When studying Transaction analysis, the very basic unit that we come across is ‘transaction’. A transaction can be defined as an interaction. When two individuals meet, the meeting place of their six ego states is called transaction. A transaction is an interaction of P-A-S ego state of two individuals.
According to Eric Berne, the man who developed the transaction analysis theory, a transaction is a unit of social action and consists of a single stimulus and a single response. It is called a transaction because both the parties involved in the process gain something from it. Any communication that happens between two individuals can be broken down into small pieces of transaction and hence can be analyzed in a systematic way.
Transactions can be of various types. The simplest form of a transaction is when two people address an ego-state they are living in. Such a transaction is called complementary transaction. Other types include crossed transaction, angular transaction and covert transaction. Following is a brief description of angular transaction.
Understanding angular transaction is important in order to analyze communication between two people. Berne described angular transaction as an ulterior interaction in which the speaker addresses as if addressing to one ego state, but is actually covertly addressing a different ego-state.
For example, in advertisements or sales ads, the addressing is done between adult and adult, but in actual it Is covertly addressing a different ego state i.e. the child-ego state. If the person who’s addressed responds in a child-ego state then the angular transaction will be successful.
Angular transactions can actually throw people into a panic state by dropping the adult-to-adult transactions and carrying out child-to-child transactions instead. Most of us are probably familiar with these kinds of transactions as we often come across such comments in our social sittings. Such transactions are often very spiteful.
