EC TA

When it rains or the sun shines bright what do you do? You hold an umbrella over your head and create a shade around yourself. This is what TA does.

TA stands for Transactional Analysis. TA believes that every communication is a transaction of states i.e., when you communicate you assume a state which can be a child state, an adult state or a parent state. When you communicate being in your child state you exercise your free will, enjoy doing new things, take risks, be open minded and show good learning abilities. You don't think about the past or future. What matters most is the present. But you are vulnerable too and show dependence on somebody/something.

When you communicate being in your adult state you are independent but cautious. You don't play like a child but act with responsibility. You don't laugh much, put up a serious face and show purpose and reason in your behaviour. The risk taking is minimal and done with a lot of calculation. You are in your comfort zone and sometimes show symptoms of paralysis by analysis or learned helplessness. But this state is empowered with sound decision making, maturity of age and experience and the ego expresses itself in many ways.

In the parent state the person shows his/her moral side and talks or does things in an ideal way to present a role model for others to follow. The "You should be/should have/should do" kind of instructions are very common in this state and the receiver is expected to obey/listen and show respect to the advice given.

Now the conflict in communication happens when there is a mismatch in the assumed states for eg., the speaker is in child state and the receiver takes the adult state. This prevents the communication to progress because the adult may try to oppose the creative instincts in the child and thus the child may not explore them further in the presence of the adult. So the process of communication fails to realise its true potential.This kind of a situation may also arise between an adult and a parent. So these are contradictory states. The complementary states are child-child, adult-adult, parent-parent or when the child is respectful of the adult/parent and willing to learn from their knowledge and experience.

TO BE CONTINUED...