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THE TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS CORROBORATION RESEARCH PROJECT

  By Claude Steiner PhD TM , VP Research and Innovation.

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Introduction

Transactional Analysis needs to be recognized by the professional and academic community. Barring another sensational Transactional Analysis bestseller, such recognition can only come from academic and research-based information.

  I have undertaken to explore the behavioral science literature in search for substantial theoretical streams as well as rigorous research studies that tend to corroborate the core concepts of Transactional Analysis.

 The forty-nine core concepts of Transactional Analysis developed by the 1999 Core Concepts Task Force have been divided into five theoretical and practical conceptual clusters. These five concept clusters enjoy varying degrees of recognition in the behavioral sciences. In their order of most likely recognition and acceptance by non Transactional Analysis professionals these five conceptual clusters are:

1.  The Stroke Cluster

2.  The OK Cluster.

3.  The Script and Games Cluster.

4.  The Ego States and Transactions Cluster.

5.  The Transactional Theory of Change Cluster.

  Echoes of every one of these clusters of concepts can be found in writings in the fields of psychology, social psychology and psychotherapy where they exist independently of any awareness of their possible Transactional Analysis origins. Transactional Analysis includes all five in a sophisticated, interconnected theory of personality and change.

The aim of this project is to collect from the social sciences literature a portfolio of method, theory and research that corroborates each of the five core modules for the express purpose of giving credibility to Transactional Analysis in the wider professional and academic community and encourage its use as well as to develop more focused theory and research within the TA community.

Findings.

The Stroke Cluster

 The research on which Berne based his theory of strokes was the "hospitalism" studies by Spitz (1945) and Harlow's “monkey studies” with wire and cloth mothers (1976) which Berne summarized in the colloquialism: "If you are not stroked your spinal cord will shrivel up."

 Spitz established that in a foundling home where the children are deprived of maternal care and affection, motor and intellectual types of development are markedly depressed, mortality is high and physical growth is retarded.

  Harlow showed that baby monkeys clearly preferred cuddling with the softer cloth model, especially if they were scared. Harlow found that young monkeys reared with live mothers and young peers without difficulty learned to play and socialize with other young monkeys. Babies raised with real mothers but no playmates were often fearful or inappropriately aggressive. Baby monkeys without playmates or real mothers became socially incompetent, and when older, were often unsuccessful at mating and those that did have babies were neglectful of them. Harlow concluded that normal sexual and parental behavior depended on a wide array of affection ties with peers and family early in life

 The concepts that we, in Transactional Analysis, refer to as strokes have been written about and studied as “contact,” “attachment,” “intimacy,” “warmth,” “tender loving care,” “need to belong,” “closeness,” “relationships,” “social support” and yes, love.

 That the procurement of stokes "need to belong" is a fundamental human motivation has been investigated by Buameister and Leary (1995) in an excellent and exhaustive review of the literature from which they conclude that "existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation."

 That nurturing physical strokes are needed to maintain physical and psychological health  has been investigated in innumerable research studies. An excellent review of these studies, showing the pervasive relationship between stroking and health, are provided by Lynch (1977) and Ornish (2000).

 These concepts are also embedded in the all-important series of attachment studies by Bowlby and Ainsworth (1991) which also support the view that secure reliable contact with a caretaker is essential for positive development…

 Berne proposed that not just positive stimulation but also negative painful stimulation might be instrumental in maintaining health. This hypothesis is essential to the theory of games that postulates that people will accept and seek negative stimulation even if the prefer positive stimulation. Berne quotes Levine’s research on infant stimulation (1960) in support of that view.

 However, stroke theory includes additional hypotheses which require validation. Research is needed to evaluate the importance of non-physical strokes compared to physical strokes, to confirm that strokes are in scarcity that causes stroke hunger, and that people prefer positive strokes but choose negative strokes rather than to have none.

The OK Cluster

 The concept that we in Transactional Analysis refer to as the OK existential position is represented in the wider behavioral culture by the concepts of  "positive psychology", “flow,” “human potential,” “resiliency,” “excellence,” “optimism,” “subjective well being,” “positive self-concept,” as well as “spontaneous healing,” “nature's helping hand,” “vis medicatrix naturae,” “the healing power of the mind.” These concepts, until recently deemed unfashionable and “soft-headed,” have taken center stage in psychological research. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi have reviewed the field in a special issue on positive psychology of the American Psychologist (2000). 

 In Transactional Analysis the OK existential position is also called the universal position because Berne assumed that "people are born OK" that is to say that people, in their innate state tend to health, healing, and a benign expectation and trust of others. This position about self and others is either maintained or lost to a “Not OK” position about self, others or both.

 It has been shown through hundreds of studies (For an excellent review see Matlin and Stange 1978) that human beings strongly tend to be selectively positive in their language, thought, and memory and that people who are psychologically healthy show a higher level of positive bias. The research also indicates that people with a OK/OK attitude are likely to be healthier and live longer. Tiger (1979) postulates that optimism has driven human evolution and is an innate adaptive characteristic of the species and a part of evolutionary developed survival mechanisms, a view that coincides with Berne's.

 The not OK position, unlike the OK position which is innate and primary has been widely researched in studies about depression, low self esteem, psychopathology, and in the construction of diagnostic manuals and tests,

 When lost, according to Berne, the OK position can be regained as it is innate, while the not OK position is tied to a script and therefore to the arbitrary narrative or schemas on which people base their life. Research is needed to verify that hypothesis but the prima facie evidence over the last centuries is that the human social condition-- barring an ecological catastrophe--is steadily progressing in the positive direction of equality, cooperation, democracy and humanitarianism which would tend to support the view that this is an innate trend of the species.

The Games and Scripts Cluster.

There has been an upsurge of interest among theorists and researchers in autobiographical recollections, life stories, and narrative approaches to understanding human experience and behavior.  The concepts that we in Transactional Analysis refer to as “life scripts,” “script decisions” and “redecisions” are represented in the wider psychological culture by the concepts of “narratives,” “maladaptive schemas,” “self-narratives,” “story schemas,” “story grammars,” “personal myths,” “personal event memories,” “self-defining memories,” “nuclear scenes,” “gendered narratives,” “narrative coherence,” “narrative complexity,” “core self-beliefs,” “self-concept,” highlighting life stories, myths, plots, episodes, characters and so on. 

 A compelling example of the manner in which Berne has either contributed to or anticipated major trends in behavioral science can be seen in the evolution of the concept of life scripts. A thorough review of the literature on the psychology of "life stories" by McAdams (2001) contains circa 200 references the majority of which were written well after Berne's introduction of the concept in 1995, yet Berne is not mentioned in this comprehensive review. Most of the relatively few research articles in this trend have their focus on the scripts inherent in short term events such as friendships, sicknesses, transitional periods, (school to work), gender, sexual and abuse scripting, picking sexual partners and habitual ways of dealing with emotions such as anger. The narrative literature includes the notion that people are bound to follow certain pre-conceived behavioral paths and that some of these are harmful to the person. The notion of an internalized life story ties together a number of important theoretical and empirical trends in developmental, cognitive, personality, and cultural psychology

  Schema, according to Young (1999), are deep cognitive structures that enable an individual to interpret his or her experiences in a meaningful way. Young assumes that because schema are formed in response to life experiences over a lifetime, they can be restructured through a systematic and realistic review of the evidence from these experiences that supports the negative schema and evidence that does not support them.

 Young expands on this theme with his concept of “maladaptive schemas.” The notion that such “life scripts” can be redecided plays an important part in the American Psychological Association Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Manual for depression. “Schema Change Methods” are outlined as strategies designed to "restructure maladaptive core beliefs" responsible for depression.

  Tragic life scripts such as mental illness, depression/suicide, criminality and alcoholism and other chemical dependencies are amply documented by clinicians as well as fiction and biographical literature 

  Regarding games, Berne postulated that they are the building blocks of scripts without the continuous playing of which, scripts cannot advance. Berne assigned roles to the players in games and postulated that they are interchangeable. Karpman narrowed the roles that are essential to any one game, to three: The Rescuer, The Victim and the Persecutor. The familiar Rescue-Persecutor-Victim cycle or Rescue Game is widely recognized as “codependency” in the twelve step movement. Not playing the various roles of the Alcoholic game as recommended by Berne is a basic strategy in AlAnon. The proposition that codependent (Rescuing) behavior leads to Persecution and Victimization has not been tested but is one of those intuitive bull’s-eyes which resonate in almost everyone’s experience.

  Research is needed to test the hypothesis that people can choose life-long tragic scripts like suicide, murder or alcoholism in childhood and that these scripts are supported by games and the roles that people habitually play and that they can be “redecided.”

 Regarding games, there seems to be no academic or research literature that refers to them or similar concepts although in the popular culture, from which the term "game" derives there is—again--a clear intuitive understanding of their existence and of their negative impact.

Ego States and Transactions Cluster.

In his last book What do you say after you say hello? Eric Berne made clear that analysis of transactions between ego states is the fundamental activity of a transactional analyst.

He focused on ego states and transactions because they are eminently observable. Ego states in particular, unlike superego and id, Berne argued, "have phone numbers and addresses," meaning that they can be readily observed. Ego states and their representation as three superimposed circles are the icons of Transactional Analysis. Therefore it would be most desirable if we could point to research that demonstrates their existence.

Berne postulated three basic ego states, Parent, Adult and Child. However he quickly introduced possible additional egos states by breaking down each of the three. As an example the Child had three options: Adapted Child, Little Professor and Natural Child. Others followed suit until the numbers of potential separate ego states became unmanageable.  Dusay (1972) narrowed the large number of potential ego states to five: The Nurturing and Critical Parents, the Adult, the Adapted Child and the Natural Child. These five egos states have been widely researched over the years with varying scientific rigor. A number of researchers have attempted to demonstrate reliability and construct validity for these ego states. The Tokyo University Egogram is reportedly very much in use in Japan but I was not able to obtain any references or material on this research.

Reliability is the degree to which judges agreed on which of the five pre- determined ego state is being observed and it has been studied by a number of researchers using a variety of instruments. Loffredo et all (TAJ, April 2004) review that work and updated their research in a study in which they measure the reliability of a questionnaire designed to identify the five ego states. This rigorous research demonstrates that their questionnaire reliably identifies these five ego states in people. In addition Loffredo et al determined substantial construct validity, that is to say the the five ego states defined by his questionnaire represent five distinct forms of thought, feeling and behavior, ie: ego states.

However Berne’s crucial idea that all behavior fits in one of these specific egos state categories has not been demonstrated nor does it seem likely that it will. This tends to support the notion that while ego states are credible phenomena the specific division into three that Berne chose is largely a wise, useful, intuitive choice that is best seen as a metaphor of heuristic utility rather than a proven reality. The fact that the three ego states are most often named as the reason why people find Transactional Analysis useful is a powerful reason for maintaining them as our flagship concepts. 

  Berne postulated that “complete ego states may be permanently retained.” That there is such a phenomenon as separate manifestations of the ego (if not necessarily the three above mentioned) has been widely observed and postulated as “multiple egos,” “selves” or personalities. There is ample evidence of the occurrence of multiple personalities but they have been consistently regarded as pathological abnormalities ignoring the possibility that multiple states of the ego may be normal, in fact desirable. Rowan (1999) introduces the notion of pluralistic models of the self in which a normal person is seen as multiplicity of sub-personalities.

  Finally, ego states are also discussed theoretically by practitioners of EMDR (Shapiro, 2001) who seek to bring different ego states into contact with each other a conception which parallels Berne’s postulate of fixated ego states as a pathological state. 

 The concept of transactions is self-evident. If we accept that people transact socially it would follow that they will transact between specific ego states if such entities exist. However, transactions between ego states seem to have escaped the attention of researchers except for researchers within transactional analysis who have produced several respectable, though not statistically significant, studies in which transactions emanating from pre-defined separate complexes of behavior (ego states) have been judged with significant levels of reliability. No research corroborating the various types of transactions was found.

 According to Berne “Federn is the one who first stressed on psychiatric grounds what Penfield later demonstrated in his remarkable neurosurgical experiments,” namely,”that psychological reality is based on complete and discrete ego states.”(1961, pg 19) The hypothesis that there are several different, coherent functions of the ego which find a parallel in brain structures is being reflected in the findings of neuro-anatomists and evolutionary psychologists who refer to them as mind modules. Mind modules are evolutionary structures that specialize in certain functions such as language, empathy, attachment, emotions, movement and so on.

The research of evolutionary psychologists shows a great deal of corroborative potential, especially if it can be shown that there are three major mind modules that parallel the three ego states. One ego state, the rational Adult, is a well validated function which resides in the human prefrontal lobe.

The Transactional Theory of Change Cluster.

 From the beginning of its inception by Eric Berne Transactional Analysis was designed as a contractual, cognitive (Adult centered), behavioral (transactional) group therapy. The premise was that if people became aware of their transactional behavior, in particular their games and the underlying script, they would, by the application of Adult (ego statea) control be able to modify their lives in a positive direction. Consequently, a very important therapeutic function was to provide “permission” for changing behavior and “protection” to sustain the change against social and internal pressures to maintain the status quo. The implication of the permission transaction are allied to the concepts of “guidance,” “problem solving,” “treatment strategies” and “interventions.” Protection is allied to the concepts of “support,” “empathy” and “secure base.”  

  As a psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist, Berne had a historic and cultural bent toward psychodynamic thinking. Even though he focused on transactions between visible ego states he was well aware of the fact that, as Freud had discovered, a great deal occurred behind the scenes. However Berne's psychodynamic thinking became less and less psychoanalytic, a wise decision in light of the increasing failure of psychoanalysis to find research corroboration (Crews, 1997). As Berne’s TA thinking matured, it moved away from libidinal conflicts and transference phenomena in the direction of the dynamics of script formation, proliferation, maintenance and redecision.

Therapeutic contracts, first seriously proposed by Berne in 1956, and suicide contracts, a later development, are now an accepted part of modern psychotherapy especially cognitive behavioral therapy. (Heinssen, 1995. Levendusky, 1983, 1994)

To the extent that behavioral therapy is, at this point, considered the most effective method of psychotherapy, transactional analysis--eminently cognitive and behavioral in method--can easily argue that we partake of that effectiveness. Ted Novey's excellent and rigorous research (2002) on the effectiveness of transactional analysts as evaluated by their clients is a powerful, corroborating study.  It needs to be replicated preferably by a non-transactional analyst, before it will convince skeptical professionals of the effectiveness of Transactional Analysis.

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Conclusions

A great deal of research and theorizing in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry corroborates certain aspects of transactional theory and practice. While we found a limited number of "hard" studies that directly supported some Transactional Analysis theory or practice point, there is a mother lode of methodologies and projects which provide "soft" corroboration for Transactional Analysis notions. As I reviewed the literature I found that theoretical concepts and practical techniques which did not exist before Berne introduced them have been assimilated, most often without knowledge that Berne was their innovator.

My overall conclusion from this project is that a large number of core TA concepts are represented in a gamut of substantiated theories in the behavioral sciences under a variety of rubrics. The principal contribution that transactional analysis can make for behavioral professionals is to knit together under one comprehensive theory all of these concepts. TA offers a theoretical and practical framework that can help psychologists, counselors, educators and consultants to coordinate and extend their knowledge in an information based, systematic and elegant manner.

Citations

Berne E. Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy Grove Press. New York. 1961

Berne E. What do You Say After you Say Hello? Grove Press. New York. 1972

Baumeister, Roy F. and Leary Mark R. The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation. Psychology Bulletin, May 1995 Vol. 117, No. 3, 497-529

 Crews F. Freud’s Legacy in Dispute. NYRB Collections New York 1997

 Dusay, J. Egograms and the Constancy Hypothesis. TAJ V2 #3 (1972)

Robert K. Heinssen, R. K.  P G. Levendusky, R H. Hunter. Client as Colleague :Therapeutic Contracting With the Seriously Mentally Ill. American Psychologist July 1995 Vol 50, No 7 522-532    

Lynch J. The broken heart; the medical consequences of loneliness. New York; Basic Books 1988

Matlin M and Stang D. The Pollyanna Principle. (1978) Shenkman. Cambridge MA

 McAdams, D. P., Reynolds, J., Lewis, M. L., Patten, A.,& Bowman, P. T. (2001).  When bad things turn good and good things turn bad: Sequences of redemption and contamination in life narrative, and their relation to psychosocial adaptation in midlife adults and in students.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 472-483.

Levendusky, P. G., Berglas, S., Dooley, C. P. & Landau, R. J. (1983). Therapeutic contract program: A preliminary report on a behavioral alternative to the token economy. Behavior Research and Therapy, 21, 137-142.
 
Levendusky, P. G., Willis, B. S. & Ghinassi, F. A. (1994). The therapeutic contracting program: A comprehensive continuum of care model. Psychiatric Quarterly, 65, 189-208.

Levine, S. Stimulation in Infancy  American Psychologist 202 May 1960

Loffredo, D.A., Harrington, R.,Munoz, M.K., & Knowles, L.R. The Ego State Questinnaire-Revised. TAJ, 34 pg 90-95 April 2004

McKenzie K.R. et al. Guidelines for the Psychotherapies in Comprehensive Psychiatric Care. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 1999:44

Novey, T. Measuring then Effectiveness of Transactional Analysis; An International Study. TAJ V32, #1 Jan 2002

Ornish, D 1988 Love and Survival. HarperCollins New York.

Persons, J. B., Joan Davidson and Michael A. Tompkins. Essential Components of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy for Depression. 2001 Washington DC American Psychological Association

Rowan, J and M. Cooper. The plural self; Multiplicity in everyday Life. Sage Publications, London 1999

Seligman M.and M. Csikszentmihalyi.  Positive Psychology American Psychologist  January 2000  55 #1 5-14

Shapiro, F. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols and Procedures (2nd edition). New York: Guilford Press 2001

Suomi, S J.; Collins, M L.; Harlow, H F. and G. Ruppenthal. Effects of maternal and peer separations on young monkeys. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines. Vol 17(2), Apr 1976, 101-112.and American Psychologist April 1991 Vol. 46, No. 4, 333-341

Tiger, L. Optimism the biology of hope. New York. Simon and Schuster 1979

Young, J. E. Cognitive therapy for personality disorders: A schema-focused approach. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Exchange. 1999

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