The impact of ego states of parent , adult and child on the professional choice of teachers

The article uses an empirical approach examining the role of ego-states in the choice of pedagogical professionals. 174 students were involved in the study that aims to show the discrepancies of the states of Parent, Child and Adolescence for choice of speciality and future work. The study subjects were provided with a Transactional Analysis Questionnaire (TAQ, 2014) and Thomas – Killman Con ict Mode Instrument (TKI, 1974).


Introduction
This article represents a study that was conducted with the students from pedagogical specialties in the University of Ruse "Angel Kanchev", in the city of Ruse, Bulgaria.It aims to reveal the impact of Ego states on choice of pedagogical work among the youth and the trend of education in humanities and social studies and their connection to the con ict mode behaviour in the students (Barrow, Bradshaw, & Newton, 2001;Hellaby, 2004;Stuart, & Alger, 2011;Stewart, & Joines, 1987).In the study, we used a Transactional Analysis Questionnaire (TAQ, 2014) to examine if there is a trend in the students in pedagogical specialties to have more provident Parent and Child Ego-states compared to their peers in other specialties that can help them easily to envoke the conditions that will allow them to enter in pedagogical work as their subject and object.According to the orthodox theory of transactional analysis introduced by Eric Berne and Thomas Haris (Berne, 1964;Haris, 1973) in the 1960's the state of Adult provides the most favourable and adequate behavioural reactions that could be applied in all situations.Nowadays, some authors accentuate the necessity of all the states to be distributed equaly, which could allow the individual to display different Ego -states for current situations -for example love and joy in Child, calculating and resolving con icts for Adult and nurturing and organizing for Parent.doi: 10.15503/jecs20172.177.192Today, few authors stress the necessity of realising the empirical analysis of the distribution of the Ego States of Parent, Adult and Child among teachers in different stages of the educational system.This will reveal their role for communication and con ict management in the classroom.The trend for application of the theory and methods of transactional analysis into school practices started in the 1970's.Since then, several practicioners have had good results in schools in UK and USA, especially in the process of learning, teaching and communication between teachers and students (Barrow, Bradshaw, & Newton, 2001;Stewart, & Joines, 1987).Thus, the application of transactional analysis gives a well-structured theoretical and empirical framework for assessing of the Ego states that are involved in the educational process with the personality of the teacher, and what should be the main focus in current research.
The second aim of the study was to evaluate the correlation between con ict mode and Ego states.We used Thomas -Killman Con ict Mode Instrument (TKI, 1974) and compared the data with results from TAQ (2014) to see the distribution of the strategies for coping in the con icts among students from pedagogical and other specialties in the University of Ruse "Angel Kanchev."The empirical tasks here were to see how Parent, Child and Adult will be displayed in concrete behaviour in con icts that are often spared situations in the pedagogical work.The ndings from both instruments -TAQ and TKI, will give us a framework for future theoretical and empirical studies in the eld of professional growth of the teachers and will allow us to undertake policies and methods for assessment and development of the professional skills and competences of the students at the university.

Aplication of transactional analysis in educational and school practices
Transactional analysis (TA) was introduced as a psychoanalytical theory of the human psyche and behaviour in 1964 with the famous books Games People Play of Eric Berne (Berne, 1964) and I'm OK -You're OK of Thomas Harris (Harris, 1967).Since then the main theoretical and practical principles have been used widely in group and family psychotherapy.TA has a scienti c fundamental, precise focus of research and clear conceptual frame.Many of the terms from TA come in daily communication between people as Ego-states Parent, Child and Adult.As an easily understood and applicable approach, TA has huge potential for description and control of human behaviour.Thus, it can offer to the teachers skills for identi cation, portrayal, classi cation, analysis and improvement in the elds of decision making, testing, assessment of alternatives and self-awareness (Campos & MkCormik, 1972).This psychotherapeutic paradigm gained success in Western Europe and America with the accent on the idea "I am OK" as an itinerary towards the effective communication with Others who are also OK.
Transactional Analysis was developed by Eric Berne, who de ned his approach as 'a theory of personality and a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth and change' (Stewart, & Joines, 1987, p.3).The theory and practice with the terms and games from TA provide data on promoting communication skills as 'transactions' referring to the communication exchanges which take place between people.TA can assist teachers in all educational systems to enhance their competence to direct transactions which occur within the classroom setting, thus creating a constructive outcome for both themselves and their learners as Kate Ashcroft and Lorraine Foreman-Peck (1994) observe where there is a basis for the conicts and misunderstanding in human interactions.This allows teachers to derive more sense from the behaviour they see taking place around them and will ultimately allow them to assist their students more effectively and successfully.
Transactional analysis has been applied to the needs of school and educational psychology since the 1970's.TA in Pedagogy was introduced by Trudy Newton and Giles Barrow who used practical aspects from this psychotherapeutic approach in schools (Steward, & Agar, 2011).The aim of TA is to enhance the level of awareness for the bene ts of its application in the process of learning, teaching and interactions between students and the teacher (Steward, & Agar, 2011).For example, in 2001, Giles Barrow, Emma Bradshaw and Trudi Newton used the principles of TA in the classroom for enhancement of self-esteem and choice of adequate behavioral reactions through communication improvement (Barrow, Bradshaw, & Newton, 2001).They offered different ways and strategies for application of the theoretical and practical principles of TA that can be used in individual and group educational forms.Linda Hellaby (Hellaby, 2004) claimed that, in primary school application of TA improves the behaviour that leads to more successful educational surroundings because of higher self-esteem and academic standards.She used various models of TA as rocket strokes and Ego-states.
Since the 70's, TA has been successfully applied in school practice for: • Development of leadership skills, planning of educational processes and interactions between students and teachers in high school, after the training of the educators in the principles of TA; • Supervision of teachers at schools in South London based on the process of TA, using three-cycled negotiation, cycles of development, the main games and determination of the Ego-states; • A secondary school in London stressing negotiation as main tool in de nition of expectations and the idea of the dramatic triangle for description of the characteristics and motives for behaviour of children.The result is the improved cooperation between teachers, students and parents.Berne outlines Ego states as 'a consistent pattern of feeling and experience directly related to a corresponding consistent pattern of behaviour' (Berne 1966, cited in Stewart 1992, p. 12).According to this de nition, the personality of the individual is made up of three different ego states: Parent, Adult and Child, that represent certain types of behaviour.Claude Steiner (1994, p. 27) explains that "The Parent, Adult and Child differ from the ego, superego and id in that they are all manifestations of the ego.Thus, they represent visible behaviour rather than hypothetical constructs.Each of us will express behaviour from all three ego states at times, and a healthy and balanced person will display behaviour equally from all three states, although it is true that many people will allow one (or possibly two) particular ego states to dominate them over the others".
The state of Parent is activated or dominates in situations when the memories from childhood lead to in uence of actions and taboos that the mothers and fathers gave to an individual.The parent could be controlling or nurturing, maybe both.The impact of the Parent state on the human psyche comes from early childhood (till 5 years old age) and is expressed in the commands or the organizing and protective style to others.Examples of the realm in the Parent include: "Never talk to strangers"; "Always chew with your mouth closed"; "Look both ways before you cross the street"; but sometimes is connected with more radical stereotypes and prejudgments of people.
The Adult state is acquired when the child begins to exhibit gross motor activity and needs to access the discrepancies between the emotions coming from the Child and taboos from the Parent states.From this comes the main role of the Adult to be objective, calculating and computing facts from external and internal surroundings.
The Child state is connected with natural, emotional and instinctive expression of the inner world.In contrast to the Parent, the Child represents the recordings in the brain of internal events that often lead to different kinds of emotion that overcontrol the situations in our life.Like the Parent, recordings in the Child occur from childbirth all the way up to the age of approximately 5 years old.
Different Ego states could be activated in various situations where they could be fully expressed.An individual should maintain a balance between all three ego states.Sometimes, the balance could be disturbed by additional two states in Parent and Child.Parent becomes Controlling Parent (negative, critical and unsupportive) or Nurturing Parent (helpful, comforting and supportive), and Child becomes Adapted Child (restrained behaviour, learned in response to others reactions -we are demonstrating that we know how to behave) or Natural Child (spontaneous and creative, yet rebellious) (Hay, 1996, p. 81).
Ego states of people enter in complementary and crossed transactions that must be assessed by teachers and used in the classroom.A comlementary transaction occurs when the communication is realised between same states, or when the sender of the transaction is given the intended response from the recipient.The negative form of communication could be seen in crossed trans-actions, when people use different Ego states that are incompatible: Adaptive Child vs Controlling Parent, Adult to Controlling Parent, Natural Child to Nurturing Parent.
This must be assessed by the teachers when they control own or students' behaviour in the classroom.For example, when the teachers dealing with conict within the classroom, they need to adopt the Adult ego state and be able to recognise the ego states of their students.Teachers should also be able to identify the psychological games which students may play when they are in the Child ego state, and should consequently try to teach students to operate within the Adult.Furthermore, if a teacher is in the Parent ego state and a student is in the Child, a con ict will surely arise.

Objectives
Our aim was to examine if the go States Parent, Adult and Child have in uence on professional choices and behavioral characteristics of the students who are studying Pedagogy in "Angel Kanchev" University of Ruse.In realization of this goal, the study was oriented towards four experimental tasks: a) to nd presence or absence in distribution of Ego states in the personality of the respondents; b) to reveal gender differences in this distribution; c) to demonstrate a domination of Adult and Child in the pedagogue's personality structure compared to results of students from other specialities; d) to prove the correlation between Ego states and con ict coping strategies.
The main research hypothesis of the current study is that positive relationship exists between more vigorous states of Adult and/or Child and professional choice of pedagogical work with children.It comes from the orthodox assumption that both states rely on the memories and hidden emotions from childhood and impact directly on the behaviour and communication of the individual (Berne, 1964;Haris, 1973).In this way, the person who is working in an educative process with the pupils can realize his/her state as subject (Parent) or object (Child) of pedagogical activity.In the second study, the correlation between ego-states and the con ictcoping strategies was tested -competing, avoiding, accommodating, compromising and collaborating.
Our main hypothesis were: a) all respondents, regardless of their professional choice or gender, will demonstrate harmonic development and shifts between the ego-states, as the sample is composed of young people between 19-25 years old who have crystalized their identity status (Erikson, 1968); b) there will not be gender differences in the sample; b) students who are studying a pedagogical speciality, will have more provident Adult and Child states; d) there will be positive correlation between competing and compromising and Parent; between accommodating and avoiding with Child and between compromising and collaborating with Adult.

Participants
The research was divided into two studies: 1) Study 1 -examination of distribution of the Ego states; 2) Study 2 -measuring the correlation between conict management strategies and Ego-states.
In Study 1, 174 students -139 women and 35 men -aged between 19 -and 25-years old participated.They are studying in a regular, full-time form of education at the university from specialities from Preschool and Primary School Pedagogy, Primary School Pedagogy and Foreign Language, Social Pedagogy, Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Language and History, Marketing, Economics and International Economic Relations.The prevalence of female gender emanates from the feminine pro le of the pedagogical specialties -a strong tendency in time and in national caliber.The sample is divided into experimental (pedagogical specialties, n=91) and control group (other specialties, n=83).
In Study 2, with 78 of participants, the rst research was conducted using Thomas -Killman Con ict Mode Instrument (TKI, 1974).The pro le of the sample includes: 5 men and 73 women, 40 students from pedagogical and 38 students from other specialities.

Measures
Transactional Analysis Questionnaire (TAQ).In Study I, a Transactional Analysis Questionnaire was used as publicized on the website as the method for assessment in the handbook for health consultants and educators from Bradford GP Training Scheme.The TAQ was designed in 2014 for the practical needs for application of TA in the work with patients.It contains 61 items, which are presented as closed questions.The TAQ has three scales and two subscales: Parent, with the subscales Nurturing Parent (protectiveness, caring, indulgent) and Controlling Parent (organizing, monitoring, critical); Adult and Child.The scores in the scales are converted into percentages that are expressed in a special Ego-gram where the distribution of Ego-states is presented.The questionnaire's authors accept that the highest percentage score of the three scores indicates the particular Ego State mostly used by an individual.If there is a difference of twenty or more percentage points between the highest and the second highest score, this means that the highest scoring Ego State is the dominant ego state.If there is less than twenty percentage points difference, there is a likelihood that the person will switch back and forth between Ego States without being consciously aware of this switch.
Thomas-Killman Con ict Mode Instrument (TKI, 1974).The second study was provided with TKI of Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Killman.The TKI is a selfscoring assessment that takes about fteen minutes to complete.It contains 30 items with choice from a) and b), where the ve scales of Competing, Avoiding, Accommodating, Compromising and Collaborating are derived.The scores are then compared and show the assertive and collaborative mode of con ict resolving.

Procedure
The study was conducted in three stages: a. Study 1 -conducting of the testing with TAQ with 174 students between ages 19-25 years old.The questionnaire was presented by one researcher in different specialities in the University of Ruse, all of which with pedagogical pro le -Preschool and Primary School Pedagogy, Primary School Pedagogy and Foreign Language and Social Pedagogy, and other specialties -Bulgarian Language and History, Mathematics and Informatics, Marketing, Economics and International Economic Relations; b.Study 2 -91 participants from the samples from Study 1 covered the TKI; c. statistical assessment -the data gathered with both instruments was analyzed with SPSS software.

Study 1.
The rst experimental task of the current research is to test the scores from TAQ' scales of the respondents in the whole sample, regardless of their gender or speciality.It aims to reveal tendencies in youth for distribution of Ego-states and their impact on behaviour and communication in this age period.Table 1 are represents the statistical data from the raw scores.Figure 1 shows the Ego-gram of the sample (n=174), where the scores were converted into percentages.There is distinct prevalence of the scale of Parent with 94 % and scores of M=17.68,SD = 3.202.The diffusion in this score is high, so it means that respondents nominated the items in this scale in different notes.The subscales of Controlling and Nurturing Parent show close results -M= 8.14, SD = 2.236 and M = 9.55, SD = 1.582.These scores show that respondents approximately more often chose the protection and nurturing as more de ning than controlling and organizing.This fact opens the discussion for other issues -if the nurturing, hyperprotective style of parenting was more provident in the past of the respondents and how this will re ect of their communicative skills.The second rated score is for the scale Child with 74 % -primary data of M= 10.92, SD= 2.566.The respondents rarely picked out the items connected with the scale Adult -55 %, M=12.31 and SD = 6,331.The Ego-gram of the sample shows that there is not a harmonic distribution between the Ego-states and respondents in early adulthood still have some residual rudiments from childhood and adolescence.The objective, mature and compromising state is still not developed enough to be used in communication and behaviour as a co-partner of other states.Thus, my hypothesis for the rst experimental task is declined.The next step in statistical analysis is to examine the in uence of gender stereotypes onto Ego-states distribution.In Table 2 and Figure 2 show descriptive characteristics and percentages for both sexes.The statistical data from the research displays the relative equality between scores in the scale Adult (54 % for women, M=12.27,SD=2,559 and 56 % for men, M=12.46,SD=2.408).These scores are lowest for both samples.In this stage of empirical research, the statistical analysis showed signi cant difference with quotient of Pearson between the scales for Parent and Child of both sexes (Table 4).The most provident contrast is in the scale Child, where the female participants represent more eminent results than their male peers (89 %, M=11.22,SD=2.522 compared to 60 %, M=9.71, SD=2.408).There is a difference between the results for Parent also -97 % for women, M=18.27,SD=2.820 and 79 % for men, M=15.34,SD=3.581.The subscales in Parent scale also contain interesting differences

Ego-gram
where the young women showed more provident controlling and nurturing state than men.This is not surprising because of the well-known mother instinct of women, that could appear early in the ontogenesis.In this way, my hypothesis for equality between Ego-states of both sexes also was renounced.

Ego-gram with percentages of both sexes
Source: own research The most important empirical task of this study is to evaluate the impact of Ego-states for speciality choices of students.Table 3 and Figure 3 represent the statistical data and Ego-gram of students, who chose to study in pedagogical or other speciality.For the aims of the research the scores of experimental and control group were veri ed with quotient of Pearson for correlation (Table 4).The students from the experimental group (pedagogical specialities, n=91) have minor differences in three Ego-States with control group (other specialities, n= 83) that have not statistical signi cance.The future teachers have higher results on the scales Parent with both subscales and Child and lower for Adult.Thus, the research hypothesis that students, who choose the pedagogical profession, have more active Parent and Child states is rejected.This leads to different kind of questions for future empirical work: •

Study 2.
The aim of second study was to test the correlations between the Egostates, speciality choice and strategies for coping with the con icts.There is enough evidence that the Ego-states could be provoked when an individual engages in communication that requires them to make decisions and hold interactions under pressure (Berne, 1964).Eric Berne and Thomas Harris (Berne, 1964;Harris, 1973) pointed out that the crossed transactions between different states lead to con icts and misunderstandings between people.They claimed that the only Ego-state that is capable of an objective and placid manner of communication is Adult.The scores from Study 1 showed that the state of Adult is less disturbed than the other two states.This means that participants in this study will reveal con ict or accommodating style compared to collaborating styles.
The Ralf Killman and Keneth Thomas' scheme (Killman, & Thomas, 1974) divides human behaviour in con ict situations into ve styles: 1) Competingassertive and uncooperative style where the individual pursues his/her own concern no matter what the ideas and problems of others.It is a "win-lose" position, which is power-oriented, aggressive, arguing and defending.It often leads to misunderstanding and the con ict becomes ever bigger; 2) Accommodating -unassertive and cooperative style where the individual neglects his/ her own concerns to satisfy others.There is often self-sacri ce that resolves the current con ict but leads to a sense of frustration and does not give the chance for the person to realize his/her ideas and desires; 3) Avoiding -unassertive and uncooperative style where the individual neither pursues his own concerns nor those of the other individuals.Usually it is displayed as sidestepping and avoiding of con ict.Thus the person does not deal with the con ict; 4) Compromising -moderate style in both assertiveness and cooperativeness.The objective is to nd some expedient, mutually acceptable solution that partially satis es both parties; 5) Collaborating -both assertive and cooperative style that is searching for the nding of the solution and work with others that fully satis es their concerns.
The forth research hypothesis was that Ego states of Parent will be connected positively with Competing, Child -with Accommodating and/or Avoiding, and Adult with Compromising and Collaborating.

Source: own research
There is no statistically signi cant difference between the sample formed by speciality choice either (Table 5).The results of both groups differ with one percent, which means that they use comparatively equal con ict mode styles.
Compared to the results from the st study where Parent and Child were the dominant states, we can partially accept the hypothesis for in uence of the child states on reactions of the participants in the sample in the con ict situations.
The correlation quotient of Pearson (Table 6) demonstrates that the Parent state has statistically signi cant negative correlations with Collaborating and Accommodating styles, and positive -with Compromising.Although there is no clear connection between Competing and Parent there is enough evidence that participants with high scores on this scale avoid cooperation and still count on their needs even if they have particular results from con ict.The results from Study 1 showed that a Nurturing Parent is more disturbed than Controlling so this could effect the scores on TKI.
An interesting correlation could be seen in the Adult scale where the participants in the study showed positive correlation with Competing and negative -with Accommodating.This fact rejects my hypothesis that individuals with Adult state will choose more cooperating styles that will satisfy the needs of both sides.At the same time, the Adult scale is the lowest from all states so maybe this could re ect on the scores.
There is not any signi cant correlation between the Child state and all conict mode styles.Source: own research

Discussion
The results from statistical analysis of the scores from applying of TAQ and TKI in all samples showed the following tendencies: Students in all samples independently from their speciality choice and gender have shown more dominant Parent and Child state.It could be accepted that in the sample with participants in early adulthood they have not developed the state of Adult which activates often in their behaviour and communication in these states that comes from roles which were in their childhood (Berne, 1964).There is no harmonic distribution between Egostates that means that students do not switch their states easily, which could lead often to con icts and/or inner psychological pressure (Steiner, 1994).This fact maybe is predestined from the unstable identity and self-concept that is affected from value pressure and dynamic change (Alipieva, 2015;Baychinska, 2000); The only statistically signi cant differences from TAQ are in undependable variable "gender," except in the scale Adult where the both samples have comparatively equal scores.There are differences in Parent state, where the female participants showed more provident Controlling and male -Nurturing styles.The reasons for this fact need to be tested in future study on gender roles and stereotypes, differences in upbringing and socialization between boys and girls in families, ways of coping with daily tasks, etc.The students -men in the current research presented less dominant Child state too.In the classical de nition this state is connected with emotionality, submission, fantasy and friskiness (Berne, 1964;Harris, 1973).The gender role they to be more rational and unemotional re ect on their behaviour and communication.The women used more corrective and controlling styles of the Parent that are also emotionally affected; There were slightly insigni cant differences between the Ego state's distribution of the students from pedagogical and other specialities.The students with pedagogical pro le display slightly higher scores for Parent and Child and lower for Adult.This fact denies the hypothesis that Ego states impacted their speciality choice.I think the slight difference comes from the meeting with the pupils in their educational practice.Moreover, it is a disturbing fact that their Adult state is not developed enough to resolve the con icts, instruction and decision making in the classroom in the future effectively and appropriately (Campos, & MkCormik, 2006).This shows the necessity for special educational programs in the university that use the principles of TA to improve their styles of behaviour and communication; The distribution of mode styles among the pedagogical and other specialities has same portrayal also.The more dominant Accommodating and Avoiding styles show ineffective strategies for realization of own ideas and dependence on others (Thomas, & Killman, 1974).The correlative analysis presented interesting correlation between Parent and Adult states that particularly accept my hypothesis for more con ict strategies for Parent but declined the ideas for Adult as more cooperative.At the same time the sample showed low results for Adult state, which means that its role is suspicious.This leads to the question whether the con ict mode styles are really connected with Ego-states.

Conclusion
The results from the empirical research with TAQ and TKI showed stabile trends of dominant states of Parent and Child in the sample.The scores of the students from pedagogical specialities showed non-signi cant results in applying of both instruments.This leads to the conclusion that distribution of the Ego states is not signi cant for the choice of pedagogical work.At the same time, the results from both studies revealed some empirical issues that should be resolved in the bachelor and master education.Low Adult state and prominent Accomadating and Avoiding styles indicate that young people cannot always make adequate decisions and protect their needs and those of organizations in con ict situations.This leads to the need for politics and methods for assessment and development of the skills for identifying and coping with the Ego states, leadership, self-awareness and self-control.
Despites the inconclusive results from this study, it can be inferred that transactional analysis applies a universal model for description and modi cation of human behaviour.This approach does not differ between the adult/ teacher and child/student reactions.It gives a frame that is based on interaction aspects of education identifying the inner process in all individuals in the classroom.TA gives an optimistic perspective for the teachers to create successful educational surroundings that are oriented to personal growth of their students.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Percentages of the scales Parent, Adult and Child of all respondents (n=174)

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Ego-gram with percentages of both sexes If the state of Adult becomes more dominant in the next periods and Parent and Child accept more submissive function in the psychological construction of personality?• If the teachers who are working at schools with children and adolescents have more provident Parent and Child Ego-states? • How they re ect on their work and communicative skills?

Figure 3 .
Figure 3.Ego-gram with percentages of students from pedagogical and other specialities

Table 1 .
Descriptive rates of sample (n=174) for the Scales Parent (Controlling and Nurturing), Source: own research

Table 2 .
Statistical data of scores for both sexes Source: own research

Table 3 .
Statistical characteristics of the scores from TAQ of the students from pedagogical (n=91) and other (n=83) specialities Source: own research

Table 4 .
Correlations with quotient of Pearson between all independent and dependent variables in Study 1 Note: ** Correlation is signi cant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).Source: own research.

Table 5
are presents the raw scores and percentage of distribution of overall sample and samples made by independent "speciality" variable.There is dominance of Accommodating (M=5.87,SD=2.312, 74 %) and Avoiding style (M=6.11,SD=1.748, 53 %).

Table 5 .
Scores from TKI and quotient of Pearson between dependable and undependable variables

Table 6 .
Correlations between the Ego-states and Con ict Mode Stiles Note: ** Correlation is signi cant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).