Essay about Transactional Analysis

There are three main integrated theories that explain delinquent behaviors committed by juveniles. They are the General Theory of Crime, the Social Process Theory, and the Interactional Theory. After researching each theory, I believe that Terence P. Thornberry's Interactional Theory best explains why children commit crimes. This essay will explain in great detail the Interactional theory and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.

Freud proposed the psychological structure of personality to include three systems called the id, the ego, and the superego. At birth, the id is the original system of personality and is ruled by the pleasure principle. It is driven towards satisfying instinctual needs. The ego can be described as a mediator between ones instincts and their surrounding environment. The ego is ruled by the reality principle, using realistic and logical thinking to formulate action plans for satisfying needs. The superego includes a person’s moral code and strives for perfection, not pleasure. Psychic energy is distributed between these three systems creating dynamics of personality. This psychic energy is what determines behavior (Day, 2008).

Third is the ego. The ego is the mediator. In the ego is hopefully found a balance of what one wants to do with what one ought to do. Without full development of all three facets of personality as theorized by Sigmund Freud, appropriate and moderate behavior cannot be achieved. The ego is different from the other two facets in that it is a subconscious and conscious operator, as well as a preconscious operator. This means that the ego is always in place, whether or not the person on whom the ego is acting is aware (Goldwater, 2010).

The structure of the mind is explained that the human mind could be divided into three major parts, the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious. The conscious mind represents the contents of the current awareness that focus on your attention at the moment. the preconscious mind is for thoughts and memories. the unconscious mind gathers all the memories, urges, and conflicts that are beyond awareness. The structure of personality consists of three parts, id, ego, and superego. Id means it that represents the portion of personality that consists of all the

The ego develops from the ‘id’ in the first few months. Babies might learn that by smiling in some situations they are more likely to get their needs met whilst in other situations it may be better to cry. In some situations the ego may make the id wait for its demands to be met. For example, a child may learn that if they snatch a cake from a tray they may have it taken away from them, but by waiting to be offered they will eventually get it. The term ’deferred gratification’ is used when this happens. The ego is often thought of as being the common sense part of our personalities.

Present day time, an individual without an ego is not an individual, but a person who can’t think for themselfs. A present day egoist is anyone with an opinion that can think freely. There is a problem with ego because if an individual has too much ego, then that individual is blinded with greed which will cause selfishness. An egoist can be a beneficial, artists are egoists, scientists are egoists, and entrepreneurs are egoists. Egoists are needed but egoists who go too far may cause the reputation of egoists to go

In similar cases a child must have faith in what their parent is telling the and believe in their better judgment. Wither it

adult because the juvenile’s brain is still under-developed and they do not have the same impulse

i. DEFINITION: a number of affiliated businesses which function simultaneously in different countries, are joined together by ties of common ownership of control, and are responsible to a common

Ego: In this second developmental stage, compromises in instinctive responses to environmental circumstances begin to develop. The ego mediates with the id by considering the rules of the real world and the consequences of actions taken in that world.

Our cognitive processes, such as how we think, remember, decide and perceive, change over time. There is a substantial difference between adult and adolescent thinking. Adult thinking differs in three ways from adolescent thinking: Practical, cognitive flexibility and dialectical thinking. Adults have more flexibility in their thought patterns, understanding that there are multiple opinions on issues, and that there is more than one way to approach a problem (Stassen Berger, 2014). Furthermore, the difference between adolescent and young adult reasoning is particularly obvious when it involves reasoning requiring the conjunction of emotion and logic.

Typically, children act without reasoning things out in the mature way that adults do (or can do); and they act much more out of immediate desires or passions rather than the rational desires that adults have Oaks (2012).

In T.A. the life-script is an important concept as all transactions, games, ego-states and the concepts they encompass relate to the re-enforcement of an individual’s life script. Berne defined life-script as;

First of all we start off with the structure of personality, which consists of 3 systems: the id, the ego & superego. Each and individual has their own functions such as the id, it starts from a person who is at birth and driven by the pleasure principle. They will be out of awareness and demand for something to be done. (Snowden, 2010, p.126) Adding on to the next system is the ego that begins to develop after birth. It makes decisions, controls the actions and solving problem. Lastly

Adults usually make most of the decisions for young children, but adolescents must make many decisions on their own. For example, when I was a child, my mother would choose what I would wear for school and what was in my lunch box. But now, I have to choose what I will wear, what I will eat, what kind of job I want to have and many more different decisions.