Using the Transactional Model Analysis - Essay Example

 Transactional Analysis Model Introduction Transactional Analysis or TA is a systematic tool for personal growth and development, intra psychic functioning and interpersonal behavior. It is a system of techniques which can be used by people to understand their feelings as well as those of others around them. It gives a picture of how people are structured psychologically and also provides a theory of communication. This theory was developed in 1958 by Eric Berne; a famous American psychiatrist. (Muriel James, 1996) Ego States: According to TA each person’s personality is made up of four ego state s: the parent ego state, the adult ego state and the child ego state Ego state may be defined as a set of related thoughts, feelings and behaviors which manifest part of an individual’s personality at a given point of time. Ego states are considered to be the important facets of personality and the distinguishing feature of TA model. Each person has the basic trio of Parent Adult and Child (P-A-C) and the person constantly shifts from one of these states to another. Individual operates in the ego state which is most beneficial and suitable to him at a given point of time. The parent ego state contains morals, beliefs and values which are incorporated from one’s parents. These values may also be obtained from significant authority figures in the life of the individual apart from the parents. Outwardly this ego state has two forms – the “nurturing parent” and the “critical parent”. Inwardly, it is the set of values which continue to influence the individual at a subconscious level throughout his life. When a person is in the parent ego state he reacts to situations as he imagines his parents might have reacted to that particular situation. The person may use some of the vary phrases and postures his parent’s had used in dealing with this situation. The adult ego state can be compared with the Central processing unit of a computer. This state is not emotional or judgmental. In this state the person gathers information, processes it logically and tries to come to a solution. The person in the adult ego state is likely to ignore empathy and intuition and take decisions only on the basis of practicality. The child ego state is the original part of the individual and is most naturally who the person is. It consists of feeling, impulses and spontaneous reactions. The child ego state is divided in to Natural child and the adapted child. Natural child is the spontaneous, lovable and charming part in every individual. The natural child is very spontaneous and acts impulsively without thinking about the consequences of the action. The adapted child is positive in the sense that we respond appropriately in social situation whereas it also has a negative effect wherein we give up our value, worth and dignity and behave in the way others expect us to. Using Ego states as Change Catalyst There are numerous ways in which we can identify the ego state being used by us and others around us in the work place. We need to pay attention to tone of voice, body posture, gestures and the choice of words used. A soft and soothing voice indicated the use of nurturing parent ego state whereas a critical or threatening tone indicates a critical parent ego state. A clear tone of voice usually indicates the adult ego state whereas a cheerful or an emotion laden voice comes from the child ego state. Similarly, there are gestures that signify that someone is using Parent (the warning, wagging finger), Adult (thoughtful expression, nodding head), or Child (jumping up and down. Once we are aware about our own ego states as well as the ego states of those around us in the work place, we can work towards improving our reactions in order to suit the ego states of our colleagues. A person who is in the child ego state might need incentives or even a scolding in order to complete his work on time. However a person in the adult ego state will be perfectly aware about his duties and there will be no need to constantly nag him about his work. Knowing the ego state will help us improve our performance in the workplace. It can also help in improving our personality and help in the communication with others. Transaction:- Transactions are concerned with how people interact with each other. Transactions are usually very important in our workplace as well as in our personal life. The three types of transactions which people indulge in are straight transactions, crossed transactions and ulterior transactions. Each individual indulges in these types of transactions at some point or the other. Straight transactions are those in which the behavior exhibited by a person in one ego state receives the expected response from the other person in the same ego state. These transactions contain a conversation between the same ego states of 2 individuals.These are the most easy and well understood type of transactions.The level of confusion in these transactions is the minimal and the chances of conflict usually does not arise.We should attempt to answer in the same ego state in which the question has been asked from us.Straight transactions lead to improved relations and communications in the workplace and our personal lives. Crossed Transaction occurs when the message sent is under one ego state but the response received is in a different ego state. (Steiner, 1990).These transactions are likley to produce a lot of conflict and friction in the workplace.If the manager talks to us in the adult ego state and the reponse is given in the child ego state , it leads to unprofessional behaviour.Crossed transaction causes lot of misunderstandings and an individual should try to avoid them whenevr possible. Ulterior transactions have a hidden message. The message which is conveyed is not important but the hidden message conveyed is more important than the explicit message conveyed. It is extremely important to understand these transactions as most of the transactions which take place in workplace setting are ulterior in nature. (Widdowson, 2009).Ulterior transactions take place when the individuals are not confident enough to start a straight conversation and use these type of transactions in order to defend themselves in case the transaction does not goes according to their wishes.The body language and the gestures of the individual are more important in ulterior transactions than the words spoken.The real ego state in which these transactions take place are also revealed by the body language of the individual. Johari Window:- The Johari window has been developed by Joseph Loft and Harry Ingham. This window can be used for analyzing interpersonal conflict. It is an important tool for analyzing self as well as others. This can be used by the individual for his self development as well as improving his relations and communication with others in the workplace. (Helena Hargaden, 200) Four cells of Johari window Open self:- This person is aware about himself as well as others. His interactions would me marked by openness and there would be little reason to be defensive. Hidden self:- The person in this cell fears about the reaction of others. He is aware about himself but knows little about those working of living with him. Blind self:- The person in this cell knows about others but his blind to his self. This may lead to unintentionally irritating others and interpersonal conflicts. Undiscovered self:- This is the most explosive situation and leads to a lot of conflict in the workplace and personal relationships. The person in this window is neither aware about others nor is he aware about himself/herself. Life Scripts Introduction: Life position or scripts refers to the basic feeling of life that a person has. These positions effect every transaction that a person has. Most of these life positions are subconscious and the person reacts to them without being aware of it. For example, suppose we were bullied as a child. We learnt that the way around bullying was to bully back. This behaviour is then adopted by us in every situation. If our manager in the workplace tries to increase the work pressure, we consider this as bullying and start to look for ways to fight back with the manager. This may create misunderstanding and conflict in the work environment. Types of Life Position: 1. "I'm Not OK, You're OK" (I-U+) 2. "I'm Not OK, You're Not OK" (I-U-) 3. "I'm OK, You're Not OK" (I+U-) 4. "I'm OK, You're OK" (I+U+) 1.) I’ m OK–You are not OK (I+U-): The person with ‘I’ attitude thinks that he is perfect and there is some problem with the other person. I+U- reflect the paranoid position and the person usually suffers from lack of trust in others. This position leads to shifting of blame on others and will be the cause of friction in relationships. 2.) I’m OK-You are OK (I+U+): This person is satisfied with him and is also satisfied with the way others around him are behaving. He does not try to find any shortcoming in himself or others. 3.) I’m not OK-You are not OK (I-U-): The person with this life position stays irritated and believes that the whole world is wrong and no one will ever do the right thing. 4.) I’m not OK-you are OK (I-U+): This type of person never believes in himself and considers himself as worthless. This type of behavior leads a dependent nature and leads to lack of self confidence. The person is always dependent on others and feels he should be guided in order to do the work effectively. The person is usually in the depressive position in life and may even irritate others about the lack of self-confidence shown by the individual. The life positions are shown below in the form of a matrix - Matrix: 4-OK’s Strokes:- Eric Berne defined a stroke as a “unit of human recognition”. A stroke can be a look, A nod, a smile, a spoken word, a touch. Whenever a human being performs an action to acknowledge other human being it can be classified as a stroke. Strokes can be positive or negative. Positive strokes makes a person feel good about him whereas negative strokes are usually used in order to reprimand others. (Pitman, 1984) . Types of strokes Strokes can also be unconditional or conditional: Unconditional strokes: These strokes are given to us without any pre-condition. The best example of unconditional stoke is the love which is given to babies. They are cuddled and patted without expecting anything in return. An employee in workplace who receives a lot of positive strokes is likely to feel good about himself and his work. This will lead to renewed effort on his part to give back to the organization and he will try to perform at his optimum level. Conditional Strokes: Conditional strokes can be equated with rewards. They are usually given to a person when he performs some desirable behavior. If a person completes his work on time, the manager might pat him on the back which is an example of conditional stroke. Conditional stokes can be used to re-enforce a positive behavior among employees in the workplace. It can also be used by us in our personal relationships to encourage the type of behavior we expect from those around us. Injunctions Whenever a parent is threatened by his child’s behaviour, the messages that he tries to convey are called as injunctions. These injunctions are issued from the parent’s child ego state. These messages are expressions of disappointment, frustration, anxiety and unhappiness. These injunctions establish the “don’ts” that a child needs to abide by. These messages are basically given non-verbally and are given at the psychological level. Injunctions are given in order to establish the type of behaviour which is unacceptable and needs to be avoided. An example of this which can be found in the workplace is the reaction of the manager of the organisation as a whole when an employee arrives late to work. He might be asked to give a treat to all his colleagues whenever he comes late. Non-performance is usually followed by poor appraisal. These are the injunctions which are given at workplace in order to make the employees aware about the unacceptable behaviour. Once these injunctions have been provided over a long period of time, the chances of the repetition of unacceptable behaviour reduces drastically. Games people play: Everyone in life plays games in which he switches his role from one ego state to the other. People like to react to different situations in different ego states and also play games according to the situation. These games are played by individuals both in our workplace as well our personal lives. Some of the common games which are encountered are competitive games, power games etc. A person plays games or deal with the situation when there are two or more than two people involved in it. A game can be described as a series of transactions which may be complimentary or ulterior in nature. These games are played in order to reach a particular outcome .Games are often characterised by switch in the role of the players. A player who has been exhibiting the parent ego state during one part of the game may move towards exhibiting the child ego state if the game requires this. Games are usually played between child, parent and adult ego states and also contain a fixed number of players. However the role played by an individual can change as the game proceeds. Each game has an end objective for those who are playing it. This objective may be earning of sympathy, satisfaction or some other emotion which usually reinforces the life script that the person is currently in. Games are set or pattern of transactions that have surface logic but hidden meaning and an attempt to drawing in an unsuspecting participant. The outcome of the games is always a Win - lose proposition. Analysis of a game One of the factors which are very important in a game is the number of players involved in the game. The game might be two handled (involving 2 players), three handled (involving 3 players) or many handled (involving a large number of players).the other factors which are important in the game being played by the individuals are flexibility, tenacity and intensity with which the game is being played. Flexibility refers to the ability of the players to change the tools or the currency of the game. Tenacity refers to the persistence with which the players play the game. Some games may be played rarely and occasionally whereas other games are played constantly by the players concerned. Some games may be played in an easy and relaxed manner whereas some games like the games played to obtain a promotion in the workplace are played with a lot of intensity as a lot is at stake on the outcome of the game. Some commonly found games are 1- Why don’t you/ yes but:- 2- Alcoholic 3- Rackets 1- Why don’t you/ yes but: -this is the most commonly game played in our lives. This game can be found to be played in the workplace as well as our personal lives. Whenever a person tries to pass a judgement on the work done by us; he would start the conversation with “Why don’t you” .If we do not agree with the suggestion provided we will usually respond with “yes but”. This game is very commonplace in organisations and people are found playing it on a regular basis. 2- Alcoholic: - most of the people also deal with an alcoholic factor. Apart from continuously playing the actual games in life a person also concentrates more on alcoholic and acquires the role of descry which also suffers from various difficulties and most of the time loses control. Former alcoholics are preferred because they know how the game go and hence also knows better to deal with situation. 3- Rackets:-This games deals with manipulating the environment in order to suit the life scripts. The person tries to modify his environment rather than trying to solve the problem. Here are examples of some of the other games which we see being played by people in work environment as well as personal life. YDYB: Why Don't You, Yes But. IFWY: If It Weren't For You WAHM: Why does this Always Happen to Me? SWYMD: See What You Made Me Do UGMIT: You Got Me Into This LHIT: Look How Hard I've Tried ITHY: I'm Only Trying to Help You Conclusion Understanding transactional analysis can help a person to understand his life better. It can also help you see clearly how the person interacts with others. One of the features that set aside transactional analysis from other theories is the fact that TA emphasises that we are all responsible for our future, regardless of whatever has happened in the past. Transactional analysis can help us to improve our communications in the work place and also improve our personal lives. It provides understanding of the self as well as others. Bibliography Berne, E. (1979). Transactional Analysis. New York: Ballantine Books. Gerald M. Goldhaber, M. B. (1976). Transactional analysis: principles and applications. Washington D.C: Allyn and Bacon. Helena Hargaden, C. S. (2002). Transactional analysis: a relational perspective. London: Psychology Press. Muriel James, D. J. (1996). Born to win: transactional analysis with Gestalt experiments. New York: Da Capo Press. Pitman, E. (1984). Transactional analysis for social workers and counsellors: an introduction. Moscow: Routledge. Steiner, C. (1990). Scripts people live: transactional analysis of life scripts. Washington D.C: Grove Weidenfeld. Widdowson, M. (2009). Transactional analysis: 100 key points and techniques. Los Angeles: Taylor & Francis. Read More