Transactional Analysis

Introduction
• Transactional analysis theory is the study of human behavior that is
very complex and complicated concept.
• It is affected by the psychological factors such as perception,
learning, personality and motivation.
• Individual behavior affects and is affected by the behavior of others.
• One of the major problems in the study of organizational behavior is
to analyze and improve, the interpersonal relationships.
• Transactional analysis is one basic approach to study interpersonal
relations in an organizational system.
• This analysis deals with understanding, predicting and controlling
interpersonal relationships.

Leonard Eric Bernstein also known as Eric Berne

• Was born on May 10, 1910, in Montreal, Canada to a writer and a
physician.
• Died on July 15, 1970 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States.
• He was 60 years old when he suffered a. fatal heart attack.

Transactional Analysis
• Is a technique used to help people better understand their own and
other's behavior, especially in interpersonal relationships.
• It offers a model of personality and the dynamics self and its
relationship to others that makes possible clear and meaningful discussion of
behavior

Primary Considerations of
Transactional Analysis
• Analysis of self awareness
• Analysis of ego states
• Analysis of transactions
• Analysis of life positions
• Script analysis
• Games analysis
• Stroking

Analysis of Self awareness

• The interpersonal relationships are composed of interself.
• Self is the core of personality pattern which provides integration.
• Self awareness is an important concept, it describes the self in terms
of image, both conscious and unconscious.

Analysis of ego states

• The ego plays an important role in human behavior.

• People interact with each other in terms of psychological positions or
behavioral patterns known as ego states.
• Ego states are person's way of thinking, feeling and behaving at
anytime.
• A person of any age have these ego states in varying degree.
• A healthy person is able to move from one ego states to another.
 • There are 3 important ego states: Child, Adult and Parents

Parent Ego State

• The parent ego state means that the values, attitudes and behavior of
parents is an integral part of the personality of an individual. These people tend
to talk to people and treat others like children.

• People are in this state when they are reactive to a situation and act
out of their conditioning, copying how their parents (or another authority figure)
treated them and others, instead of analysing each situation.

The characteristics of a person with parent ego state are:

• Judgemental
• Rule maker
• Moralizing
• Over Protective
• Indispensable

There are two subdivisions of the parent state;

A. The critical/ controlling parent state
- is disapproving in a harsh and possibly aggressive way

B. The nurturing parent state

- tries to take over a situation in more of a rescuing way, trying to sooth others
which can be very inappropriate when talking to other adults rather than children.

Adult Ego State

• The adult ego state is authentic, direct, reality based, fact seeking
and problem solving.
• They assume that human beings as equal, worthy and responsible.
• The process of adult ego state formation goes through one's own
experiences and continuously updating attitudes left over from childhood.
• People with adult ego state, gather relevant information, carefully
analyse it, generate alternatives and make logical choices. • interacts with
people and its environment in the here and now, not from past conditioning or how
other people have told them to be.

Child Ego State

• The child ego state is characterized by very immature behavior.

• The important feature of child. ego state are creativity, anxiety,

depression, dependence, fear, joy, emotional sentiment, etc.

TWO SUBDIVISION OF CHILD STATE:

• The adapted child state conforms and acts in accordance to others

wishes in order to please them and be seen as good and liked, but it also has a
rebellious side when faced with perceived conflict and causes responses of
resistance, hostility, and emotional reactivity.

• The free child ego state can be creative, spontaneous, playful and
pleasure seeking.

Personality Operations
• Berne believed that people have the rationality and freedom to make
decisions and solve their own problem.

• The well adjusted person allows the situation to determine which ego
state is in control attempting to strike a balarice between all three.

Analysis of Transactions

• A transaction is a basic unit of social interaction.

• The heart of transactional analysis is the study and diagramming of the
exchanges between two persons.
• Thus where a verbal or non verbal stimulus from one person is being
responded by another person a transaction occurs.
• Transactional analysis can help us to determine which ego state is most
heavily influencing our behavior and the behavior of the other people with whom we
interact.

1. Complementary Transactions:
Both people are operating from the same ego state. There can be nine complementary
transactions. They are given below:

• Adult-Adult transactions
• Adult-Parent transactions
• Adult- Child transactions
• Parent-Parent transactions
• Parent-Adult transactions
• Parent-Child transactions
• Child-Parent transactions
• Child-Adult transactions
• Child-Child transactions

2. Crossed Transactions:
• A crossed transaction is one in which the sender sends message a
behavior on the basis of his ego state, but this message is reacted to by an
unexpected ego state on the part of the receiver.

• Crossed communication should be avoided as far.a possible. Whenever

such transactions occur, communication tends to blocked and a satisfactor
transaction is not accomplished

3. Ulterior Transactions:
• Two ego states within the same person but one: disguises the other one.

Script Analysis

• In a layman's view, a script is the text of play, motion picture, or a

radio or TV programme.

• In transactional analysis a person's life is compared to a play and the

script is the text of the play.

• According to Eric Berne, "A script is an ongoing programme developed in

early childhood under parental influence which direct the individual's behavior in
the most important aspects of his life.

• A script is a complete plan of living, offering prescriptions,

permissions and structure which makes one winner or loser in life.

• A life script is that life plan the individual's "child" selected early
in their developmental years base mostly on the overt or covert messages or
injunctions received from the "child" in your parents.

Analysis of Life positions

• In the process of growing up people make basic assumptions about their

own self worth as well as about the worth of significant people in their
environment.

• The combination of assumptions about self and the other person is

called as Life position.

• Transactional analysis constructs the following classifications of the

four possible life positions or psychological positions:
• l am OK, you are OK
• l am OK, you are not OK
• I am not OK, you are OK
• l am not OK, you are not OK

• I am OK, you are OK:

It appears to be an ideal life position. People with this type of life position
have confidence in themselves as well as trust and confidence in others.

• I am OK, you are not OK:

This is a distrustful psychological positions. This is the attitude of those
people, who think that whatever they do is correct.

• I am not OK, you are OK:

This is a common position for those people who feel power less when they compare
themselves to others.

• I am not OK, you are not OK:People in this position tend to feel bad
about themselves and see the whole world as miserable. They do not trust others and
have no confidence in themselves.

Stroking

• Stroking is an important aspects of the transactional analysis.

• The term stroke refers to "giving some kind of recognition to others"
• People need strokes for their sense of survival and well being on the
job. Lack of stroking can have negative consequences both on physiological and
psychological well being of a person.

3 Types of Strokes
1. Positive StrokesThe stroke one feel good, is a positive stroke.
Récognition approval are some of the examples.

2. Negative StrokesA stroke one feel bad or not good is a negative stroke.
It hurts physically or psychologically.

3. Mixed Strokes.
-A stroke may be of a mixed type also.Example: the boss comment to a worker, "You
did an excellent job inspire your limited experience".

Games Analysis

• When people fail to get enough strokes at work they try a variety of
things.
 • One of the most important thing is that they play psychological games.

• A psychological game is a set of transaction with three

characteristics:
1. The transaction tend to be repeated.
2. They make sense on superficial or social level.
3. One or more transactions is ulterior.

Types of Games
1. A first degree game is one which is socially acceptable in the agent's
circle.
2. A second degree game is one which more intimate end up with bad
feelings.
3. A third degree game is one which usually involves physical injury.

CONCLUSION:

Benefits & Utility of Transactions Analysis

• Improved interpersonal communication.
• Source of positive energy.
• Understanding ego state.
• Motivation.
• Organizational Development.