Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Use Of The Transactional Analysis Ego State Concept To Measure Client Change In Psychotherapy, Judith Emerson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although transactional analysis (TA) theory has been used by psychotherapists since its introduction by Eric Berne in the 1960s, the ego state functioning constructs, a seminal part of the theory, have not been adequately validated. Previous research has focused on whether therapy using TA methodology works. This study tested the TA ego state constructs by measuring client change occurring during psychotherapy and comparing those changes with predictions from the TA theory.

Fifty-six subjects, who were clients at a university counseling center in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, were tested before and after therapy using two standardized instruments, …