Communication failures are typically ca

used by a 'crossed transaction' where partners address ego states other than
that their partner is in.

When a message is sent from one ego state and the sender expects it to be sent ba
ck from the expected ego state: but it’s sent back from a different one. The transact
ion is crossed; communication is non effective.

Example of Critical Parent expecting reply from Adapted Child but receiving reply fr
om Critical Parent.

“You messed that “Rubbish, it’s you

r fault.

up, it’s full of errors It’s you that ca

n’t understand

and typos” or use correct Engli

sh”

Example of Adult expecting reply from Adult but receiving reply from Critical Parent.
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“The deadline “What do you mea

n ‘we’. If

is tomorrow. you didn’t always lea

ve

We’ll need to things to the last

minute”

stay on a final

half hour to give it

another check”

Example of Adapted Child expecting reply from Nurturing Parent but receiving reply
from Adapted Child.

“Oh, I’m really “Oh, I know w

hat

struggling with you mean, it’

s really

all this painting” difficult isn’t it”

Example of Adapted Child expecting reply from Nurturing Parent but receiving reply
from Critical Parent

Oh, I’m really “So bl***y

what.

struggling with I’ve got en

ough to

this painting” do without

you

moaning all the time”

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A crossed transaction could lead to argument and loss of effective communication.

The message is ‘lost’.

3. Ulterior /Covert transaction

Where the explicit social conversation occurs in parallel with an implicit psych
ological transaction.

STROKING:
In Transactional Analysis we call compliments and general ways of giving recognitio
n strokes. Stroking can be physical, verbal or nonverbal. In short feedback is called
as strokes in TA.

Mr. Steiner ,paved the way for modified rules of stroking:

• give strokes when we have them to give

• ask for strokes when we want them
• accept strokes if we want them
• reject manipulative strokes
• give ourselves positive strokes

Strokes can be positive or negative:

• A) "I like you" …………….. Positive
• B) "I don't like you" ………Negative
Strokes can be unconditional or conditional. An unconditional stroke is a
stroke for being whereas a conditional stroke is a stroke for doing. For instan
ce:
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Positive:"I like you" - unconditional

"I like you when you smile" - conditional
Negative:"I don't like you" - negative unconditional
"I don't like you when you're sarcastic" - negative conditional.

USING TA FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

For effective communication you need to keep the transaction complementary i.e. f
ocus 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 other
s communicate and how we communicate with others. It’s possible to identify whic
h 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 s
tate 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 person’s ego state;
or if we cannot do this it may be better to stop the communication and try again an
other time when the person may be in a different ego state.

We can listen to people’s communication to identify if they are habitually in one ego
state and then decide if communication to that ego state would be appropriate or n
ot.

TA therefore can be used to elicit the reactions you want from other people (and thi
s will happen consciously or unconsciously).

We can help communication if we need to by trying to shift the other person’s ego s
tate by inviting people to move into a different ego state (they may not alway
s 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) whic
h you use.