Transactional analysis ego states : subdivisions and definitions determined by latent partition analysis

• Main Author: Kuijt, Jean Davidson
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21030

This study- was designed to examine Transactional Analysis (TA) practitioners' definitions of ego states and to establish categories of behavioral descriptors which can be used in functional analysis of ego states. To achieve these purposes a representative sample, of TA experts resident in Canada and the U.S. was surveyed to determine what categories they would use for classifying a set of 97 behavioral descriptors. A categorization methodology developed by Miller et al. (1967) was followed and latent partition analysis (LPA) was used to analyse the data received from 111 TA practitioners. The LPA model fitted the data extremely well with a ten-category solution best satisfying the criteria for goodness-of-fit. The ten latent categories, closely corresponding to TA constructs, were: OK Controlling Parent, Not-OK Controlling Parent, OK Nurturing Parent, Not-OK Nurturing Parent, Computing Adult, Experiencing Adult, Little Professor (LP), Natural Child (NC), Compliant Child (CC), and Rebellious Child (RC). As the number of latent categories was reduced these combined hierarchically to form Controlling Parent., Nurturing Parent, Adult, Free Child (LP + NC), and Adapted Child (CC + RC). Descriptors which can or cannot be assigned to just one category were identified. An Ego State Check List was developed from 86 of the descriptors which could be assigned to a single category. The test is available from the author for research purposes. === Education, Faculty of === Graduate