TRANSACTIONAL

ANALYSIS
TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

• Transaction – An exchange
• Transaction – Fundamental unit of social
interaction which takes place when people
encounter each other
• Analysis – To study, examine or investigate
TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

• Transactional Analysis is the method of

studying interactions between individuals.

• TA is a communication theory founded by

Eric Berne (1910-1970).
TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

• Transactional Analysis is a theory of

personality and a systematic
psychotherapy for personal growth and
personal change.
-International Transactional Analysis
Association, 2008.
• People’s interactions are made up of transactions
• These involve a stimulus and a response
• Transactional Analysis or TA is a way of
understanding and changing human behavior
• TA tells why communication fails and how it can
be corrected in one to one relationships
Philosophical Assumptions

• People are OK
• Everyone has the capacity to think
• People decide their own destiny, and these
decisions can be changed
Levels of Communication

Social level
• The meaning of the communication as it is
conventionally understood in the social
circle of the people concerned
• Often conveyed in the literal meaning of the
words
Levels of Communication
Contd.
Psychological level
• Communication’s real meaning
• Requires intuitive judgment
• Often conveyed by non-verbal signals
Levels of Communication
Contd.
• The levels are congruent if they convey the
same message
• There is incongruity between the levels if
they convey different messages
• Incongruent message at psychological level
is called Ulterior message
The Nature of People and
The Theory of Counseling

• Derives four types of analyses

Structural Analysis Analyze a person’s

personality
Transactional Analysis What people do and say
to each other
Script Analysis The life dramas people
play out
Game Analysis Ulterior transactions
leading to payoff
 1- Structural Analysis
• Each person has three ego states:
Parent Mimics our own parents
(nurturing or critical)

Adult Reality based

(rational thinking)

Child Free, spontaneous,

(natural, adaptive or little passive
professor )
Berne’s Model of Ego States
• Focuses on three ways that people have for expressing
personality.
• Each way is defined by a distinctive and observable
set of behaviors.
• Each set of behaviors is consistently accompanied by
a set of thoughts and feelings which represent that
ego-state.
• Ego-state – A consistent pattern of feeling and
experience, directly related to a corresponding
consistent pattern of behavior.
Berne’s Model Of Ego States

P Parent Ego State

Behaviors, thoughts and feelings
copied from parents or parent figures

Adult Ego State

A Behaviors, thoughts and feelings
which are direct responses to the
here and now

C
Child Ego State
Behaviors, thoughts and feelings
replayed from childhood
 Parent… learned to act and feel
much as those that raised us.
Parent

Critical Parent Nurturing Parent

Follows rules, Supportive and
accepts slogans, protective toward
holds opinions others, offers help and
without thinking first guidance.
of facts.
 Child… what we were when we
were young.
Child

Free Child Adapted Child

Open to life, Polite, sociable,
spontaneous, filled recognizes the rights of
with the sense of others, adapts behavior
wonder and delight, to suit them, can resent
self centered, the rights/demands of
aggressive, rebellious, others, complies
does not consider the grudgingly, feels unsure
consequences of about themselves,
feeling or actions. procrastinates .
 Adult… looks at the facts and reasons
Adult out the answer - the computer in us.

… figures things out logically.

… takes responsibility for thoughts,
feelings and actions.
… solves problems and makes
decisions.
The Picture
Nurturing Parent Critical Parent
“Let me help you” NP P CP “You shouldn’t…”
Extends hand Pointing finger

Adult
A “The facts are…”
Attentive

Free Child Adaptive Child

“I want…” FC C AC “I did my job”
Excited Expectant
 2- Transactional Analysis
Transaction is the fundamental unit of social or
human communication.

Transactions can be:

a./ Complementary
b./ Crossed
c./ Ulterior (games)
 Types Of Transactions/
Communication Styles
Complementary Crossed Ulterior - games

• The natural • When a • Response which

order of healthy response comes overtly appears
human from an ego state to be directed at
relationships not addressed or one ego state but
occurs when a not appropriate covertly is
response comes to the situation addressed at
from the ego another
state to which it -sarcasm,
was addressed teasing,
Transaction Types/ Communication
Styles

P P
Where are the keys?
A A In the drawer.
C C

P P
Where are the keys?
A A Why is it always my fault?
C C
P P You should go to college.
A A (You’re not smart enough)
C C Yeah right..
(As if you know everything
- with a meek tone)
 Stroke
“A stroke is a unit of recognition”.
• We need strokes in order to grow and live
• We are taught how to assume responsibility for
both obtaining and giving necessary strokes.
• We spend our lives seeking strokes.

• There are two main categories of strokes:

• Positive strokes and negative strokes. These can
be conditional or unconditional.
Unconditional Positive strokes: “I love you!”
“You’re wonderful!” “I like you!”

Unconditional Negative strokes: “I hate

you!” “You’re an idiot!” “I don’t like
you!”

Conditional Positive strokes: “You look pretty!”

“You’ve done a great job!” “Well done on taking
the exam!”

Conditional Negative strokes: “Your work is

unacceptable!” “You are stupid for getting
fired!” “Your clothes look dirty!”
 3- Script Analysis
• The script is a life plan, made when we are growing
up. It is like having the script of a play in front of
us - we read the lines and decide what will happen
in each act and how the play will end.
• The script is developed from our early decisions
based upon our life experiences.
 4- Game Analysis
• Games are repetitive, familiar pattern of behavior
with a predictable outcome.
• Games are played outside Adult awareness and they
are our best attempt to get our needs met.
• Games are a pattern of ulterior transactions.
 Victim: Perceives
himself to be powerless.
Rescuer: Uses his
The Drama perceived superiority to
Triangle gain recognition.
Persecutor: They need
to control and belittle
people.
 Life Positions
Life positions are basic beliefs about self and
others, which are used to justify decisions and
behavior.
 I am OK, You are OK
 I am not OK, You are OK
 I am OK, You are not OK
 I am not OK, You are not OK
Psychological Health in
TA
• Awareness
• Spontaneity
• Intimacy

A healthy script is one where;

learned patterns are appropriately flexible and
responsive to a changing world.
Person’s basic needs and hungers are adequately met.
Psychological Disturbance or
Ego Pathology

• In contamination, the P-A-C system overlaps.

For example, when Parent and Adult overlap, we
have a Parent contaminated Adult. This results in
prejudice. When Adult and Child overlap, we have
a Child contaminated Adult. This condition
causes delusion.
• In exclusion, the communication from one of the P,
A, or C is cut off. For example, when Child is cut off,
the person cannot play at all and is very rigid and
serious, causing neurotic behavior. When the Parent is
cut off, the person does not have any conscience at all.
If Adult is also contaminated with Child, the person
will be psychopathic.
• According to this system, psychosis results when
the Adult is completely blocked from Parent and
Child. This is called Decommissioned Adult. If
the blocking out of Adult is periodic, the result is
Manic-Depressive personality.
Goals of TA Therapy/Counseling
• Achievement of contract
• Achievement of Autonomy: being out of script,
claiming and owning yourself. Berne suggested
three elements to autonomy:
1. Spontaneity: being free to choose what to do and
having many options
2. Intimacy: able to be open, close and trusting.
3. Awareness: knowing what is happening now.
TA Therapy/Counseling
• The start: TA therapist will seek six basic pieces of
information
1. Messages from parents
2. Recurring life patterns
3. The way he experiences his feelings
4. His basic attitude to himself and others
5. Personality structure
6. Behavior which causes him discomfort.
• The important task is to identify what the client
wants to change.
• Change in TA is described as the integrated adult.
• TA calls this making a contract. Therapeutic
contract is the person’s commitment to change
something specific.
• Mindfulness is also taught as a technique.
 Process of TA
Therapy/Counseling
Five stages
1. Therapeutic alliance
2. Insight and awareness
3. Working through
4. Re-decision stage
5. Succeeding and ending counseling
 Therapeutic Relationship
• Contractual method – agreement and commitment about
the direction of work
• Clients are assumed to be the best experts on themselves
• Open communication
• Therapeutic alliance
• Relationship is the central vehicle for change
• Relating is a ‘two-way street’
• Therapist’s responses (countertransference) are considered
relevant
• Collaborative dialogue with thoughtful attention
THANK YOU