Transaction Analysis (TA) is a theory of personality and a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth

and personal change.

As a theory of personality, TA describes how people are structured psychologically. It uses what is
perhaps its best known model, the ego-state (arent-Adult-!hild) model to do this. This same model
helps understand how people function and e"press themsel#es in their beha#iour.
As a theory of communication it e"tends to a method of analysing systems and organisations.
It offers a theory for child de#elopment.
It introduces the idea of a $%ife (or !hildhood) &cript$, that is, a story one percei#es about ones own life,
to answer 'uestions such as $(hat matters$, $)ow do I get along in life$ and $(hat kind of person am I$.
This story, TA says, is often stuck to no matter the conse'uences, to $pro#e$ one is right, e#en at the cost
of pain, compulsion, self-defeating beha#iour and other dysfunction. Thus TA offers a theory of a broad
range of psychopathology.
In practical application, it can be used in the diagnosis and treatment of many types of psychological
disorders, and pro#ides a method of therapy for indi#iduals, couples, families and groups.
*utside the therapeutic field, it has been used in education, to help teachers remain in clear
communication at an appropriate le#el, in counseling and consultancy, in management and
communications training, and by other bodies.
Key ideas of Transaction Analysis
%ike +euro-linguistic programming (+%), TA is pragmatic, that is, it seeks to find $what works$ and where
applicable de#elop models to assist understanding. Thus it continually e#ol#es. )owe#er some core
models are part of TA as follows,
The -go-&tate (or arent-Adult-!hild, A!) model
At any gi#en time, a person e"periences and manifests their personality through a mi"ture of beha#iours,
thoughts and feelings. Typically, according to TA, there are three ego-states that people consistently use,
arent ($e"teropsychic$), a state in which people beha#e, feel, and think in response to an unconscious
mimicking of how their parents (or other parental figures) acted. .or e"ample, a person may shout at
someone out of frustration because they learned from an influential figure in childhood the lesson that this
seemed to be a way of relating that worked.
Adult ($neopsychic$), a state in which people beha#e, feel, and think in response to what is going on in
the $here-and-now,$ using all of their resources as an adult human being with many years of life
e"perience to guide them. (hile a person is in the Adult ego state, he/she is directed towards an
ob0ecti#e appraisal of reality.
!hild ($archaeopsychic$), a state in which people re#ert to beha#ing, feeling and thinking close to how
they did in childhood. .or e"ample, a person being told off by the boss at work may look down and feel
shame or anger, as they used to when being told off as a child.
(ithin each of these are sub-di#isions. Thus parental figures are often either nurturing (permission gi#ing,
security gi#ing) or critici1ing(comparing to family traditions and ideals in generally negati#e ways),
childhood beha#iours are either natural (free) or adapted to others. -ach of these tends to draw an
indi#idual to certain patterns of beha#iour, feelings and ways of thinking, which may be beneficial
(positi#e) or dysfunctional/counterproducti#e (negati#e).
-go states are not intended to correspond to .reud2s -go, &uperego and Id, though some ha#e
compared the two theories. 3ather, ego states are consistent for each person and are more readily
obser#able than the hypothetical .reudian model. In other words, the particular ego state that a gi#en
person is communicating from is determinable by e"ternal obser#ation and e"perience.
-go states also do not correspond directly to thinking, feeling, and 0udging, as these beha#iours are
present in e#ery ego state.
There is no $uni#ersal$ ego state4 each state is indi#idually and #isibly manifested for each person. .or
e"ample, a child ego state is indi#idual to the specific human being, that is, it is drawn from the ego state
they created as a child, not some 2generalised childlike2 state.
-go states can become contaminated, for e"ample when a person mistakes arental rules and slogans,
for here-and-now Adult reality, and beliefs are taken as facts. *r when a person $knows$ that e#eryone is
laughing at them, because $they always laughed$. This would be an e"ample of a childhood
contamination, insofar as here-and-now reality is being o#erlaid with memories of pre#ious historic
incidents in childhood.
Transactions and &trokes
Transactions are the flow of communication, and more specifically the unspoken psychological flow of
communication that runs in parallel.
Transactions occur simultaneously at both e"plicit and psychological le#els. -"ample, sweet caring
#oice with sarcastic intent. To read the real communication re'uires both surface and non-#erbal reading.
&trokes are the recognition, attention or responsi#eness that one person gi#es another. &trokes can be
positi#e (nicknamed $warm fu11ies$) or negati#e ($cold pricklies$). A key idea is that people hunger for
recognition, and that lacking positi#e strokes, will seek whate#er kind they can, e#en if it is recognition of
a negati#e kind. (e test out as children what strategies and beha#iours seem to get us strokes, of
whate#er kind we can get.
eople often create pressure in (or e"perience 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 remo#ed or labeled as
$trouble$.
Transactions can be e"perienced as positi#e or negati#e depending on the nature of the strokes within
them. )owe#er, a negati#e transaction is preferred to no transaction at all, because of a fundamental
hunger for strokes.
The nature of transactions is important to understanding communication.
5inds of transactions
3eciprocal or !omplementary Transactions
A simple, reciprocal transaction occurs when both partners are addressing the ego state the other is in.
These are also called complementary transactions.
-"ample 6
A, $)a#e you been able to write the report7$ (Adult to Adult)
8, $9es - I2m about to email it to you.$ (Adult to Adult)
-"ample :
A, $(ould you like to come and watch a film with me7$ (!hild to !hild)
8, $I2d lo#e to - what shall we go and see7$ (!hild to !hild)
-"ample ;
A, $Is your room tidy yet7$ (arent to !hild)
8, $(ill you stop hassling me7 I2ll do it e#entually<$ (!hild to arent)
!ommunication like this can continue indefinitely. (!learly it will stop at some stage - but this
psychologically balanced e"change of strokes can continue for some time).
!rossed Transactions
!ommunication failures are typically caused by a 2crossed transaction2 where partners address ego states
other than that their partner is in. !onsider the abo#e e"amples 0umbled up a bit.
-"ample 6a,
A, $)a#e you been able to write that report7$ (Adult to Adult)
8, $(ill you stop hassling me7 I2ll do it e#entually<$ (!hild to arent)
is a crossed transaction likely to produce problems in the workplace. $A$ may respond with a arent to
!hild transaction. .or instance,
A, $If you don2t change your attitude you2ll get fired$
-"ample :a,
A, $Is your room tidy yet7$ (arent to !hild)
8, $I2m 0ust going to do it, actually.$ (Adult to Adult)
is a more positi#e crossed transaction. )owe#er there is the risk that $A$ will feel aggrie#ed that $8$ is
acting responsibly and not playing his role, and the con#ersation will de#elop into,
A, $I can ne#er trust you to do things<$ (arent to !hild)
8, $(hy don2t you belie#e anything I say7$ (!hild to arent)
which can continue indefinitely.
=uple" or !o#ert transactions
Another class of transaction is the 2duple"2 or 2co#ert2 transactions, where the e"plicit social con#ersation
occurs in parallel with an implicit psychological transaction. .or instance,
A, $I need you to stay late at the office with me.$ (adult words)
body language indicates se"ual intent (flirtatious child)
8, $*f course.$ (adult response to adult statement).
winking or grinning (child accepts the hidden moti#e).
henomena behind the transactions
%ife (or !hildhood) &cript
&cript is a life plan, directed to a pay-off.
&cript is decisional and responsi#e, ie decided upon in childhood in response to perceptions of the world
and as a means of li#ing with and making sense of. It is not 0ust thrust upon a person by e"ternal forces.
&cript is reinforced by parents (or other influential figures and e"periences)
&cript is for the most part outside awareness
&cript is how we na#igate and what we look for, the rest of reality is redefined (distorted) to match our
filters.
-ach culture, country and people in the world has a >ythos, that is, a legend e"plaining its origins, core
beliefs and purpose. According to TA, so do indi#idual people. A person begins writing their own life story
(script) #ery young, as they try to make sense of the world and their place within it. Although it is re#ised
throughout life, the core story is selected and decided upon typically by age ?. 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 themsel#es up for this, by adopting beha#iours in childhood
that produce e"actly this effect. *r it could as easily be positi#e.
3edefining and =iscounting
3edefining means the distortion of reality when we deliberately (but unconsciously) distort things to
match our preferred way of seeing the world. Thus a person whose script in#ol#es $struggling alone
against a cold hard world$ may redefine others2 kindness and state that they are 0ust trying to get
something by manipulation.
=iscounting means to take something as worth less than it is. Thus to gi#e a substitute reaction which
does not originate as a here-and-now Adult attempt to sol#e the actual problem, or to not choose to see
e#idence that would contradict one2s script. Types of discount can also include, passi#ity (doing nothing),
o#er-adaptation, agitation, incapacitation, anger and #iolence.
In0unctions and =ri#ers
TA identifies twel#e key in0unctions which people commonly build into their scripts. These are in0unctions
in the sense of being powerful $I can2t/mustn2t ...$ messages that embed into a child2s belief and life-script,
=on2t be (don2t e"ist), =on2t be who you are, =on2t be a child, =on2t grow up, =on2t make it in your life,
=on2t do anything<, =on2t be important, =on2t belong, =on2t be close, =on2t be well (don2t be sane<), =on2t
think, =on2t feel.
In addition there is the so-called episcript, $9ou should (or deser#e to) ha#e this happen in your life, so it
doesn2t ha#e to happen to me.$
Against these, a child is often told other things they must do. There are si" of these 2dri#ers2,
8e perfect< lease (me/others)< Try )ard< 8e &trong< )urry @p< 8e !areful<
Thus in creating their script, a child will often attempt to 0uggle these, e"ample, $It2s okay for me to go on
li#ing (ignore don2t e"ist) so long as I try hard$.
This e"plains why some change is inordinately difficult. To continue the abo#e e"ample, (hen a person
stops trying hard and rela"es to be with their family, the in0unction 9ou don2t ha#e the right to e"ist which
was being suppressed by their script now becomes e"posed and a #i#id threat. &uch an indi#idual may
feel a massi#e psychological pressure which they themsel#es don2t understand, to return to trying hard, in
order to feel safe and 0ustified (in a childlike way) in e"isting.
=ri#er beha#iour is also detectable at a #ery small scale, for instance in instincti#e responses to certain
situations where dri#er beha#iour is played out o#er fi#e to twenty seconds.
8roadly, scripts can fall into Tragic, )eroic or 8anal (or +on-(inner) #arieties, depending on their rules.
&eries of transactions
3ituals
A ritual is a series of transactions that are complementary (reciprocal), stereotyped and based on social
programming. 3ituals usually comprise a series of strokes e"changed between two parties.
.or instance, two people may ha#e a daily two stroke ritual, where, the first time they meet each day,
each one greets the other with a $)i$. *thers may ha#e a four stroke ritual, such as,
A, )i<
8, )i< )ow do you do7
A, Aetting along. (hat about you7
8, .ine. &ee you around.
The ne"t time they meet in the day, they may not e"change any strokes at all, or may 0ust acknowledge
each other2s presence with a curt nod.
&ome phenomena associated with daily rituals,
If a person e"changes fewer strokes than e"pected, the other person may feel that he is either
preoccupied or acting high and mighty.
If a person e"changes more strokes than e"pected, the other person might wonder whether he is trying
to butter him up or get on good terms for some #ested interests.
If two people do not meet for a long time, a backlog of strokes gets built up, so that the ne"t time they
meet, they may e"change a large number of strokes to catch up.
astimes
A pastime is a series of transactions that is complementary (reciprocal), semi-ritualistic, and is mainly
intended as a time-structuring acti#ity. astimes ha#e no co#ert purpose and can usually be carried out
only between people on the same wa#elength. They are usually shallow and harmless. astimes are a
type of small talk.