Understand Your Communication Style: The Transactional Analysis Assessment

Have you ever wondered why you react to certain people with immediate frustration, or why you feel strangely powerless in specific professional situations?

Transactional Analysis (TA), a psychological model developed by Dr Eric Berne, provides a fascinating ‘map’ of how we interact with others. It suggests that our personalities are made up of three distinct Ego States:

The Parent: The ‘taught’ concept of life—behaviours and attitudes we’ve inherited from authority figures.

The Adult: The ‘thought’ concept of life—our ability to stay objective, rational, and focused on the ‘here and now’.

The Child: The ‘felt’ concept of life—our internal library of emotions and reactions from our early years.

By identifying which state you are operating from, you can break old patterns, communicate more effectively, and build healthier relationships in both business and life.

Your Results

Upon completion, you will receive an immediate breakdown of your Ego State profile. This will highlight your dominant tendencies and offer insight into how you can strengthen your ‘Adult’ state for more effective leadership and clearer communication.

Your results are presented as a percentage for each individual Ego State. Each figure represents your score within that specific category alone.

If one state is 20% higher than the second highest state, it is considered your Dominant State—the primary lens through which you typically communicate. If your scores are more balanced, it indicates that you likely move subconsciously between these different states depending on the environment or the person you are interacting with.

Instructions

This assessment consists of 61 statements. There are no "right" or "wrong" answers—this is simply a tool for self-discovery. To get the most accurate result, please answer based on your natural inclinations and how you actually behave most of the time.

For each statement, please select one of the following:

Mostly Agree: If the statement generally describes your outlook or behaviour.

Mostly Disagree: If the statement generally does not reflect how you think or act.

To get started enter your email below and hit start. Free. Quick. Instant results!

Take approximately 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire and discover your internal blueprint.

The Parent Ego State: Your Internalised Authority

The Parent represents a massive collection of recordings in the brain consisting of external events and behaviours acquired from ‘significant’ authority figures during your childhood.

  • How it translates to you: When you are in your Parent state, you may find yourself using phrases like "you must", "always", or "never forget". You are essentially playing back the attitudes of your own parents, teachers, or mentors. This is divided into two facets:

    • Controlling Parent (CP): This can be Structuring (positive), providing helpful boundaries and standards, or Critical (negative), where you become bossy, dismissive, or finger-pointing.

    • Nurturing Parent (NP): This can be Supportive (positive), offering genuine care and encouragement, or Spoiling (negative), where you become "smothering" and take over tasks that others should do for themselves.

  • Consciously shifting your state: To improve communication, notice when your "Critical Parent" is triggered. If you feel a "should" or "ought" rising up, try to pivot towards the Structuring or Supportive aspects instead. Ask yourself: "Am I providing helpful guidance, or am I simply being judgmental?"

The Adult Ego State: Your Objective Processor

The Adult is the part of your personality that functions like a data-processor. It is characterised by detachment, clear thinking, and an interest in the "here and now" rather than the past.

  • How it translates to you: In this state, you are an information seeker, giver, and receiver. You are not judging (Parent) or reacting emotionally (Child); you are evaluating facts. The Adult is your most powerful tool because it is the only state capable of mediating between the other two. It allows you to determine action based on received data rather than "ingrained" conditioning.

  • Consciously shifting your state: You can "activate" your Adult by asking open-ended questions: Who, what, where, and why? If you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed by emotion or judgment, pause and ask for more information. This forces your brain to move away from autopilot recordings and back into the present moment.

The Child Ego State: Your Emotional Core

The Child is the recording of internal feelings and reactions to external events. It is the seeing, hearing, and feeling body of data from your early years that continues to impact your present-day behaviour.

  • How it translates to you: When anger, joy, or despair dominates your reason, your Child is in control. This is also split into two facets:

    • Free Child (FC): This can be Spontaneous (positive), showing curiosity and fun, or Immature (negative), appearing egocentric or selfish.

    • Adapted Child (AC): This is the part of you that modified its behaviour to get along with authority figures. It can be Cooperative (positive) and easy to work with, or Compliant/Rebellious (negative), where you simply "do as you're told" while feeling resentment, or rebel for the sake of it.

  • Consciously shifting your state: Recognise when you are "Adapted"—feeling small, powerless, or overly compliant in a meeting. To move out of this state, use your Adult to acknowledge the feeling without letting it drive the bus. Try to tap into the Spontaneous Free Child when you need creativity, but shift back to the Adult when you need to negotiate or solve a problem.