TA emphasizes Parent-Adult-Child (PAC) which is roughly similar to Freud's super ego, ego, and id. The difference is that in TA, ego states are observable, conscious, and segregated from each other. The basis of transactional analysis is that each of us possess the three independent and observable ego states of child, adult, and parent. In the 1950's, founder Eric Berne asserted that these states are marked by experiences and emotions that relate to behavior patterns. In the child ego state, an individual acts emotionally as a child, regardless of his/or her chronological age, and in the adult ego state, unemotionally, using logic, and facts. The parent ego state includes behavior essentially reproducing the real parent and is the purview of morals, beliefs, and values. Someone operating in this parent state may want to influence, control, or judge others' development.

States:

1. Parent Ego State - tapes recorded from early relationships with care givers consisting of rules and caring.

2. Adult Ego State - aware of the outside world and uses logic; working with information and calculating dealing with problem solving.

3. Child Ego State - knows what is going on internally and is in touch with feelings.

TA calls units of communication between individuals transactions, of which there are two different levels, the overt social level and the covert psychological level. Counselors chart these transactions, showing both counselor and client how the client interacts with significant others. This pictorial didactic device depicts circles containing P(parent), C(child), and/or A(adult) connected by arrows illustrating the transaction. Arrows with solid lines stand for social transactions, while arrows with broken lines are psychological transactions. Three other kinds of transactions charted are complementary transaction (parallel arrows), which means direct, overt, and definite communication; transference transaction (crossed arrows), which is covert, with discussion on a specific topic quickly ending; and ulterior transaction (a solid-line arrow parallel to a broken-line arrow), indicating communication in which both overt and covert levels act at the same time. Interpreting this last "game" type calls for considering both the social level and its corresponding psychological message.

Transactional analysis posits that peoples' social interactions are seated in their need for recognition, satisfied by "strokes". Strokes are learned and are indispensable to personal growth. With familial variance from positive and approving to negative and disapproving to the apathy of their absence, these strokes shape personality. The system of stroking learned through interaction with others creates a person's sense of being okay or not okay, and of seeing others likewise. This patterning is the life script, depicted as an epogram.

The epogram holds five psychological forces which, according to their mixture, form the personality. The critical parent finds fault, makes and enforces rules, and seeks individual rights, whereas the nurturing parent promotes growth and development. The adult is non-judgmental, calm, and precise, while the free-child is spontaneous, eager, and creative; its opposite adapted-child is conforming, pliable, and easy to get along with.

Role of a TA Therapist:

Therapist and client are equal partners. The therapist brings the knowledge and has to bring about the changes requested by the client. Goals of TA Therapy:

The most important goal of TA is for the client to change his/or her decision and direction of life. They change this by gaining awareness of how their life script was being influenced by old decisions. TA therapists attempt to make clients autonomous by increasing awareness and spontaneity. They want the client to draw a life script based on the new decisions, not old ones. The client needs to recognize the ego state in which he/or she is functioning. Overall, TA seeks the right recipe for a well-balanced energy system, represented as a bell-shaped epogram showing a more or less normal distribution of energies from psychological forces. Time and energy extend to ego states, so that if time and energy increase in one state, they will decrease in another.

Techniques used in TA:

1. Contracts
2. Teaching concepts
3. Diagnosis
4. Confrontation
5. Empty Chair
6. Role playing
7. Family modeling