CHA RACT ER ED UC AT IO N
Models of behaviour in
Character Education:
Transactional Analysis
Hugh McCormick, Head of Economics
Psychologists have studied teaching and learning for
more than a century, looking for ways to enhance adult
understanding of young people in the context of a
school community. A teacher has many thousands of
interactions with over a hundred young people each day.
Despite the array of characters and case studies at our
disposal, it is unusual to receive training in personality
types and educational psychology. Therefore we all
have an opportunity to make a significant impact with
practical work that enhances understanding of individual
and group character. And this opportunity is enhanced
by the passion many teachers feel for what is the most
rewarding part of the job: to foster healthy, pro-social
characteristics in our young people. In short, we love
to engage in character education, and learning new
skills will help us do so. My research interest focuses on
practical models of behaviour that can clarify and enrich
our interactions with young people. One of these models
is Transactional Analysis.
Transactional Analysis
A school of psychology that became popular in the
1950s, Transactional Analysis describes every human
interaction as a transaction between two or more
individuals. According to the model, each individual
can occupy three discrete psychological states –
Parent, Adult, Child – and can occupy multiple states
simultaneously.
P Parent ego state: behaviours, thoughts and
A Adult ego state: behaviours, thoughts and feelings
C Child ego state: behaviours, thoughts and feelings
feelings copied from parental figures; recordings
of external events.
that are direct responses to events today; responses
to the needs of the current situation.
replayed from childhood; recordings of internal events.
Our inner Parent consists in innumerable recordings of
external events that occurred during childhood, most
frequently the behaviour of our parents. We imbibed
what our parents told us and remembered these
dictates as rules that must be obeyed. Our Parent then
regurgitates these rules, often unquestioningly, as moral
commands to others in a ‘should’ voice: ‘you ought to be
doing your homework’; ‘you shouldn’t be wasting money
on that’; ‘no pudding unless you eat your greens’. The
Parent talks downwards, imposes and enforces rules and
feels superior. The Parent also has assets, in particular
useful habits and guidelines that increase productivity
and safety and promote moral conduct.
Our inner Child consists in innumerable recordings of
internal events that occurred during childhood. So vivid
and strong were those feelings that we stored them up.
The Child relies upon moral absolutes (‘must’) in order
to wrestle some predictability and control from a world
that feels domineering and frightening: ‘that’s against
the rules’; ‘you can’t do this to me’; ‘everyone’s out to
get me’. The Child talks upwards and feels inferior. The
Child’s assets are creativity, spontaneity and wonder.
Our inner Adult processes real world data in an objective
fashion to reach a considered judgement, and responds
to the needs of the present situation rather than
according to feelings of inferiority or superiority, or
learned habits. The Adult talks horizontally and outwards.
Importantly, the Adult’s self-esteem is based on a clear
assessment of their moral equality, their power to make
choices for themselves, and their right to belong – a
mixture of Rousseau and Nietzsche.
Therefore someone can be transacting with you as an
Adult – they ask you, ‘What time is it?’ – and also as
a Parent talking to a Child since their ulterior meaning
might be, ‘You shouldn’t be late for the lesson’. On the
other hand, when they ask ‘What time is it?’ they might
instead be transacting as a Child stating to a Parent,
‘The lesson must end on time.’ This is known as the PAC
model. A clue about which state is dominant in a person
at a given moment is whether they are speaking or
acting out a ‘should’ statement, a ‘must’ statement, or
an evaluative statement.
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