Transactional Theory Research Articles

In Memory of Ken Mellor

This article is dedicated to the memory of Ken Mellor, a teacher and a supervisor of Transactional Analysis in psychotherapy, who passed away in July 2023 in Australia. Ken Mellor made a great contribution to the development of Transactional Analysis and to the emergence and development of a new field Spiritual Transactional Analysis. He published many of his papers in professional journals including the Transactional Analysis Journal of the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA). This article focuses on his contributions to the expansion and development of Transactional Analysis and on the connection that he saw between the foundations of Transactional Analysis theory and spirituality. It describes his ideas and additions to Eric Bernes ideas on autonomy. In one of his articles published in the Transactional Analysis Journal (TAJ), Ken draws on his spiritual experiences and practices to suggest specific steps that can be taken to arrive at autonomy. To the well-known components described by Eric Berne awareness, spontaneity, and readiness for intimacy Ken added another important component that Eric Berne had not written about.

The Role of Administrative Leadership in the improving Performance of Employees: Iraqi Universities as a Model

In the current age of competitiveness and progress, organizations largely focus on achieving objectives by following a beneficial system that is capable of running entities. Leadership behaviour is a modern concept, which is considered to impact the intellectual growth and performance of employees. In higher education institutions, it is important to increase employee performance in order to achieve sustainability in the education sector. The current study aims to investigate the effect of the leadership behaviour and style on the employee performance of the Iraqi universities. Following the transformational and transactional theories, the study proposes a conceptual framework to investigate the influence of transformational and transactional leadership of the administrators on academic employee performance the indicators of which are teaching, research and services to the university.

Factors Influencing Farmers’ Use of Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping Strategies

ABSTRACT Objectives Chronic stress is associated with a variety of negative outcomes for farmers in the United States (U.S) and worldwide, who face near-constant exposure to internal (e.g. family conflict) and external (e.g. weather) stressors. Research indicates that farmers’ stress may be reduced by engaging in adaptive coping strategies and avoiding maladaptive coping strategies. However, little is known about what predicts their coping strategy use. Informed by the transactional theory of stress and coping, the present manuscript seeks to identify factors associated with U.S. farmers’ use of adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies. Methods U.S. farmers (N = 135) completed survey assessments of factors theorized to be associated with coping strategy choice (maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management, farm stress management self-efficacy, age, and sex) as well as measures of adaptive and maladaptive coping. Results Farm stress management self-efficacy was a significant, positive predictor of adaptive coping, and maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management were a significant, positive predictor of maladaptive coping. Maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management and farm stress management self-efficacy interacted to predict maladaptive coping, such that the positive relationship between maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management and maladaptive coping was significant at higher levels of self-efficacy. Sex was unrelated to coping strategies, and age was negatively associated with maladaptive coping strategies but unassociated with adaptive coping strategies. Conclusion The findings point to the utility of increasing farm stress self-management self-efficacy to increase farmers’ adaptive coping and reducing maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management to reduce maladaptive coping. Efforts to promote adaptive coping by increasing self-efficacy should also target maladaptive beliefs farmers hold toward stress management, because increasing self-efficacy may also increase the likelihood of maladaptive coping when maladaptive beliefs are present.

The future is now but is it here to stay? Employees’ perspective on working from home

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled the implementation of work from home (WFH) on a global scale. While initial responses to the WFH arrangement have been mixed, a majority of them are negative. However, much is still unknown about the antecedents of work productivity and continuance intention associated with WFH. Hence, this study developed a multi-dimensional research model that comprises of the Protection Motivation Theory, Transactional Theory of Stress, and Status Quo Bias to look into this matter. The responses were collected from employees with WFH experience and analyzed via the Structural Equation Modeling-Artificial Neural Network (SEM-ANN). Interestingly, perceived vulnerability and perceived severity had no significant relationship with continuance intention. Besides, self-efficacy to handle work tasks from home was found to facilitate work productivity. In contrast, technostress was found as an inhibitor of work productivity and continuance intention to WFH. Overall, the employees’ perspective on WFH captured in this study provides great value to organizational stakeholders. This is because companies with good WFH arrangements have a powerful competitive advantage in employee recruitment and retention.

"I Just Want to Feel Good Without Making You Feel Bad": Sexual Assertiveness Negotiation in Adolescent Romantic Relationships.

Sexual assertiveness is often conceptualized as an individual's ability to express one's own sexual needs, desires, and limits. Given that sexual assertiveness is embedded in interactions and can affect not only both partners' sexual well-being but also relationship satisfaction, dyadic approaches are needed to investigate sexual assertiveness negotiation within adolescent romantic relationships. This qualitative study aimed to document adolescents' ability to negotiate their sexual needs, desires, and limits with their partners during interactions where they discussed their sexual concerns. A directed content analysis, based on the life positions of the transactional analysis theory, was conducted on the interactions of 40 adolescent romantic dyads aged 14-19years (M = 16.65; SD = 1.49). The results revealed four categories of strategies: (1) mutual assertiveness: negotiation of one's own sexual needs, desires, and limits with those of the partner; (2) singular passiveness: repression of one's own sexual needs, desires, and limits to privilege those of the partner; (3) singular aggressiveness: prioritization of one's own sexual needs, desires, and limits over those of the partner; and (4) mutual lack of negotiation skills: neglecting both partners' sexual needs, desires, and limits. Among other things, adolescents' ability to be sexually assertive was hindered by anticipations, including assumptions leading to disregarding one's own sexual needs, desires, and limits or fearing to ignore the partner's. To promote mutually rewarding sexual activities and prevent sexual violence, sexual education initiatives should support adolescents' ability to assertively negotiate their sexuality with their partner and avoid passiveness, aggressiveness, and lack of negotiation.

An empirical investigation of the effects of entrance fees on national park visitors

ABSTRACT The budget reduction to public lands in the U.S. press parks to generate own revenues. Implementing entrance fees is considered by park management, but there is controversy surrounding the potential impacts on visitation and revenue. Drawing insights from the zero-price effect and the transactional utility theory, this study conducted two separate written vignette experiments targeting different populations to examine the effects of entrance fees on national park visitors’ experiences and behavioural intentions. Participants in each experiment were randomised to one of the three entrance fee conditions. They then read a written vignette describing a visit to a national park and completed a series of survey questions regarding their park experience and behavioural intentions. A total of 272 and 279 responses was gathered in each experiment, respectively. The results revealed that entrance fees do not influence satisfaction. However, the effects of entrance fees on perceived price value and behavioural intentions were found to be mixed. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Aging alone and financial insecurity predict depression: a path analysis of objective and subjective indices

Objectives This study draws on conservation of resources theory and transactional stress theory to guide our understanding of how social isolation, financial insecurity, and social support serve as a balance of both risk and protection for late-life depression. Methods Data were from the Leave-Behind Questionnaire in the 2016 (N = 4293) and 2018 (N = 4714) waves of the Health and Retirement Study. We conducted a cross-sectional path analysis via structural equation modeling, including objective and subjective perspectives. The same model was tested in both samples. Results Both social isolation and financial insecurity were associated with depression. We found several mediating risks and protective factors of these relationships. Objective financial status affected depression through both perceived financial insecurity and perceived social isolation, whereas objective isolation affected depression through perceived social support. This mediation model was ­significant after adjusting for confounders. Conclusion This study underscores the importance of investigating the balance between risk and protection for depression, in the rising number of older adults aging alone in society. Findings suggest that objective and perceived measures offer unique windows into psychological constructs. Considering both objective and subjective perspectives may provide alternative targets for subsequent interventions to improve mental health in later life.

The role of abusive supervision and openness to experience in the task conflict and social undermining relationship

Building on the emerging research on antecedents of social undermining, we develop and test a threat-based tripartite model of social undermining that outlines why and when employees may engage in social undermining in the workplace. Specifically, we draw on the transactional theory of stress to suggest that task conflict, as a contextual factor, serves as a fundamental stressor that provokes social undermining. Within this transactional stress framework, we also argue that task conflict is more likely to provoke social undermining under conditions of higher levels of abusive supervision (context) and openness to experience (personality) simultaneously. In this regard, we propose a three-way interaction suggesting that task conflict, abusive supervision, and openness to experience jointly interact to predict higher levels of social undermining. Our findings from two separate field investigations using time-lagged, multisource data (i.e. employee–coworker dyads) provide general support for our hypothesized model. Research and practical implications for human resource management, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed.

Correlates of Psychological Distress Among African American Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affects African Americans in the United States, including disparate rates of mortality and higher mental health consequences compared to Whites. However, African American young adults are underrepresented in the literature examining psychological distress (i.e., anxiety and depression) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors associated with psychological distress are important to examine among African American young adults during the pandemic to better inform culturally appropriate mental health interventions during times of increased uncertainty and isolation. The present study, grounded in the transactional theory of stress and coping, was a secondary analysis of 420 African American young adults exploring gender, age, coping, fear of missing out (FOMO), and COVID-19 news exposure as correlates of anxiety and depression. Results showed that gender, age, level of resilient coping, and experiences of FOMO were associated with psychological distress. Therefore, interventions to reduce psychological distress among African American young adults may need to focus on younger individuals and women, identify adaptive coping skills during times of significant change, and target individuals who experience FOMO.

Maternal Mental Health and Children’s Problem Behaviours: A Bi-directional Relationship?

Transactional theory and the coercive family process model have illustrated how the parent-child relationship is reciprocal. Emerging research using advanced statistical methods has examined these theories, but further investigations are necessary. In this study, we utilised linked health data on maternal mental health disorders and explored their relationship with child problem behaviours via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for over 13 years. We accessed data from the Millennium Cohort Study, linked to anonymised individual-level population-scale health and administrative data within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We used Bayesian Structural Equation Modelling, specifically Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models, to analyse the relationships between mothers and their children. We then explored these models with the addition of time-invariant covariates. We found that a mother’s mental health was strongly associated over time, as were children’s problem behaviours. We found mixed evidence for bi-directional relationships, with only emotional problems showing bi-directional associations in mid to late childhood. Only child-to-mother pathways were identified for the overall problem behaviour score and peer problems; no associations were found for conduct problems or hyperactivity. All models had strong between-effects and clear socioeconomic and sex differences. We encourage the use of whole family-based support for mental health and problem behaviours, and recommend that socioeconomic, sex and wider differences should be considered as factors in tailoring family-based interventions and support.

Functional Ego States, Behavior Patterns, and Social Interaction of Bulgarian Adolescents and Their Parents

Adolescence is a dynamic period of transition, and interaction with parents is important for successfully passing through it. This article presents results from a study of three transactional analysis theory personality constructs of adolescents and their parents—functional ego states, life positions, and stroke economy. The sample included 215 students from 12 to 16 years old and 215 parents from 30 to 55 years old. The results show significant differences between the ego states Adult, Adapted Child, Nurturing Parent and Normative Parent of the adolescents and their parents, which are more expressed in the parents. It was found that the life position, “I am OK—you are OK” is more strongly expressed in parents, while the life position, “I am not OK—you are not OK” is leading in adolescents. In their interactions with others, adolescents express modesty, self-doubt, and underestimation of their own success, while parents are more assertive, confident, and resilient in their behavior. The obtained results can be used in different programs to improve social interaction and increase the effectiveness of adolescent-parent relationships.

Enhancing Sustainability in the Agricultural Sector Amid COVID-19: An Implication of the Transactional Theory

COVID-19 impacted lives and business activities across all sectors of the economy, and farmers were no exception. Utilizing the lens of the transactional theory of stress and coping, the present study explores the stressors among small-scale farmers and the strategies they adopted for farm management during the pandemic. This study follows qualitative research design principles and collects the data of farmers from Pakistan on their lived experiences via in-depth interviews. We selected the farmers based on the purposive criterion sampling method, selecting farmers whose farm management practices were affected by the pandemic. The findings suggest that the pandemic created stress among farmers through internal and external factors. The low income of farmers and decline in their yield appeared as internal factors, and hindrances in utilizing resources, strict lockdown measures, worsening supply chain, and market conditions were major external factors impacting farmers emotionally and economically. Farmers utilized their available resources to cope with these factors, i.e., family labor, on-farm labor accommodation, and self-transportation. Nonetheless, farmers demanded the government, fellow farmers, and wholesalers to build a better system to cope with any crisis such as COVID-19. This study provides two primary contributions: First, it provides theoretical contributions to the transactional model of farmers’ stress and coping during COVID-19, taking evidence from farmers in the agricultural sector. Second, it provides a comprehensive framework through which researchers, practitioners, consultants, and government authorities can build future scholarship and develop strategies to enhance sustainability and cope with future pandemics.

Pre-service teachers’ experiences of remote online learning: reimagining teacher education post-pandemic

ABSTRACT Background As teaching and learning processes evolve in the wake of COVID−19, fresh thinking about the role of remote online learning (ROL) is critical as part of a wider reimagining of education in a post-pandemic context. In this paper, attention is focused on ROL within teacher education. Purpose This study sought to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their ROL experiences in a Fijian teacher education programme. Method The qualitative study design was informed by transactional distance theory. Using a narrative inquiry approach, data from 15 pre-service teachers were collected and analysed. Via individual interviews conducted online, the prospective teachers shared their perceptions about the nature of interactions experienced whilst engaged in ROL during the pandemic. Data were analysed thematically, in relation to instructional dialogue, course structure, and autonomy. Findings In-depth analysis of rich data allowed main themes to emerge that captured the participants’ viewpoints. Prominent themes in instructional dialogue revealed some concerns about the precedence of textual communication over verbal in ROL and the perception of emphasis on product over the process of learning. In terms of course structure, volume of assessment and teaching style were among aspects which participants identified as affecting learner-content engagement. Comments about learner autonomy suggested that the pre-service teachers sought positives amidst the difficulties encountered, whilst maintaining a focus on completing the assessments and passing the course. Conclusion The analysis of pre-service teachers’ experiences offers insight into how aspects of ROL may challenge participant engagement within elements of teacher education courses. It highlights the support that needs to be provided to prospective teachers in order to reduce transactional distance, suggesting that effective course design and instructional dialogue to promote learner autonomy are both crucial to sustainable teacher education in the post-pandemic context.

COVID-19 lockdown stress and problematic social networking sites use among quarantined college students in China: A chain mediation model based on the stressor–strain–outcome framework

The COVID-19 pandemic has coincided with a global increase in problematic social networking sites use (PSNSU). By drawing on transactional stress theory and applying the stressor–strain–outcome (SSO) framework, we proposed and verified a chain mediation model to explore the mediating roles of fear of missing out (FoMO) and future anxiety (FA) in the relationship between COVID-19 lockdown stress (CL stress) and PSNSU. Our sample of 670 quarantined college students in China responded to a COVID-19 student stress questionnaire, a social network addiction scale, a fear of missing out scale, and a dark future scale. The results revealed that (1) CL stress significantly positively predicted PSNSU, (2) both FoMO and FA mediated the relationship between CL stress and PSNSU, (3) FoMO significantly positively predicted FA, and (4) a full chain mediation was observed between CL stress and PSNSU.

Chemsex and Sexual Well-Being in Young Polish Men.

Chemsex refers to the use of psychoactive drugs for sexual purposes-before or during sex. This phenomenon mainly affects men, in particular those belonging to the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual, and more diverse individuals) community. From the perspective of the transactional theory of stress, chemsex can be considered a strategy for coping with stress, which is why it is also extremely important to verify its role in functioning outside the sexual sphere. For this reason, this study verified the relationship between the use of chemsex, perceived stress, sexual well-being, and life satisfaction in young Polish men. The study involved 175 men (67 people using chemsex and 108 people in the control group) between 18 and 33 years of age. The Perceived Stress Scale, the Short Scale of Sexual Well-being, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the authors' questionnaire about the use of chemsex were used. It was observed that individuals using chemsex showed a significantly lower level of sexual well-being and satisfaction with life (moderate effects) and a higher level of perceived stress (strong effect) when compared to the control group not using psychoactive substances. Additionally, a positive and moderate relationship was observed between the number of psychoactive substances used and perceived stress in the group of individuals using chemsex. Moreover, the number of substances used and the level of perceived stress were negatively and moderately related to the level of well-being in these individuals. It was also shown that perceived stress was a significant predictor of the number of psychoactive substances used before and during sex and that perceived stress and the number of psychoactive substances used were significant and negative predictors of life satisfaction and sexual well-being, explaining a large portion of their variance.

The Role of Instructors Support and Feedback on the Performance of Online and Distance Learning

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of instructors support and feedback on the performance of online and distance learning.
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library.
 Findings: The findings revealed that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the role of instructors support and feedback on the performance of online and distance learning. Preliminary empirical review revealed that there is need for instructors to prioritize personalized support, timely feedback, and active engagement with learners to foster a supportive and engaging learning environment.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Social Presence Theory, Self-Determination Theory and the Transactional Distance Theory may be used to anchor future studies on the role of instructors support and feedback on the performance of online and distance learning. Instructors should establish clear communication channels and responsive feedback mechanisms to facilitate ongoing interaction with learners. Instructors should provide constructive and personalized feedback that focuses on both strengths and areas for improvement. Instructors should actively foster a sense of community and social presence in online and distance learning environments. Lastly, professional development and training programs should be offered to instructors to enhance their pedagogical skills in online and distance learning

Transactional Distance and College Students' Learning Engagement in Online Learning: The Chain Mediating Role of Social Presence and Autonomous Motivation.

Transactional distance remains an important issue in online education, which is an important indicator to evaluate the quality of teaching and learning in online courses and is closely related to the success of learners' online learning. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential mechanism of transactional distance and its three modes of interaction on the impact of learning engagement of college students. Online Education Student Interaction Scale, Online Social Presence Questionnaire, Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student scales were used, revised questionnaire for cluster sampling of college students, 827 valid samples. SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used for analysis, and Bootstrap method was used to test the significance level of the mediating effect. Transactional distance (including the three interaction modes) was significantly and positively related to college students' learning engagement. Autonomous motivation played a chain mediating role between transactional distance and learning engagement. In addition, social presence and autonomous motivation mediated the chain between student-student and student-teacher interaction on learning engagement. In addition, however, student-content interactions did not significantly impact social presence, and the chain mediating effect of social presence and autonomous motivation between student-content interaction and learning engagement was not supported. Based on transactional distance theory, this study reveals the role of transactional distance on college students' learning engagement and the mediating effect of social presence and autonomous motivation in the relationship between transactional distance (and three interaction modes of transactional distance) on college students' learning engagement. This study supports the findings of additional online learning research frameworks and empirical studies to enhance our understanding of how online learning affects college students' learning engagement and the important role of online learning in college student's academic development.

Distinguishing Servant Leadership from Transactional and Transformational Leadership

ProblemThe scholarship of leadership abounds with the affordances, limitations, antecedents, and outcomes associated with the different theories in Human Resource Development (HRD) literature. However, a clear delineation between the host of individual leadership theories does not exist. Absent is a nuanced view of the similarities, differences, and any overlap between the various leadership theories. Without a clear understanding of the relationships between leadership theories, knowing when to apply which theories and when becomes difficult.SolutionA systematic review of the literature surrounding servant leadership (SL) through 2022 was conducted to position SL among the more extensively researched transactional and transformational leadership theories. This article outlines the histories of the three theories, focusing on the characteristics, pervasiveness, antecedents, outcomes, and measurement of SL to distinguishing it from transactional and transformational leadership.; Stakeholders: Human resource development, human resource management, and organizational behavior scholars, practitioners, educators, and students. In addition, organizational leaders responsible for setting the organization’s vision and practitioners responsible for designing leadership development programs will benefit from this article.

Work engagement of online car-hailing drivers: the effects of platforms' algorithmic management

PurposeAlgorithms are widely used to manage various activities in the gig economy. Online car-hailing platforms, such as Uber and Lyft, are exemplary embodiments of such algorithmic management, where drivers are managed by algorithms for task allocation, work monitoring and performance evaluation. Despite employing substantially, the platforms face the challenge of maintaining and fostering drivers' work engagement. Thus, this study aims to examine how the algorithmic management of online car-hailing platforms affects drivers' work engagement.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the transactional theory of stress, the authors examined the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and revealed the mediation effects of challenge-hindrance appraisals. Based on survey data collected from 364 drivers, the authors' hypotheses were examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The authors also applied path comparison analyses to further compare the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on the two types of appraisals.FindingsThis study finds that online car-hailing drivers' challenge-hindrance appraisals mediate the relationship between algorithmic management characteristics and work engagement. Algorithmic monitoring positively affects both challenge and hindrance appraisals in online car-hailing drivers. However, algorithmic fairness promotes challenge appraisal and reduces hindrance appraisal. Consequently, challenge and hindrance appraisals lead to higher and lower work engagement, respectively. Further, the additional path comparison analysis showed that the hindering effect of algorithmic monitoring exceeds its challenging effect, and the challenge-promoting effect of algorithmic fairness is greater than the algorithm's hindrance-reducing effect.Originality/valueThis paper reveals the underlying mechanisms concerning how algorithmic monitoring and fairness affect online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and fills the gap in the research on algorithmic management in the context of online car-hailing platforms. The authors' findings also provide practical guidance for online car-hailing platforms on how to improve the platforms' algorithmic management systems.

Challenge or hindrance? How and when organizational artificial intelligence adoption influences employee job crafting

While organizations are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI), little is known about employees’ reactions to this new work environment. This study utilizes the transactional theory of stress and coping to establish a framework that examines the impact of organizational AI adoption on employees’ promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting based on the data from a three-wave time-lagged survey of 332 employees of eight companies in Chengdu, China. The findings indicated that the effects of organizational AI adoption on challenge/hindrance appraisals and subsequent job crafting depend on employees’ locus of control. Organizational AI adoption induces challenge appraisals for employees with an internal locus of control and leads to promotion-focused job crafting behaviors. When employees possess an external locus of control, organizational AI adoption induces their hindrance appraisal and leads to prevention-focused job crafting behaviors. These findings have theoretical and practical implications.