TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

AN INTRODUCTION Transactional Analysis is a theory of personality and behaviour. It is a systematic tool for personal growth and development, intra psychic functioning and interpersonal behaviour. It is system of techniques designed to help people understand and change their feelings and behaviours. It gives a picture of how people are structures psychologically. It also provides a theory of communication. In 1958 Eric Berne, an American psychiatrist, formulated this theory. The philosophy of transactional analysis begins with an assumption that we are all ok. We have a basic core, which is lovable and has the potential and desire for growth and self-actualization. We have the capacity to think, to decide their own destiny and these decisions can be changed. People gain both emotional and intellectual insight through transactional analysis. Transactional analysis is basically contractual. Any work done through transactional analysis necessarily has a contract. Contract is an agreement between the counselor and the client, which outline the goal, stages and, conditions of treatment. Client wants to a change in his life and he agreed to come to the counselor and the counselor agreed to work with him. During this contract counselor will establish his adult ego states. A contract is an adult commitment to one’s self and/or to someone else to make a change. Contracts can be establish to change feelings, behaviour or psychosomatic problems. It could be between individuals, between groups or between an individual and a group. Contracts must be in clear terms what each party to the contract is expecting and what they could offer. Proper contracting keeps a process goal oriented.

In TA, ego states are important. Ego states are the building blocks of TA. We use ego states in order to express our personality. Each of us behaves, thinks and feels in various ways. There are three categories of ego states of each person, which are separate and distinct source of behaviour. Such as: 1) Parent Ego State 2) Adult Ego State and 3) Child Ego State.

1) Parent Ego State: The parent ego state is a collection of attitudes, thoughts, behaviours and feelings which a person has taken in from outside sources who served as her parental figure. It often is expressed toward others in prejudicial, critical and nurturing behaviour. It is experienced as old parental massages which are continuing to influence the inner child. Parent ego states are two categories: a) Critical Parent: In critical parent people manifest themselves as disappointed, aggrieved, feeling always right patronizing, controlling judgmental, authoritarian, putting down others. b) Nurturing Parent: In nurturing parent people act loving, caring, concerned, understanding, supportive encouraging, and reassuring.

2) Adult ego state: The adult ego state is not related to a person age. It is oriented to current reality and the objective gathering from of information. In adult people function as a computer, process data, organize information, estimate probabilities, make logical statements, confident, reality based, open minded, and provide non judgmental feed back. It organize, adaptable and intelligent, functions by testing reliability, estimating probabilities and makes logical statement.

3) Child Ego State: The child ego state contains all the impulses that can naturally to an infant. The child ego state consists of feelings, thoughts and behaviour which are typical of children and spontaneous adults. It is also contains the recordings of the child early experiences, responses and the “position taken about self and others. It is expressed as “ old behaviour from childhood. It replayed from childhood decisions. In this stage, people tend laugh, share fun, feel exited, and enthusiastic, curious, energetic and express anger, sadness, fear freely without any inhibition. Child ego state is also two categories: a) Adapted Child: In adapted child, people exhibit behaviour of compliance also passive, recorrect parent behaviour, complaint child acts loyal, withdrawal, please others, feels hurt, sulks and always fells one down. b) Rebellious child: In rebellious child people always complaining, disobeys, throws temper tantrums, feels bored and distract. The ego state described phenomenological as a coherent system of fillings related to a given subjects and operationally as a set of coherent behaviour pattern, or pragmatically, as a system of feelings which motivates a relate set of behaviour patterns. We use ego state in order to express our personality. Each of us behaves, thinks and feels in various ways. It is a method of analyzing a person ‘s thoughts, feelings and behaviour, based on the phenomena of ego state. According to Transactional Analysis, we all have a need to structure our time in order to avoid the pain of boredom. This need is called structure hunger. Structure hunger can be thought of as an extension of stimulus hunger, since the need for stimulation requires that we establish situation in which rewards can be exchanged. The particular ways in which a person structures her time depends upon whether or not she feels ok about herself and others. There are six ways of structuring time, and at any given moment each of us is involved in one or more of these time structures. Each of these ways of structuring time has both advantages and disadvantages.

1) Withdrawal: A person withdraws by mentally removing herself from others. She may do this alone in her room, at a party, or while walking down a crowded street. Daydreams, fantasy, and meditation are all forms of withdrawal. When a person withdraws she is choosing to shut others out, relying on herself for stimulation and time structure. Withdrawal is usually safe, requires little emotional investment and does not provide stroking from others. A certain amount of withdrawal is healthy, normal behaviour, everyone does so at certain times in order to be with herself, collect her thoughts and reflect upon her experiences, needs and feelings. Some people avoid withdrawal because they are afraid to be alone with their experience, and choose instead to structure their time in ways in which distracts them from their personal thought and feelings. On the other hand, some people spend a great deal of time in withdrawal because they are afraid to share themselves with others. A person who spends too much time withdrawing may become lonely and depressed and in severe cases withdrawal may lead to autistic thinking. A person who lacks contact with others scarifies an external check on her fantasies, when not checked out with outside sources, these fantasies may be mistaken for reality.

2) Rituals: A ritual is a safe and predictable exchange of rewards in which persons behave toward one another in a fixed manner. When people are involved in a ritual it sounds and looks like they are reading their transactions verbatim from a script, and sometimes they are actually doing so. Rituals may be brief and simple. Such as an exchange of “Hello” or “Good mornings.” Sometimes they are longer and involve more rewards. It may also be quite long and complex and involve larger numbers of people, such as in religious ceremonies.

3) Past time: A past time is a semi-ritualized conversation in which people share opinions, thoughts, or feelings about relatively safe topics. When people transact with each other and their purpose is not to accomplish a goal but rather to “talk about” something, they are engaging in a pastime. Some common pastime topics are politics, ecology, sports, weather, inflation, fashions, worries, travel, food and drugs. Pastimes may supply a relatively large number of rewards, usually pleasant, without much risk of closeness. They also allow a person to collect information about another person’s ideas and interests.

4) Activities: When a person’s energy is directed to external sources, such as objects, tasks, and ideas, the person is engaged in an activity. Work, hobbies, and chores are common examples; hence it is apparent that many people spend a great deal of their waking hours involved in activities. Activities produce strokes in many ways. When a job is well done, positive strokes are often obtained in the form of praise from friends, relatives or co-workers. Negative strokes may be received if a person does a job poorly or choose to work with people who find fault easily. Strokes for activities come from direct rewards, like school grades, paychecks and some people use these rewards as their major source of strokes. Activities also provide a setting in which other forms of time structuring may be established.

5) Games and Rackets: A psychological game is an ongoing series of complementary transactions which lead to a well-defined predictable outcome. A racket can be either an internal process or a series of complementary transactions which a person uses to “justify” a not ok position. 6) Intimacy: Intimacy is the most risky and the most rewarding of all ways of structuring time. Intimacy involves the sharing of feelings, thoughts or experiences in a relationship of openness, honesty, and trust. There is a straight, spontaneous exchange of strokes in the here and now with no ulterior motives, no exploitation and no other form of time structuring occurring. The free child is always involved during intimacy and remains open to whatever happens. The intimate experience may be physical or emotional, pleasant or unpleasant real or imagined. Although intimacy provides the highest stroke yield, people often avoid it because they believe it to be risky and unpredictable. A person who believes that she and others are ok will risk being open and intimate in many more circumstances than will the person who doubts or others ok ness. Intimacy can occur on a number of levels and usually involves very pleasant feelings. One person may spend most of her time in withdrawal having frightening fantasies, another in ritualized exchanges or by past timing superficially, and still another by working very hard. If any individual uses one’s time in withdrawal then it should not to give him rewards for this. Some get most of their rewards in rackets and games, and a few get many rewards in intimate relationship. If any does excessive work and does not get any time for him then he needs time structure and gradually he needs to change his time. And after arranging his new time and decreasing his activity he will get time for rituals or past time.

CONCLUSION

 Transactional analysis is the systematic tool for anybody for their development. In this system, contract is helpful for improving his adult ego states. The client can use his adult to confirm the reasonableness of any new behaviour and so get rassurance for his child. He can consciously practice new behaviours, both internally in fantasy and externally with others. He can ask others for approval. He can use his power. He has all of his resource. Using the TA techniques anyone can change himself and develop his personality with his adult ego states. That is why it is a systematic tool.