PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION AND TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS:
Over the years, a number of scholars interested in language-thought-behaviour relationships have formulated
principles that are designed to assist us in overcoming some of the obstacles to effective interpersonal
communication that could result from a misunderstanding of the way language influences us.
One of the most accessible theories of modern psychology, Transactional Analysis (TA), propounded by Eric
Berne (1961) highlights the connection between language behaviour and interpersonal communication
process in simple and comprehensible way. It encompasses communications, management, personality,
relationships and behaviour. Eric Berne said that verbal communication, particularly face-to-face
(interpersonal in nature), is at the centre of human social relationships and psychoanalysis. Transactional
analysis is a social psychology and method to improve communication. This theory outlines how we develop
and treat ourselves when we relate and communicate with others.
The unit of social intercourse is called a transaction. If two or more people encounter each
other… sooner or later one of them will speak, or give some other indication of
acknowledging the presence of the others. This is called transactional stimulus. Another
person will then say or do something which is in someway related to the stimulus, and that
is called the transactional response (p.79).
According to Berne, each person is made up of three alter ego states. They are: Parent (our ingrained voice
of authority), Child (our external reaction and feelings to external events) and Adult (our ability to think and
determine action for ourselves). “Ego states” in terms of Berne: A consistent pattern of feeling and
experience directly related to a corresponding consistent pattern of behaviour (p.84).
The essence of Transactional Analysis lies in the principle that when we communicate we are doing so from one
of our own alter ego states, our Parent, Child and Adult. Based on the state we send the stimulus or response. The
person communicating the stimulus is called the agent. The person who responds is called the respondent.
The parent is our voice of authority, learnt and acquired attitudes we have developed through our life. The parent
is the massive collection of recordings in the brain of external events experienced and perceived during our
childhood. As per the view of psychologists, the majority of the external events experienced by the children are
imitations of parents, relatives, teachers and neighbours. This ego state is appropriately called parent. In contrast
to the parent, the child is formed by our internal reaction and feelings to external events in the childhood. Our
adult is our innate ability to think and determine our actions and communication based on the data received.
Berne describes adult as being …principally concerned with transforming stimuli into pieces of information, and
processing and filing that information on the basis of previous experience (p.92). In other words, parent is our
taught concept of life; adult is our thought concept of life; child is our felt concept of life. These three states can
be used to understand and analyze human behaviour. This concept has been also discussed extensively in Dr.
Berne’s popular book: Games People Play (1964).
Transactional Analysis is a language within a language: a language of true meaning, feeling, behaviour and motive.
It can help us in every situation, firstly through being able to understand more clearly what is going on. Secondly by
virtue of this knowledge, we give ourselves choices of what ego states to adopt, which signals to send, and where to
send them. This will enable us to create, develop and maintain better relationships through communication. Thus the
core of Berne’s theory helps us in developing effective interpersonal communication skills.