Human Behaviour - Ego States

• ego states
• social transactions
• see also:
  • Human Behaviour

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