Transactional Analysis Journal

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Differentiation of the Adult Ego State: Analytical Adult and Experiencing Adult
Jean Kuijt
Transactional Analysis Journal 1980 10: 232
DOI: 10.1177/036215378001000312

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More on the Adult
Differentiation of the Adult Ego State:
Analytical Adult and Experiencing Adult
Jean Kuijt
Summary
Responses from 111 certified ITAA
members who assigned 97 behavioral des-
criptors to applicable ego states were
analyzed by latent partition analysis, and
item loadings for the latent categories
determined. For the Adult ego state, the
categories of Analytical Adult and Experi-
encing Adult were distinguished. Des-
criptors for the former include "gathers
data," "solves problems," "organizes,"
and "defines reality." The descriptors
for the ExperiencingAdult include "coopera-
tive," "flexible," "ethically'responsible,"
and "assertive." The Analytical Adult is
seen as being similar to the Adult as tradi-
tionally described, whereas the Experiencing
Adult is considered to be a combination of
Ethos and Pathos as described by E. Berne,
or likened to the Integrated Adult of
M. James and D. Jongeward. -BlU1on W. Knapp
Many different behaviors and labels
have been ascribed to the various ego
states described in TA literature. This
study delineates categories common to
and underlying certified TA practitioners'
definitions. Another purpose is to isolate
descriptors which belong to one category
only, from those behavioral descriptors
which belong to more than one category
or which have generated conflicting
opinion. The list of behaviors which clearly
belong to only one ego state can be used in
discussion, diagnosis and measuring ego
states, thus ensuring broad acceptance of
the definitions implicit in the subdivisions
of Parent, Adult and Child.
©Copyright Jean Kuijt, 1980.
232
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"While the complete study
covered all three ego states
... the most important
results appeared in the
Adult ego state.'
While the complete study covered all
three ego states (Kuijt, in preparation),
the most important results appeared in the
Adult ego state. The data indicate that
certified TA practitioners in North
America place some behaviors not pre-
viously labelled Adult in the same cate-
gories as other behaviors more commonly
labelled Adult.
A second conclusion is that the best way
of describing the use made of the Adult
categories of behaviors is to separate them
into two groups. Since most TA authors
have regarded the Adult ego state as un-
divided, it is urgent that practitioners
realize that there is a discrepancy between
their descriptions of Adult behaviors in
practice and the theoretical categories
used in the literature.
Theoretical Background
In 1961 Berne defined the neopsyche or
Adult as the organ which integrates experi-
ences, strives constantly to maintain a
balance of the input from the archeo-
psyche, exteropsyche and the environment,
and synthesizes a response based on anti-
cipated consequences. Berne conceived of a
trimodal second-order structure of the
Adult: Ethos, Pathos and A 2 (Figure 1).
In his terms, "anyone functioning as an
Adult should ideally exhibit three kinds
Transactional Analysis Journal

of tendencies: personal attractiveness and
responsiveness, objective data-processing,
and ethical responsibility" (Berne, 1961,
p, 195).
Figure 1
Second Order Structure oftheAdult
(Berne, 1961, p. 209)
"Most TA-authors, however,
have regarded the Adult ego
state as undivided ... "
Most TA-authors, however, have
regarded the Adult ego state as undivided,
containing only the logical, rational, com-
puting functions which Berne (1961) called
A 2, Kertesz and Savorgnan (1971) called
"technics" and James and Savary (1977)
called "technical knowledge." (Amundson,
1976; Avary, 1976; Dusay, 1977; Edwards,
1976; Harris, 1967; Heyer, 1979; Steiner,
1974; Woolams, 1974).
Other members of the ITAA are in-
cluding a wider range of behaviors in the
Adult ego state or are actually subdividing
it into two or more categories. James and
Jongeward (1971) referred to the broader
group of behaviors as characteristic of
the "Integrated Adult." James defined it
in her recent book Techniques in Trans-
actional Analysis (1977) as follows: "Per-
sons whose Adult ego states are integrated
process data rationally, and they also
exhibit certain child-like characteristics
and ethical concerns. Seemingly these
qualities are filtered from the parent and
Child through the Adult ego state."
Gillespie, in his article "Feelings in the
Adult Ego State" (1976), stated that
"James and Jongeward came out unequivo-
cally with the position the the Adult per
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DIFFERENTIATION OF THE ADULT EGO STATE
se is an emotionless ego state devoid of
feelings" (p. 72). On the contrary, James
and Jongeward (1971) have said "We
believe that unless integrated, the Adult
functions only as a data-processing
machine ... Therefore, we think it is the
integrated Adult that contains Adult feel-
ings and ethics as well as technical skills
and ability. " Gillespie speaks of the
"pure form" of the Adult as being un-
contaminated and unintegrated (ibid, p. 72).
James (1977) clarifies this concept in her
recent book by saying: "If the Adult is not
integrated it is either contaminated or has
such rigid ego state boundaries that the
person is not in touch with the Parent and
Child components of personality" (1977,
p. 54). She goes on to state unequivocally
"What is important to remember is that people
who are in their Adult ego state may have
feelings. The Adult is not merely a
machine; the Adult is concerned with social
issues and has feelings about involvement
in them" (1977, p. 55, emphasis added).
Campbell (1977) saw two distinct functions
in the Adult: the ability to experience as
well as compute. Thus she called the pre-
viously undescribed Adult ego state the
Experiencing Adult while the other might
be called the Computing Adult. Krumper
(1977) concentrated on the Adult as com-
puter and thus divided the Adult into Ac
(the function of memory, referred to as
'content') and Aa (the function of combining
raw bits of information, referred to as
"associative'). Parry (1977) sees the Adult
operating in both the active mode as part
of the "Responsible Self" (Analytical
Adult) and in the receptive mode in the
Responsive Self (Experiencing Adult).
Procedures
A pilot study was conducted in Canada's
three western provinces with 50 persons
familiar with TA theory. In the final study,
200 randomly selected clinical, special
field and teaching members of the ITAA,
living in Canada and the United States,
were asked to sort 97 behavioral descriptors,
such as "dogmatic," "thinks analytically,"
"timid," "playful," and "caring," into
categories representative of their view of
233
JEAN KUIJT

"A new Adult ego state has

Analytical Adult a Experiencing Adult b
apparently emerged."
Strong Loading C Strong Loading C
Estimates Probabilities Cooperates
ego states. The number of usable responses Objective Aware ofOthers
was 111 which is approximately one-eighth Logical and Factual Respectful of Others' Rights
of all certified members. The responses Thinks Analytically Flexible
were fairly evenly distributed among levels Gathers Data Assertive
of. expertise and geographic regions. The Systematic Ask forWhat I Want
Organizes Autonomous
data were analyzed using latent partition Solves Problems
analysis (LPA), first described by Wiley
Moderate Loading d Moderate Loading d
(1967). LPA shows what latent categories "Plans Ahead "Self-aware
underlie the manifest (actual) categories Defines Reality Willing toTake Risks
produced by the sorters. It also shows the Makes Decisions Ethically Responsible
cohesiveness of the categories and the "Goal Oriented "Seeks Truth
loading on each category (the confidence Weak Loading e
with which each descriptor can be assigned "I ntrospective
to a category). While a full report of this
aprobability ofcohesion ofAnalytical Adult = .93
research will be published elsewhere, the bprobability of cohesion of Experiencing Adult = .44
definitive results regarding the Adult ego CStrong Loading = probability of .90+
state will be discussed at length here. dModerate Loading = probability of .60 - .89
·Weak Loading = probability of .30 - .59
Statistical Results "Loads on both Adult categories
A new Adult ego state has apparently
emerged. While only seven of the 111 Table 1
sorters actually produced two Adult Behavioral Descriptors Assigned to
categories, analysis showed the differentia- Adult Ego States
tion of the Adult to be quite strong-
stronger than the separation of Controlling sorters to merge the two categories. In this
Parent into OK and Not-OK elements. The case, the probability of confusion equals
items assigned to the two underlying Adult 0.44 which indicates that almost half the
categories appear in Table 1 in order of sorters placed' items from the two cate-
the strength of their primary (highest) gories together in one Adult category.
loading. A strong primary loading (.90 +)
for "objective" indicated that the proba- Two Adult Ego States
bility was .90 that "objective" would be The names for the two Adult ego states
placed by a sorter together with any of were chosen: (a) by examining the titles
the other items in that list, e.g. with esti- given by the seven sorters who used two
mates probabilities" or with "plans Adult ego states, (b) by examining the items
ahead." "The probability of cohesion of assigned to each category, and (c) by
Experiencing Adult = .44" means that the noting published titles used to refer to
probability that any two of the items would similar groups of behaviors. Titles would
be placed together by a sorter is 0.44. Thus, then be chosen which would best satisfy
the new category is seen to be far less all three criteria.
cohesive than the Analytical Adult with a Analytical Adult. The more cohesive
cohesion of 0.93-not a surprising finding Adult category (Table 1) corresponds to
considering that the items traditionally what has traditionally been called Adult
assigned to the Adult ego state are found in (Amundson, 1976; Avary, 1976; Berne,
the Analytical Adult. Justification for 1972; Dusay, 1977; Jongeward and Scott,
including the category called Experiencing 1976; Schiff, 1975; Steiner, 1974; Thomp-
Adult in the Adult ego state comes from a son, 1972; Woollams, 1974). The only other
statistic called "the probability of confu- names applied to these functions have been
sion. This is a measure of the tendency for A 2 (Berne, 1961), Technics (Kertesz and

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 DIFFERENTIAnON OF THE ADULT EGO STATE
Savorgnan, 1971), Computer (Avary, 1976),
Analytical and Cognitive Adult from the
pilot study for this research, and Com-
puting Adult from the thesis (Kuijt, 1978).
While "computing" was first chosen as the
generic term, on further reflection and
discussion with ITAA members, "analytical"
seems to be a broader term which includes
such non-computing functions as
"gathers data," "defines reality," and
"thinks analytically." Thus, in future, the
term Analytical Adult will be used by this
author.
Experiencing Adult. The new Adult
category appears to correspond to a com-
bination of Ethos and Pathos (Berne, 1961),
to the Integrated Adult (James and Jonge-
ward, 1971), and to the Experiencing Adult
(Campbell, 1977). The seven sorters who
used two Adult categories gave this one
such titles as "Self," "Berne's Ideal,"
"James' Second-Order Adult," and
"Integrated Adult." The sorters in the
pilot study who differentiated the Adult
ego states used such terms as "Affective
Adult" as well as "Ethos" and "Pathos."
The title that best seems to fit the items in
this category is "experiencing" as used by
Bacon (Ornstein, 1973, p. 63) to refer to a
mode of knowing. Thus the label given by
Campbell (1977)to the second aspect of the
Adult ego states seems singularly appro-
priate-Experiencing Adult.
Of the fourteen descriptors assigned
to the Experiencing Adult (EA) in the
a priori classification of descriptors, only
two failed to appear in EA in the ten
category model. While both of them-
"shows empathy" and "sensitive to
others' needs"-had primary loadings
on Nurturing Parent (NP) they also had
substantial loadings on EA. Another des-
criptor from NP, "facilitates others,"
loaded almost equally on EA and NP. Two
descriptors from EA which loaded almost
as highly on Analytical Adult (AA) were
"seeks truth" and "introspective." The
latter had the least clarity of all 97 des-
criptors in terms of the amount of variance
accounted for by the LPA model. There
is apparently less agreement among practi-
tioners regarding the placement of "intro-
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spective" than of any other descriptor
in this study.
A set of three descriptors consistently
loaded on EA until EA combined with AA
to form A. The interpretation is that
these three-"assertive," "willing to take
risks" and "ask for what I want"-had a
high probability of being combined with
other items for EA but a low probability of
being combined with items from AA.
There was a moderate chance of their being
combined with items from Natural Child
which took precedence when EA was no
longer a separate category.
Discussion
Many ancient traditions have expressed
bipolar dichotomies of consciousness. In
the Chinese I Ching (1967) the polarities
are names Ch'ien (The Creative) and K'un
(the Receptive). They are explicitly comple-
ments, not opposites; "the Creative is in
time but not in space, "The Receptive" is
in space, not in time.
In 1268, Roger Bacon, one of the
founders of modem science wrote,
There are two modes of knowing,
through argument and experience.
Argument brings conclusions and
compels us to concede them, but
does not cause certainty nor remove
doubts in order that the mind may
remain at rest in truth, unless this is
provided by experience (Opus Maius,
quoted in Ornstein, 1973, p. 63).
These early theories bear a striking re-
semblance to the results of left-right hemi-
sphere brain research of Gazzaniga (1967)
and Galin (1976) who have found the
right hemisphere functions to be spatial
and the left hemisphere functions linear
and sequential.
Ornstein (1973) concludes that these two
models are complementary and together
form the basis of human consciousness.
"One mode, the articulate or verbal-
intellectual, involves reason, language,
analysis, and sequence. The 'other' mode
is tacit, 'sensuous' and spatial, and operates
in a holistic, relational manner."
Parry (1978) and Amundsen and Parry
(1979) applied the concept of bimodal
235
JEAN KUIJT
consciousness to TA theory in speaking
about a "Responsible Self" (The Creative)
and "Responsive Self" (The Receptive).
They saw the two as complementary. They
saw the potential for unifying the self which
has been divided into ego states. The
Analytical Adult represents the Adult
part of the Responsible Self and the
Experiencing Adult represents the Adult
part ofthe Responsive Self.
A Model: Ten Functional Ego States
While a discussion of the complete
results of this study as it relates to the
Parent, Adult and Child ego states is not
appropriate here, a schematic representa-
tion of this author's conception of the
"Integrated Self" based on the ten ego
states identified would not be complete
without showing where all ego states fit
in the model. Thus, the division of the
Parent ego states into OK and Not-OK,
Controlling and Nurturing, plus the
division of the Child ego states into Little
Professor + Natural Child = Free Child
and Compliant + Rebellious = Adapted
Child are shown in Figure 2 using Parry's
(1978) idea of combining the three ego
state circles with the Tai Chi symbol.
Figure 2
Ten Functional Ego States within the
Integrated Self (Kuijt, 1978)
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"The data demonstrated a
far greater similarity among
the views of North American
certified members of the
ITAA than a search of TA
literature on ego states
would suggest."
In the representation of the Integrated
Self I see the Child and Experiencing Adult
as Responsive. They use the processes of
the right hemisphere and the receptive
mode of consciousness. Alternatively, I see
the Parent and Analytical Adult ego states
as Responsible: They use the active focusing
dimension of the Self which takes respon-
sibility for its actions.
The diagram has the same disadvantages
as other schematic representations: the
structures represented are not as discrete as
they are portrayed. The OK Nurturing
Parent, while predominantly responsible,
also shows some characteristics of res-
ponsiveness. Nevertheless, what Figure 2
does is to show the division of the Adult
ego states into their responsible (Analytical
Adult) and responsive (Experiencing
Adult) aspects.
Implications of the Study
The major purpose of this research was
to determine the accepted meanings of the
terms used in diagnosing or discussing
ego states analysis. The data demonstrated
a far greater similarity among the views of
North American certified members of the
ITAA than a search of TA literature on
ego states would suggest. There was a high
degree of agreement on the classification
of 88 of the 97 behavioral descriptors
sorted. The best fitting model has 10
categories-nine of which closely correspond
to well known TA constructs.
The emergence of a tenth ego state
which could be related both to TA theory
and to other psychological theories was an
unexpected bonus. The combination of
Experiencing Adult and Analytical Adult
bears a striking resemblance to Fromm's
(1968) concept of a "fully developed per-
son" and to Maslow's (1954) concept of a
"self-actualizing person."
Transactional Analysis Journal
 DIFFERENTIATION OF THE ADULT EGO STATE
Recommendations for Further Research
A fruitful line of research might be to
replicate this study after five years to
compare LPA results and see whether the
composition of strength of the categories
will change. If the concepts of Analytical
and Experiencing Adult ego states become
widely accepted one could predict that
some descriptors now loosely attached to EA:
"assertive," "willing to take risks" and
"shows empathy," may become accepted
as behaviors of that ego state. Cohesion
of EA would increase and the tendency of
EA and AA to merge would decrease. It
will be interesting to see whether definition
of the two latent categories which under-
lie TA experts' views of the Adult ego
states become accepted as separate clinical
and theoretical entities.
Jean Kuijt is a PhD student in the De-
partment of Educational Psychology at the
University ofAlberta, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada.
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