Influence of Transactional Analysis (Parent, Adult, Child Self)

Introduction to Transactional Analysis (TA)

Within the array of psychological frameworks that have contributed tools and concepts to coaching, Transactional Analysis (TA) offers a particularly useful perspective.

This perspective helps to understand the interpersonal interactions and internal states that influence our behavior.

TA focuses specifically on the study of the changes people experience that are directly related to their internal psychological states.

It provides a language and a model to describe how we communicate and how our personality is structured and manifested in relationships.

The Central Objective: Fostering Autonomy

The fundamental purpose in applying the principles of TA, whether in therapy or adapted to coaching, is to foster greater autonomy in the individual.

The aim is for the person to develop the capacity to consciously choose his or her reactions and behaviors in various circumstances.

This contrasts with responding automatically based on learned patterns or unmanaged emotional impulses.

This emphasis on conscious choice and personal responsibility fits naturally with the core objectives of coaching, which seek to enhance the coachee's self-awareness and capacity for deliberate action.

The Self-States: Parent, Adult and Child

According to the TA model, an individual's personality can be understood through three fundamental ego states, which represent coherent systems of thoughts, feelings and behaviors:

• The Parent Self (Parent): this self state aggregates the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that we have learned and internalized primarily from our parents and other significant authority figures during childhood.

It contains the norms, values, beliefs, "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts" that we have absorbed from our early environment.

It can manifest itself in a nurturing (nurturing, permissive) or critical (controlling, judgmental) way.

• The Adult Self: This state functions as a rational and objective processor of present reality. It is nourished by the exchange of information with other individuals and the environment.

Its function is to eva luate information logically, consider available options, estimate probabilities, and make decisions based on the facts and the current context, mediating between the demands of the Parent Self and the needs of the Child Self.

• The Child Self: This state of the self represents the part of our personality that retains genuine needs, feelings and emotions as we experienced them in our childhood.

It includes joy, sadness, fear, anger, curiosity, creativity and spontaneity.

It can be expressed as an Adapted Child (seeking approval, following rules) or as a Free Child (spontaneous, impulsive, creative).

Application of TA in Coaching

Although coaching is not a form of Transactional Analysis therapy, it does borrow from TA various diagnostic methods that help to understand the inner workings of the person and their patterns of interaction.

These tools are valuable for both coach and coachee to gain greater clarity about underlying dynamics that may be affecting goal achievement.

For example, coaching can use concepts such as life scripts (unconscious plans made in childhood about how life will unfold) or existential position (core beliefs about self and others, such as "I'm okay, you're okay") to facilitate the coachee's reflection.

Identifying from which state of self the client predominantly operates in certain situations or which script may be limiting his or her actions, allows opening new avenues for change and conscious choice from the Adult state.

Summary

Transactional Analysis (TA) studies changes related to internal psychological states and interpersonal interactions. Its main purpose is to favor the autonomy and conscious choice of the individual.

The model postulates three states of the self: the Parent Self (learned norms and values), the Adult Self (rational and objective processor) and the Child Self (childish emotions, needs and spontaneity).

Coaching draws from TA diagnostic methods to understand the inner workings of the coachee. Identifying from which state the client operates allows opening new ways for conscious change.