I need to give at least a 75-word comment on my class mate’s post

Extreme “Child” or “Blind Spot” Experiences

Herman

Dr Orner and Class, for this week’s discussion topic I chose “Transactional Analysis” because I’ve had numerous experiences from the military that reminded me of the transactional analysis modes. According to Dr. Eric Berne, transactional analysis is the idea that a person’s behavior, actions, and social relationships are a reflection of how they interact with others. Transactional analysis operates around three modes, parent mode, child mode, and adult mode which describe the overall interaction between two people. The parent mode displays authority, highly experienced, knowledgeable, and encouraging attitude. The child mode represents a young inexperience, misguided, uncontrollable person who exhibits immature behavior when confronted or challenged by others. The adult mode displays a reasonable mature reaction to favorable and non-favorable interaction with others.

Many years ago when I was in the Army I had several professional encounters with younger soldiers under me that reminded me of the parent to child communication relationship. There were many past encounters where my younger subordinates took on the character of a child when interacting with me and other leaders about work related issues. I remember one specific occasion in Germany, were I had a couple of new soldiers in my section that lacked initiative, motivation, and knowledge of simple task. These particular soldiers quickly became my special project because they would always develop an “I can’t do it” attitude when it came to physical work which meant someone else had to pull their load. I remember a lot of our initial conversations resembled a parent to child relation as I pushed them to except their duties and responsibilities as soldiers and team member. At that time in my life I truly felt like I was finishing raising other people’s children as they entered the Army as young adults. Overall each situation turned out well over time and our professional relationships developed into adult to adult interactions as they learned and became more mature.                                     

Reference:

Puckridge, P. (2009) Transactional Analysis in Action, Retrieved 27 March 2017 from https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFT2HJliaKE&list=PLRn0GjEedVvioZq6tK-Iwi83sRdHUFok

Herman