TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS:

Transactional Analysis is a theory developed by Dr. Eric Berne in the 1950s. Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy.

Transactional analysis can serve as a sophisticated, elegant, and effective system on which to base the practical

activities of professionals in psychotherapy, counselling, education, and organizational consultation.

It is a sophisticated theory of personality, motivation, and problem solving that can be of great use to psychotherapists, counsellors, educators, and business consultants.

Transactional analysis can be divided into five theoretical and practical conceptual clusters. These five clusters enjoy varying degrees of recognition within the behavioural sciences. They are listed below along with (between quotes) concepts that parallel them in the behavioural sciences.

1. The Strokes Cluster. This cluster finds correlates in existing theories of "attachment," "intimacy," "warmth," "tender loving care," "need to belong," "contact," "closeness," "relationships,"

"social support," and "love."

2. The OK Cluster. This cluster finds correlates in existing theories of "positive psychology," "flow," "human potential," "resiliency,"

"excellence," "optimism," "subjective well-being," "positive self-concept," "spontaneous healing," "nature's helping hand," "vis medicatrix naturae" (the healing power of nature), and "the healing power of the mind."

3. The Script and Games Cluster. This cluster finds correlates in existing theories of "narratives," "maladaptive schemas," "self-narratives," "story schemas," "story grammars," "personal myths," "personal event memories," "self-defining memories,"

"nuclear scenes," "gendered narratives," "narrative coherence,"

"narrative complexity," "core self-beliefs," and "self-concept."

4. The Ego States and Transactions Cluster. The idea of three egos states and the transactional interactions between them are the most distinctive feature of transactional analysis and yet have the least amount of resonance in the literature. However, the utility of this concept is the principal reason why people become interested and maintain their interest in transactional analysis.

5. The Transactional Analysis Theory of Change Cluster.

Transactional analysis is essentially a cognitive-behavioural theory of personality and change that nevertheless retains an interest in the psychodynamic aspect of the personality.

Transactional Analysis is a contractual approach. A contract is "an explicit bilateral commitment to a well-defined course of action" Berne E. (1966). This means that all parties need to agree:

 why they want to do something

 with whom

 what they are going to do

 by when

 Any fees, payment or exchanges there will be..

The fact that these different states exist is taken as being responsible for the positive or negative outcomes to conversations.

Berne showed the transactional stimulus and response through the use of a simple diagram showing parent (P), adult (A), child and (C), ego states and the transactional links between them.

P P A A C C

8.10.1 The three ego states presented by Berne are:

Parent

The parent ego state is characterized by the need to establish standards, direct others, in still values and criticize. There are two recognized sub-groups of this ego state, being controlling parents who show signs of being authoritarian, controlling and negative, and nurturing parents who tend to be positive and supportive, but who can become suffocating.

Adult

The adult ego state is characterized by the ability to act in a detached and rational manner, logically as a decision maker utilizing information to its maximum. The archetypal example of this ego state might be Mr Spock!

Child

The child ego state is characterized by a greater demonstration of emotion, either positive or negative. Once again, as with the parent, there are sub-groups of this ego state, in this case three. The first is the natural child state, with uninhibited actions, which might include energy and raw enthusiasm, to curiosity and fear. It is essentially self- centred. The adapted child state is a state where emotions are still strong, but there is some attempt to control, ending in compliant or withdrawn behaviours.

Finally, the 'little professor' is a child ego state that shows emerging adult traits, and a greater ability to constrain emotions.

Transactions can be brief, can involve no verbal content at all (looking at some-one across a room), or can be long and involved. However, Berne believed that there were four basic types of transaction:

8.10.2 The four basic types of transaction:

Complementary

A transaction where the ego states complement each other, resulting in a positive exchange. This might include two teachers discussing some assessment data in order to solve a problem where they are both inhabiting the adult ego state.

Duplex

This is a transaction that can appear simple, but entails two levels of communication, one often implicit. At a social level, the transaction might be adult to adult, but at a psychological level it might be child to child as a hidden competitive communication.

Angular

Here, the stimulation appears to be aimed at one ego state, but covertly is actually aimed at another, such as the use of sarcasm. This may then lead to a different ego state response from that which might be expected.

Crossed

Here, the parent acts as a controlling parent, but in aiming the stimulus at the child ego state, a response from the adult ego state, although perhaps perfectly reasonable but unexpected, brings conflict.

As a result, where there are crossed transactions, there is a high possibility of a negative development to a conversation, often resulting in confrontation or bad feeling?

8.10.3 Example:

Transactional Analysis in the classroom:

Within any classroom there is a constant dynamic transactional process developing. How this is man-aged can have important ramifications for both short and long term relationships between staff and students.

If we take as a starting point the more traditional style of relationship between teacher and student, this will often occur as a parental stimulus directed at a child, expecting a child reaction.

Hence, this translates to a simple transaction such as that below (shown by the solid lines).

However, as all teachers know, students at secondary level are beginning to re-establish their boundaries as people and are becoming increasingly independent. As a result, it is increasingly likely that as the children become older, a parental stimulus directed at a child ego state will result in an adult to adult response.

Even though the response is perfectly reasonable, and indeed would be sought in most circumstances, in this case it leads to a crossed transaction and the potential for a negative conversation.

8.11 SUMMARY

This chapter is based on System design and their different design models like flow chart, UML diagram, structure chart, activity diagram. These diagram helps to represent flow and working of data.

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9

SOFTWARE DESIGN AND