Transactional Analysis Theory and Practice: Structural Models of Personality

This blog comes from Ajit Karve, Transformational TA Coach
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Structural Models of Personality

There are three structural models of personality. They are called the first order model, the second order model and the third order model.

It is easy to conceptualise the first order, the second order and the third order structures if we imagine them to be the likes of Russian Dolls. A diagram showing the ego state structures from the three stages of our life - infancy, childhood and adulthood, are shown in figure 4.

Figure 4

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First Order Model of Personality

The first order model represents personality structure of an adult person. It is shown in figure 5. 

Figure 5

First Order Parent: Berne postulates that every person who grows into adulthood had parents or loco-parentis. We had no capacity as children to evaluate reality on our own. We borrowed and used parental methods and style of thinking, feeling and behaviour. In the process we learnt to perceive, evaluate, and respond to the world in the ways our parents did. We also introjected ('swallowed whole') parental beliefs, moralistic and other values, principles, and evaluation standards. These were valuable to us to deal with the world when we were children and still are when re-evaluated and stored afresh. This stored material now manifests as Parent. 

The Parent functions in two ways; either as an active ego state (in response to external stimuli), or as an influence on the Child ego state (internally). It is shown in figure 6.

Figure 6

Parent ego state is comprised of material that we have learnt, copied and made our own in our childhood and teenage years. It is borrowed from our parents and significant parent figures. The Parent is also a repository of styles and patterns, of our own thinking, feeling, evaluating, perceiving, judging reality and of values, principles, ethical and moral standards. Some of these have been picked up by us and integrated into our system.

A person functioning from Parent responds to reality in a 'parent' like manner. It is comprised of the PAC of a parent or a parent figure or of the many standards and norms that we gave ourself. This Parental PAC is shown in the second order model as P₃, A₃, C₃ - See figure 7.

First Order Adult: Each one of us is required to make realistic appraisals of external and internal environments. The Adult facilitates this. Its job is to collect, sift, evaluate and store data and experiences for future use. Its main function is that of reality testing. Reality testing is testing subjective reality on the touch-stone of objective reality. It helps in mature problem solving and decision making. It also affords in self preservation. Another significant function of the Adult is to exercise social control. The Adult like the Child is an autonomous ego state. A healthy Adult is aided by an acquiescent Child (reluctantly agreeing without protest) and a Permissive Parent (a Permissive Parent is endocrinologically programmed). An empowered Adult is marked by its capacity to enable a person to patiently wait, delay and postpone responses to urges, drives and impulses. It contributes in dealing with reality, ending situations and solving problems sanely, safely and appropriately. It also has the capacity to aid thinking rationally and logically. It aids a person to be open-minded and result oriented. Such an Adult helps in constraints management as well by affording forecasting, probability testing, and by providing well thought views. 

First Order Child: An unencumbered Child is an autonomous ego state. The Child ego state in an adult responds to reality in a childlike way. The Child is also the store-house psychic energy, its regulator and controls its distribution in the PAC system. It aids motivation. It is engaged most of the time in maximising gratification and comfort. It functions mostly beyond reason. An active Child shows up as playfulness, eagerness, creativity, innovativeness and intuition. It affords intimacy and closeness too. It provides for magical thinking and out of the box thinking. A healthy Child promotes capacity for joy, happiness and enjoyment in life. A healthy Child helps the Adult to make mature decisions. This it does by affording acquiescent support. It is the Child that rewards charm to a person. Though the Child is the most ancient, it is the most valuable of the three ego states. The Child provides emotional memory recalls. It is the Child that stimulates shift to Script.

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Second Order Model of Personality

The P, A and C of the First Order Model is renamed as P₂, A₂ and C₂ in the Second Order Model. This is in order to denote that the ego states are relevant to the second order structure.

Figure 7

The PAC structure incorporated in the Parent is named as P₃, A₃ and C₃. It also denotes that it belongs to a third party. The PAC of the Child is named as P₁, A₁ and C₁ to denote that it is the fundamental structure of the Child. In that stage of life only Child ego state is active. The person as child uses the Parent and Adult of parents and parent figures to understand, assess, and evaluate the causes of reality situations and to make decisions,  to reason pros and cons, and for drawing conclusions. This is healthy symbiotic dependence shown in figure 31a See here. These get incorporated as Parent in us and become Parent manner of assessment and response to people, events and happenings in adulthood. The Parent and Adult are yet to become functioning ego states in that period of life. The second order structure is shown in figure 7.

Ego States in the Second Order Child:

Parent in the Child - P₁: This Parent contains incorporated Parent, Adult and Child ego states of childhood, that lie embedded in the Child of an adult person. We as children are needs laden, we understand things with feeling associations, we are impatient, we make conclusions in extremes and generalise. We believe what we are told. By looking at a half cut onion we can imagine how the structure of personality develops from the early layers to the outer most. The closer the layer is to the core it is more opinionated, more extreme, less subject to sane logic and rational explanations, more closely held and protected and believed to be true. The P₁ has planted and mythical content. It is the trigger for movement to script. Its content is largely what we believe to be true in our childhood. These beliefs are stored as script decisions. I am good / no good, I am treated fairly / unfairly, I am lovable / unloved and the like. These are false beliefs.  Mother may force feed a child for its own good. The child may believe that it is unwell. This may get planted as a belief. It may show up in adulthood with the person admitting to many that he / she is mostly unwell. In adulthood it limits our entitlements. This happens because of 'inhibiting injunctions'. Such injunctions are stored in P_1. The emotionally charged responses particularly of the mother are also lodged in P₁. It is called an electrode, for it triggers responses to situations spontaneously. We are stopped not only by the mind route, we are also stopped by the body route. This goes to paint a negative picture of P₁.  It also has a brighter side. Permissions are also lodged in the P₁. Permissions help a person to be exploring, experimenting, trying things out in different ways. Enthusiasm, and capacity for taking initiative originates from P₁. P₁ is addressed by many names. Some of them are electrode, Pig Parent, Fairy God Mother, and Helpful Parent.  

Adult in the Child - A₁ : This ego state is aptly called little professor. It contributes to innovativeness, creativity, original thinking, out of the box thinking, third line of thought, spontaneous insights, intuition and the like. The origins of many an adult trick that children display can be traced to this ego state. This is the ego state that helped us in our childhood to find ways and means to get our developmental needs met. This, despite the many restrictions placed or imposed on us by our parents. Hey! when dad comes let me sit quiet and be nice. Then he will love me. Something like that.

Child in the Child - C₁ : This is called the somatic Child. It houses the PAC of infancy. It is therefore the source of our body related needs and wants. When we feel comfortable, being cosy, it is this ego state that contributes to the cosiness. Our early preferences and avoidances can also be traced to this ego state. When we feel a longing to just be and give up everything else, we have moved to the control of C₁. Those of us who have experienced the after effects of sedation / anaesthesia will likely know what C₁ is. When we long to be held, be hugged, be bundled in a blanket when the weather is cold, know that C₁ is in control. An unhealthy somatic child contributes to many a somatic ailments.

Ego States in the Second Order Parent:

Parent in the Parent - P₃: Values, rules, regulations, beliefs, moralistic frames are stored in this ego state. It comes down generations from both father, mother and grand parents. P₃ is the Parent of the introjected Parent.

Adult in the Parent - A₃: Children are inquisitive to know why. Parents create some justification for the values, rules, regulations, beliefs, moralistic frames etc. These are rationally and logically conveyed to the child. These reasons and justifications are carried forward without verification or updating and stored in A₃. A₃ is the Adult of the introjected Parent.

Child in the Parent - C₃: The Child in the Parent is said to be the transmitting route for cultural scripting. What is good in the family, what type of people we generally are, how we have best survived, what are our strengths and weaknesses, get transmitted through generations through contents of C₃. C₃ is Child of the introjected Parent. It carries transgenerational script material.

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Third Order Model of Personality

The third order model is the PAC of our infancy housed in C₁. Generally speaking it contains the three modes of our evaluation and inclinations with regard to our preferences and avoidances. They constitute reflex responses to stimuli. These stimuli may be internal or external. The experience of this period is related to bodily contact with others and the immediate world. Active thinking in any meaningful way is yet to commence. In early infancy it is only a bundle of flesh, completely dependent on its care takers. It gives up to the control and treatment of others without protest. Bodily impulsive reactions, tension, discomfort, unease, distress can be traced to these ego states too. Deep pain, hurt, resentfulness, dislike, bitterness and resultant somatic ailments can be traced to unhealth in these ego state structures. A diagram incorporating the third order structures is given below in figure 8.

Figure 8

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