Psychologists for years have looked at the human mind or human personality as being divided into four domains or areas: the cognitive (thinking) domain, the affective (values and feelings) domain, behavioral (doing) domain and psycho-motor domain. These domains function independently of each other yet are influenced by each other. Only one domain can be in control at any one time although the switching from one to another, back and forth, goes so fast that it can seem like more than one is operating at the same time. If someone is working to understand a specific event, behavior or process of an individual, couple, or family it would be helpful to know which domain has been triggered and which one is directing the person at any one moment. This article will explore the basics in doing so.
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions: (1). If you say to yourself "I see by the price tag that they want $28,000 for this new car", you would be functioning in the cognitive domain. The cognitive domain is the thinking domain, the rational domain. Rational in this instance means "using information via logical processes; gathering facts and then using them to figure something out". People like to think that the cognitive domain is the best and most frequently utilized domain; research has showed that is not the case. For example, humans feel or value far more often then they think.
The affective domain includes the manner in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex two parts, valuing and feeling. When you are valuing, your belief(s) or preferences are leading your functioning. When you are emotional , your view is not rational, but based on your feelings. (2) Feelings, as they come from a separate domain can not be rational. There is nothing wrong with this, they are just a different and separate entity and process.Humans need both feelings and cognition. If you only had cognition, life would be very boring; imagine only having robot-like reactions.
The third domain is the behavioral or"doing" domain. "Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions,values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics. The behavior of people (and other organisms or even mechanisms) falls within a range with some behavior being common, some unusual, some acceptable, and some outside acceptable limits. In sociology, behavior in general is considered as having no meaning, being not directed at other people, and thus is the most basic human action. Behavior in this general sense should not be mistaken with social behavior, which is a more advanced action, as social behavior is behavior specifically directed at other people. The acceptability of behavior is evaluated relative to social norms and regulated by various means of social control."(3).
The psycho-motor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution. (4) The act of driving your new $28,000 car is one of use of your psycho-motor domain as you start, stop and turn the vehicle. You can quickly move into the other domains by saying: (1) "I'll pay this off in 3 years". (cognitive) (2) "Boy, isn't she a beauty?" (affective-feelings); (3) "I would rather go for a ride in my new car than do anything else." (affective:values) and (4) When you slip the gearbox into manual and quickly down shift through three gears, slowing down the car, that is "behavior". At the end of the downshifting, you then smile, as your psychic shifts into the affective domain.
Even with the above definitions and examples, it is difficult to figure out which domain is in use at any one time. However, there is another model that explains much the same thing and that is Transactional Analysis (TA). (5) which has been a well-utilized model since the mid-1960's. Two books, "Games People Play:The Psychology of Human Relationships,"1964 by Eric Bearne (6) and "I'm Ok-You're Ok", 1967, by Thomas Harris are two of the best selling self-help books ever published. Both were written as a practical guide to Transactional Analyis as a method for solving problems in life. From its first publication during 1967, the popularity of I'm OK, You're OK gradually increased until, during 1972, its name made the New York Times Best Seller list and remained there for almost two years. It is estimated by the publisher to have sold over 15 million copies to date and to have been translated into over a dozen languages (7).
This model has many critics, including Ian Stewart and Vann Joines who authored a new book in 1987 entitled "TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis" (8) In their book, they see the information presented below as an over-simplified model that "...says merely: 'When I am thinking, I'm in Adult. When I'm feeling, I'm in Child. When I'm making value judgements, I'm in Parent" (page 19). Their book goes on to offer an advanced version of that "over-simplified model" and related theories.
This Ego-state or Parent Adult Child (PAC) model is a beginning way to understand the human psychic and that there is more advanced theory to learn. However, many, many people have found it to be very helpful in understanding a specific situation or series of transactions. Thus it is offered here.
Transactional Analysis: Ego States
At any given time, a person experiences and manifests their personality through a mixture of behaviors, thoughts and feelings. Typically, according to TA, there are three ego-states that people consistently use:
Berne differentiated his Parent (P), Adult (A), and Child (C) ego-states from actual adults, parents, and children, by using capital letters when describing them. These ego-states may or may not represent the relationships that they act out. For example, in the workplace, an adult supervisor may take on the Parent role, and scold an adult employee as though they were a Child. Or a child, using their Parent ego-state, could scold their actual parent as though the parent were a Child. A person can be in any of these states during his/her lifetime, once (s)he develops to an appropriate stage. A new baby has little Adult, although (s) he has one. A person who gets drunk loses their Parent and then their Adult ego-state as they become more and more intoxicated. When they are really drunk, they are primarily relying on their Child ego-state.
Within each of these ego states (PAC) are subdivisions. Thus Parental figures are often either more nurturing (permission-giving, security-giving) or more criticizing (comparing to family traditions and ideals in generally negative ways); Childhood behaviors are either more natural (free) or more adapted to others. These subdivisions categorize individuals' patterns of behavior, feelings, and ways of thinking, that can be functional (beneficial or positive) or dysfunctional/counterproductive (negative).(10).
To read more in general about other major theoritcal concepts of TA, such as: (1) Transactions and Strokes; (2) Kinds of transactions; (3) Phenomena behind the transactions; (4) Ways of time structuring;(11). (5) Games and their analysis; (6) Other References., see the Wikipedia article on Transactional Analysis (12).
References
(1) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition).
(2) (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#affective).
(3) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_behavior).
(4) (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#affective).
(5) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis)
(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_(book)
(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_OK,_You're_OK).
(8) (Ian Stewart, Vann Joines - TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis ISBN 1870244001.
(9) http://en.wilkipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_Analysus.
(10) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis.
(11) See the companion article to this one listed as "Relationships and Time Structuring: A Typology" located in this website.
(12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis.
Copyrighted 2012: Cogswell-Cousert Consulting.
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions: (1). If you say to yourself "I see by the price tag that they want $28,000 for this new car", you would be functioning in the cognitive domain. The cognitive domain is the thinking domain, the rational domain. Rational in this instance means "using information via logical processes; gathering facts and then using them to figure something out". People like to think that the cognitive domain is the best and most frequently utilized domain; research has showed that is not the case. For example, humans feel or value far more often then they think.
The affective domain includes the manner in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex two parts, valuing and feeling. When you are valuing, your belief(s) or preferences are leading your functioning. When you are emotional , your view is not rational, but based on your feelings. (2) Feelings, as they come from a separate domain can not be rational. There is nothing wrong with this, they are just a different and separate entity and process.Humans need both feelings and cognition. If you only had cognition, life would be very boring; imagine only having robot-like reactions.
The third domain is the behavioral or"doing" domain. "Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions,values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics. The behavior of people (and other organisms or even mechanisms) falls within a range with some behavior being common, some unusual, some acceptable, and some outside acceptable limits. In sociology, behavior in general is considered as having no meaning, being not directed at other people, and thus is the most basic human action. Behavior in this general sense should not be mistaken with social behavior, which is a more advanced action, as social behavior is behavior specifically directed at other people. The acceptability of behavior is evaluated relative to social norms and regulated by various means of social control."(3).
The psycho-motor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution. (4) The act of driving your new $28,000 car is one of use of your psycho-motor domain as you start, stop and turn the vehicle. You can quickly move into the other domains by saying: (1) "I'll pay this off in 3 years". (cognitive) (2) "Boy, isn't she a beauty?" (affective-feelings); (3) "I would rather go for a ride in my new car than do anything else." (affective:values) and (4) When you slip the gearbox into manual and quickly down shift through three gears, slowing down the car, that is "behavior". At the end of the downshifting, you then smile, as your psychic shifts into the affective domain.
Even with the above definitions and examples, it is difficult to figure out which domain is in use at any one time. However, there is another model that explains much the same thing and that is Transactional Analysis (TA). (5) which has been a well-utilized model since the mid-1960's. Two books, "Games People Play:The Psychology of Human Relationships,"1964 by Eric Bearne (6) and "I'm Ok-You're Ok", 1967, by Thomas Harris are two of the best selling self-help books ever published. Both were written as a practical guide to Transactional Analyis as a method for solving problems in life. From its first publication during 1967, the popularity of I'm OK, You're OK gradually increased until, during 1972, its name made the New York Times Best Seller list and remained there for almost two years. It is estimated by the publisher to have sold over 15 million copies to date and to have been translated into over a dozen languages (7).
This model has many critics, including Ian Stewart and Vann Joines who authored a new book in 1987 entitled "TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis" (8) In their book, they see the information presented below as an over-simplified model that "...says merely: 'When I am thinking, I'm in Adult. When I'm feeling, I'm in Child. When I'm making value judgements, I'm in Parent" (page 19). Their book goes on to offer an advanced version of that "over-simplified model" and related theories.
This Ego-state or Parent Adult Child (PAC) model is a beginning way to understand the human psychic and that there is more advanced theory to learn. However, many, many people have found it to be very helpful in understanding a specific situation or series of transactions. Thus it is offered here.
Transactional Analysis: Ego States
At any given time, a person experiences and manifests their personality through a mixture of behaviors, thoughts and feelings. Typically, according to TA, there are three ego-states that people consistently use:
- Parent: a state in which people behave, feel, and think in response to an unconscious mimicking of how their parents (or other parental figures) acted, or how they interpreted their parent's actions. For example, a person may shout at someone out of frustration because they learned from an influential figure in childhood the lesson that this seemed to be a way of relating that worked.
- Adult: a state of the ego which is most like a computer processing information and making predictions absent of major emotions that could affect its operation. Learning to strengthen the Adult is a goal of TA. While a person is in the Adult ego state, he/she is directed towards an objective appraisal of reality.
- Child: a state in which people behave, feel and think similarly to how they did in childhood. For example, a person who receives a poor evaluation at work may respond by looking at the floor, and crying or pouting, as they used to when scolded as a child. Conversely, a person who receives a good evaluation may respond with a broad smile and a joyful gesture of thanks. The Child is the source of emotions, creation, recreation, spontaneity and intimacy (9).
Berne differentiated his Parent (P), Adult (A), and Child (C) ego-states from actual adults, parents, and children, by using capital letters when describing them. These ego-states may or may not represent the relationships that they act out. For example, in the workplace, an adult supervisor may take on the Parent role, and scold an adult employee as though they were a Child. Or a child, using their Parent ego-state, could scold their actual parent as though the parent were a Child. A person can be in any of these states during his/her lifetime, once (s)he develops to an appropriate stage. A new baby has little Adult, although (s) he has one. A person who gets drunk loses their Parent and then their Adult ego-state as they become more and more intoxicated. When they are really drunk, they are primarily relying on their Child ego-state.
Within each of these ego states (PAC) are subdivisions. Thus Parental figures are often either more nurturing (permission-giving, security-giving) or more criticizing (comparing to family traditions and ideals in generally negative ways); Childhood behaviors are either more natural (free) or more adapted to others. These subdivisions categorize individuals' patterns of behavior, feelings, and ways of thinking, that can be functional (beneficial or positive) or dysfunctional/counterproductive (negative).(10).
To read more in general about other major theoritcal concepts of TA, such as: (1) Transactions and Strokes; (2) Kinds of transactions; (3) Phenomena behind the transactions; (4) Ways of time structuring;(11). (5) Games and their analysis; (6) Other References., see the Wikipedia article on Transactional Analysis (12).
References
(1) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition).
(2) (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#affective).
(3) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_behavior).
(4) (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#affective).
(5) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis)
(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_(book)
(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_OK,_You're_OK).
(8) (Ian Stewart, Vann Joines - TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis ISBN 1870244001.
(9) http://en.wilkipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_Analysus.
(10) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis.
(11) See the companion article to this one listed as "Relationships and Time Structuring: A Typology" located in this website.
(12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis.
Copyrighted 2012: Cogswell-Cousert Consulting.
To learn all about Transactional Analysis from the model's originator himself, Dr. Eric Berne, watch these two videos:
