eric berne - transactional analysis

5/26/2018 Eric Berne - Transactional Analysis

1/23


2/23

Transactional analysis or TA is a branch of psychotherapydeveloped by Eric Berne.

His definition of it is a theory of personality and a systematic

psychotherapy for personal growth and change. Knowing about TA can be very useful for improving our

communication skills. TA is about how people are structured psychologically and is

both a theory of communication and a theory of childdevelopment.


3/23

Bernes model is a three part ego-state model. An ego state isA consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to a

corresponding consistent pattern of behaviour.

Berne believed that when we interact with other people, our state of

mind affects what happens He believed that there were three states of mind in all humans, no

matter how old they were, called ego states.

ADULT

CHILDPARENT


4/23

Ego states are irrespective of age and are capitalised to differentiate from the normal use

of the words parent, adult and child.

The Parent and Child ego states are echoes of the past.

The Adult ego state is a response to the here and now when a person is grown up and using

grown up responses.

Ego states are things not names. They are a set and related; thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Communication between people can be from one ego state to a different one or from one

ego state to the same ego state.


5/23

1. Its not my fault my drinkgot spilt on your newcarpet

2. I wonder what might havecaused that accident

3. For goodness sake, cleanup that mess.

4. Shall we clean up the messtogether with a wet cloth?

5. I refuse to get involved in

this incident.

CHILD

ADULT

PARENT


6/23

Berne said that when people are in their different ego statesand they interact with other people, four main types oftransaction(or interaction) can happen.

To make it easy to analyse what is happening, Bernedeveloped a little diagram like this, to represent a person

with their three ego states Parent, Adult and Child.

P

A

C

Interacts with Person B on right

P

A

C


7/23

ComplementaryTransactions

P

A

C

P

A

C

Youre three hours late,

I want an explanation.

MANAGER EMPLOYEE

Im really sorry, I slept

through the alarm, it

wont happen again, I

promise.

This is a

complementary

transaction

because the

employee acceptsthe child ego state

assigned to him by

the manager and

responds in child

ego state.


8/23

P

A

C

P

A

C

MANAGER EMPLOYEE

Youre three

hours late, I want

an explanation.

Oh, didnt you get

held up by that

crash on the

motorway as

well?

This is a crossedtransaction because

although the manager,

parentego state,

attempted to address the

employee as a child, the

employee refusesthisego state and responds in

adultego state to the

managers ego state.

A crossedtransaction is

any transaction where theperson being spoken to

refusesthe ego state they

are assigned by the first

speaker.


9/23

P

A

C

P

A

C

SALESPERSON CUSTOMER

Thats the latest iPod

and theres 50% off at

the moment, if you are

interested

Wow, thats

amazingIll

take one!

This is an AngularTransactionbecause

the sales person is

talking on more than

one level, appearing to

address the customers

Adultego state buttrying to hook the

customers Childego

state, because the

Child is impulsive and

may be seduced by the

50% off the iPod andbuy it! This is what

happens, and the

customer answers in

Child ego state and

buys the iPod!


10/23

P

A

C

P

A

C

ATTRACTIVE

BOYATTRACTIVE

GIRL

Do you come

here often?No, not really,

do you?Whoar,

youregorgeous

Wish

youd

just

kissme!

This is a Duplex

Transaction because the

whole interaction is working

on two levels. Both people

are pretending to address

Adult ego state and be inAdult ego state but they are

both in Child ego state and

want to address Child ego

state but cant because of

social norms and manners.

Social Level

Psychological Level


11/23

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.


12/23

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 willhappen 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.

We can invite people to move into Adult Ego State by asking questions, stating a few facts,asking for their opinion, asking for their preferences and views.

Likewise if we want to create a Nurturing Parent Ego State then we can start the

communication by asking for their help, seeking their advice, communicating fear and

anxieties to them and asking for their expert opinion.

Invitation to make them move into a Natural / Free Child by being oneself, showing the funny

side of the situation, behaving like nurturing parent, being enthusiastic and showing anunconventional way of looking at things.


13/23

Berne believed that a lot of people get stuck in oneego state more than the other two and that thismay be due to early childhood experiences. Histheory was that in childhood we have a life positionassigned to us, because of the experiences we havefrom birth onwards.

He thinks there are four possible life positionsIm not OK, Youre OKIm not OK, Youre not OK

Im OK, Youre not OKIm OK, Youre OK


14/23

Berne believes that everyone is born in the same LifePositionIm not OK, Youre OK

The reason you are not OK

when you are born is becauseyou are dependent on othersfor all your needs. They areOK, because they have theability to satisfy their ownneeds and your needs.


15/23

Berne says the ideal life position to reach is Im OK, YoureOK, where you are in a position to satisfy your own needsand are happy that others are able to satisfy their needs.

However, some people dont progress to this happy state,they get stuck in either

Im not OK, Youre not OKIm OK, Youre not OK

He says this happens because of the wrong kind ofexperiences in childhood which result in either very low self

esteem or too high self esteem.


16/23

Im not OK, Youre not OK

Im OK, Youre not OK


17/23

Berne thinks that peoples life positions tend to determinethe script of their life in other words.

If you think the world is against you Im not OK, Youre notOK, you will tend to make this a self-fulfilling prophecy.Your script will be a negative one, which makes yourcommunication with others negative and makes negativethings happen.

Your non-verbal communication may be off-putting aggressive or withdrawn, your words may be the same.

It is a bit like being an optimistic person or a pessimisticperson. Howyou approach life and encounters with otherpeople, affect howthese encounters progress.


18/23

Berne felt that people in the life position Im notOK, Youre OK or Im not OK, Youre not OK werepeople with low self esteem. He felt that thesepeople find it hard to interact with people in a

straightforward way so they play games.

His definition of game was sets of ulteriortransactions, repetitive in nature, with a well defined

psychological pay off. In other words, aninteraction with a hidden motive where one of theparticipants is gaining something underhand fromthe encounter.


19/23

Are repetitive Are played without Adult awareness Always end up with players experiencing racket feeling. Games entail an exchange of ulterior transactions between the

players Games always include an element of surprise or confusion. Racket feeling a familiar emotion, learned and encouraged in

childhood, experienced in many different stress situations, and

useless as a means of problem solving but frequently carriedout E.g. my computer screen freezes, I get stressed and hit it.

Common games include: oh how I suffer Isnt it awfulvictim, persecutor, rescuer and If it werent for you


20/23

Games can be recognised by set verbalphrases which tend to be repeated in theconversation. Here are some of the games

Berne spotted: Why dont you?, Yes but.. Ive got you, you son of a bitch (clip from English Accent)

Frigid woman Kick me


21/23

Between A shop keeper and a house wife: This one is better, but you cannot afford it

Between A Teacher and a Student: This is a good topic, but you cannot handle

it. Between an Expert and a Candidate: What you just said is totally wrong


22/23

verbal or non-verbal Positive or negative Conditional or unconditional A stroke is a unit of recognition. E.g. you walk down the street and see your

neighbour. As you pass you smile and say hello. They smile and say yes,great day? Thats a positive stroke youve given and received.

If your neighbour ignored you then you felt left out or deprived or wonder whatyou have done to offend them.

Any transaction is an exchange of strokes. This may be entirely non-verbal. Positive strokes the receiver experiences it as being pleasant.

Negative strokes the receiver experiences it as being painful. For example if your neighbour replied It was a nice day until I saw you!then

thats an example of a negative stroke. But any kind of stroke is better than nostroke at all.

Stewart and Jones identify that this is supported by work on rats where onegroup were given electric shocks and the other group were not. The rats given

the shocks developed better as they were receiving some stimulation.


23/23

Conditionalstrokes relate to what you do. Unconditionalstrokes relate to what you are. E.g. Conditional: That was a good piece of work

That painting youve done is a real mess

Unconditional: Your humour always brightens things upI hate you and all which you represent

As infants we test out behaviours to find out which give us the strokes weneed. If we receive strokes from a certain behaviour then we are likely to

repeat it (and that can be where many of our learnt behaviours come fromalbeit unconsciously learnt)

eric berne - transactional analysis

Documents

adult ego state

egostate model

themanagers ego state

child ego states

ego states parent

torefusesthe ego state

inadultego state

childego state