Human Behaviour - Ego States
The ego state model:
- introduction:
- observational studies of transactions of social intercourse revealed
that from time to time, people show noticeable changes in posture,
viewpoint, voice, vocabulary & other aspects of behaviour. These
behavioural changes are often accompanied by shifts in feeling.
- in a given individual, a certain set of behaviour patterns corresponds
to one state of mind, while another set is related to a different
psychic attitude, often inconsistent with the first. These changes &
differences give rise to the idea of ego states.
- ego states:
- an ego state may be described as a coherent system of feelings with a
related set of coherent behavioural patterns.
- each individual seems to have available a limited repertoire of
such ego states, which are not roles but psychological realities.
- this repertoire can be divided into 3 main categories:
- Parental or exteropsychic - those that resemble the
individual's parental figures:
- this has 2 main forms:
- "direct parent":
- the person responds as his own parent actually
responded "do as I do"
- ie. he becomes his parent
- "indirect parent":
- person responds the way his parent wanted him to
respond "don't do as I do, do as I say"
- ie. his behaviour is an adaptation to his parent's
requirements
- has 2 main functions:
- enables the individual to act effectively as a parent
of actual children, thus promoting the survival of the
human race
- it makes many responses automatic, which conserves a
great deal of time and energy, therby freeing the Adult
the necessity of making innumerable trivial decisions so
that it can devote itself to more important issues,
leaving routine matters to the Parent.
- Adult or neopsychic - those that are "adult"
based, autonomously directed towards objective appraisal of
reality:
- these states are necessary for survival
- it processes data and computes the probabilities which are
essential for dealing effectively with the outside world
- it also experiences its own kinds of setbacks &
gratifications
- eg. crossing a busy highway
- it also regulates the activities of the Parent and Child
ego states & to mediate objectively between them
- every individual (including children, the mentally
impaired and schizophrenics) is capable of objective data
processing if the appropriate ego state can be activated.
- Child or archaeopsychic - those which represent archaic
relics, still-active ego states which were fixated in early
childhood:
- this has 2 main forms:
- "adapted child":
- behaviour modified under parental influence
- ie. adaptation as his parent wanted him to behave
which may be compliantly, precociously, withdrawing
or whining
- "natural child":
- spontaneous expression which may be rebellion or
creativity
- this reflects intuition, creativity, spontaneous
drive & enjoyment
- the behaviour pattern that is often seen in
alcohol intoxication which frees the adapted Child
from Parental influence and transforms by release
into the natural child
- social transactions:
- a social transaction involves an initial communication (the stimulus)
which then has a response from the 2nd person which in turn forms a
stimulus for the 1st person to respond to, thereby creating a chain of
transactions and "communication".
- making the assumption that each of a pair of individuals engaging in a
social interaction has each of the 3 categories of ego states available,
then a conversation transaction of a stimulus or a response from the 2nd
person can have one of 9 transactional relationship types such as
Adult-Adult, Adult-Child, etc.
- rules of communication:
- communication will proceed smoothly as long as transactions are
complementary
- as long as transactions are complementary, communication can, in
principle, proceed indefinitely
- the above is independent of the nature and content of
transactions, they are based entirely on the vectors involved
- communication is broken off when a crossed transaction occurs
- complementary transactions:
- the response is appropriate & expected, following the natural
order of healthy human relationships
- examples include when two people are engaging in critical gossip
(Parent-Parent), solving a problem (Adult-Adult), or playing
together (Child-Child or Parent-Child)
- crossed transactions:
- transactions that will terminate a conversation thread
- type I:
- the most common crossed transaction is the pattern of an
Adult-Adult stimulus with a Child-Parent response
- type II:
- Adult-Adult stimulus with a Parent-Child response
- eg. "Do you know where my keys are?" "Why don't
you keep track of your own things? You're not a child
anymore!"
- simple transactions:
- simple transactions involve only two ego states
- superficial relationships may be defined as one which is confined
to simple complementary transactions
- ulterior transactions:
- complex transactions involving the activity of more than two ego
states simultaneously - the basis for psychological games
- angular transactions
involving three ego states:
- salesmen are particularly adept at these as illustrated by:
- "this one is better, but you can't afford it" -
at the social level, this is directed at the Adult of the
customer, whose Adult reply would be "You are correct
on both counts", however, the ulterior, or
psychological vector is directed by the well-trained &
experienced Adult of the salesman to the customer's Child in
an attempt to get the customer's Child to reply with
"That's the one I will take" which is saying
regardless of the financial consequences, I'll show that
arrogant guy I'm as good as any of his customers. At both
levels the transaction is complementary since the customer's
reply is accepted at face value as an Adult purchasing
contract.
- a duplex ulterior
transaction involves four ego states & is commonly seen
in flirtation games such as:
- farmer's son to a female visitor: "Come and see the
barn"
- the visitor responds with "I've loved barns ever since I
was a little girl"
- whilst this is a Adult-Adult transaction at the social level,
at the psychological level, it is a Child conversation about sex
play.
- on the surface it seems the Adult ego states has the
initiative, but as in most games, the outcome is determined by
the Child, and the participants may be in for a surprise.
- procedures:
- a procedure is a series of simple complementary Adult transactions
directed towards the manipulation of reality where reality is
defined as having two aspects:
- static reality - comprises all possible arrangements of matter
in the universe
- dynamic reality - the potentialities for interaction of all
the energy systems in the universe
- a procedure is said to be efficient when the agent makes best
possible use of the data & experience available to him
regardless of any deficiencies that may exist in his knowledge.
- if the Parent or Child interferes with the Adult's data
processing, the procedure becomes contaminated and will be less
efficient.
- the effectiveness of a procedure is judged by the actual results
- ritual:
- a stereotyped series of simple complementary transactions
programmed by external social forces
- many formal rituals started off as heavily contaminated though
fairly efficient procedures, but as time passed, they lost all
procedural validity while still retaining their usefulness as acts
of faith. Transactionally they represent guilt-relieving or
reward-seeking compliances with traditional Parental demands. They
offer a safe, reassuring (apotropaic) and often enjoyable method of
structuring time.
- informal rituals include greeting rituals
- simple past-time:
- a series of semi-ritualistic, simple, complementary transactions
arranged around a single field of material, whose primary object is
to structure an interval of time, with secondary objectives of:
- providing mutually acceptable stroking for the parties
concerned
- social selection
- the Child in each member is watchfully assessing the
potentialities of the others involved & thus forms the
basis for the selection of acquaintances which may lead to
friendship
- at the end, each person will have selected certain players
he would like to see more of, while others he will discard,
regardless of how skillfully or pleasantly they each engaged
in the past-time.
- the confirmation of role and the stabilisation of position of
the members involved
- the beginning and end of such intervals are typically signalled by
procedures or rituals
- the transactions are adaptively programmed so that each party will
obtain the maximum gains or advantages during the interval.
- past-times are typically played at social gatherings and may take
the form of chit-chat or may become more serious and argumentative.
- a newcomer entering into a group involved in such past-time
conversation must either join in on the same thread or, change the
topic of the conversation, thereby forming a new thread.
- game:
- an ongoing series of complementary ulterior
transactions progressing to a well-defined, predictable outcome
- a recurring set of transactions, often repetitious, superficially
plausible, with a concealed motivation
- basically dishonest
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References:
- Games People Play. Eric Berne. Penguin 1964