Eric Berne Transactional

Analysis

Ego States

Berne believed that when we interact with other people, our state of
mind affects what happens
He believed that there were three states of mind in all humans, no
matter how old they were, called ego states.

ADULT
PARENT
CHILD

Characteristics of Ego States

Each ego state has particular verbal and
non-verbal characteristics, which can be
observed, if you are watching people.
Each ego state has a positive and
negative aspect
Read pages 170-176 in Between
Ourselves. Make notes on the bullet
points above.

Look at the sentences below and match the

ego state to the sentence.
1. Its not my fault my drink
got spilt on your new
carpet
2. I wonder what might
have caused that
accident
3. For goodness sake,
clean up that mess.
4. Shall we clean up the
mess together with a
wet cloth?
5. I refuse to get involved
in this incident.

CHILD
ADULT

PARENT

Transactions
Berne said that when people are in their different ego
states and they interact with other people, four main
types of transaction (or interaction) can happen.
To make it easy to analyse what is happening, Berne
developed a little diagram like this, to represent a person
with their three ego states Parent, Adult and Child.

P
A
C

P
Interacts with Person B on right

A
C

Types of Transaction
Complementary Transactions
P

MANAGER
Youre three hours late, I
want an explanation.

EMPLOYEE
Im really sorry, I slept
through the alarm, it
wont happen again, I
promise.

This is a
complementary
transaction
because the
employee accepts
the child ego state
assigned to him by
the manager and
responds in child
ego state.

Try your own complementary transaction

Draw a little diagram like this on a piece of paper.

With your partner, invent

another imaginary
interaction which starts
with either child or adult
ego state, addressing
one of the other persons
ego states and that
person responding in the
chosen ego state.
Write down the
conversation.

Crossed Transaction
P

MANAGER
Youre three
hours late, I want
an explanation.

EMPLOYEE
Oh, didnt you get
held up by that
crash on the
motorway as
well?

This is a crossed
transaction because
although the manager,
parent ego state,
attempted to address the
employee as a child, the
employee refuses this
ego state and responds in
adult ego state to the
managers ego state.
A crossed transaction is
any transaction where the
person being spoken to
refuses the ego state they
are assigned by the first
speaker.

Try your own crossed transaction!

Draw the diagram as
last time, but start from
either adult or child
ego state and invent
an imaginary situation
where someone does
not respond as the first
speaker expects.
Write out the
conversation that goes
with this interaction
and draw the arrows
on your diagram.

Ulterior Transaction
P

P
Social Level

A
Psychological Level

C
ATTRACTIVE
BOY

Whoar,
youre
gorgeous

Do you come
here often?

This is a Ulterior
Transaction because the
whole interaction is working
on two levels. Both people
are pretending to address
Adult ego state and be in
Adult ego state but they are
both in Child ego state and
want to address Child ego
state but cant because of
social norms and manners.

ATTRACTIVE
GIRL
No, not really,
do you?

Wish
youd
just kiss
me!

Try your own Duplex Transaction

Imagine two parents
discussing their
childrens exam results
or two children playing
families.
Write out the
conversation that goes
with this interaction
and draw the arrows
on your diagram.

Transactional Analysis in Action

Transactional Analysis is a practical method which is used
by psychologists to analyse and help people with
behavioural and relationship problems.

Life Positions
Berne believed that a lot of people get stuck in
one ego state more than the other two and that
this may be due to early childhood experiences.
His theory was that in childhood we have a life
position assigned to us, because of the
experiences we have from birth onwards.
He thinks there are four possible life positions
Im not OK, Youre OK
Im not OK, Youre not OK
Im OK, Youre not OK
Im OK, Youre OK

Life positions (continued)

Berne believes that everyone is born in the same Life
Position
Im not OK, Youre OK

The reason you are not OK

when you are born is because
you are dependent on others
for all your needs. They are
OK, because they have the
ability to satisfy their own
needs and your needs.

The Ideal Life Position

Berne says the ideal life position to reach is Im OK,
Youre OK, where you are in a position to satisfy your
own needs and are happy that others are able to satisfy
their needs.
However, some people dont progress to this happy
state, they get stuck in either
Im not OK, Youre not OK
Im OK, Youre not OK
He says this happens because of the wrong kind of
experiences in childhood which result in either very low self
esteem or too high self esteem.

What kind of experiences might

cause these two life positions?
Im not OK, Youre not OK

Im OK, Youre not OK

How do life positions affect peoples

communication?
Berne thinks that peoples life positions tend to determine
the script of their life in other words, if you think the
world is against you Im not OK, Youre not OK, you will
tend to make this a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your script
will be a negative one, which makes your communication
with others negative and makes negative things happen.
Your non-verbal communication may be off-putting
aggressive or withdrawn, your words may be the same.
It is a bit like being an optimistic person or a pessimistic
person. How you approach life and encounters with
other people, affect how these encounters progress.

Child Ego State

Thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behavioral patterns based on
child-like emotions, impulses, feelings we have experienced.
Natural Child(PRINCE)- Hateful/ loving/ spontaneous/ playful
Intuitive Child(LITTLE PROFESSOR)- Thoughtful/
imaginative/ creative
Adapted Child(FROG)- fearful/ guilty/ ashamed
Child-like examples:

Impulsive
Self-centered
Angry
Fearful

Happy
Pleasure seeking
Rebellious
Happy

Curious
Eager to please

Parent Ego State

A collection of pre-recorded, pre-judged,
prejudiced codes for living.
Decides, without reasoning, how to react
to situations.
Can be over-controlling and oppressive or
life giving, supportive and tender.

Adult Ego State

Thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behavioral
patterns based on objective analysis of
information (data, facts)
Make decisions based on logic,
computations, probabilities, etc. (not
emotion).
Has no emotions able to detach from
feelings.
Logical.

Parent Ego State

Thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behavioral patterns based
on messages or lessons learned from parents and other
parental or authoritarian sources
Shoulds and should nots; oughts and ought nots; always
and never
Prejudicial views (not based on logic or facts) on things
such as:
religion
dress
salespeople
traditions
work
products
money
raising children
companies
Nurturing views (sympathetic, caring views)
Critical views (fault finding, judgmental, condescending
views)