Transactional Analysis

Ego states can become contaminated, for example when a person mistakes Parental rules and slogans, for here-and-now Adult reality, and beliefs are taken as facts. Or when a person “knows” that everyone is laughing at them, because “they always laughed”. This would be an example of a childhood contamination, insofar as here-and-now reality is being overlaid with memories of previous historic incidents in childhood.

Ego states also do not correspond directly to thinking, feeling, and judging, as these behaviors are present in every ego state.

Berne suspected that Parent, Adult and Child ego states might be tied to specific areas of the human brain; this idea has not been proved.

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 behaviors 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.

Kinds of transactions
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 come and watch a film with me?” (Child to Child)
B: “I’d love to – what shall we go and see?” (Child to Child)

Example 3

A: “Is your room tidy yet?” (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)

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)

is a more positive crossed transaction. However there is the risk that “A” will feel aggrieved that “B” is acting responsibly and not playing his 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.

Duplex or Covert transactions
Another class of transaction is the ‘duplex’ or ‘covert’ 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).

Phenomena behind the transactions
Life (or Childhood) Script

* Script is a life plan, directed to a pay-off.
* 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 their own life story (script) at a young age, as they try to make sense of the world and their 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 themselves up for this, by adopting behaviors 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.

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