Norbert Grygar
Questions and Answers
The Purpose of this web page is answer questions from readers, the answer to which will either explain or, otherwise, add to the readers understanding about the contents of “Putting the Pieces Together.” In order to ask me a question, from the home page, click on the “Contact me” tab and send me an e-mail with your question.
Below are some of the questions that have already been posed to me.
1. Transactional Analysis speaks to a transactional stimulus and a transactional response. How are these the same as the assertion and the response of social style?
ANSWER- A stimulus requires an attention getting action directed toward someone else and to become a transaction, requires a response. The assertion is like the stimulus in that it is also directed toward someone else in order to obtain a response. Therefore, I see them as being equivalent. As respects the response, Transactional Analysis appears to have been more about the verbal content of the response. Social style, on the other hand is driven by the emotional content of the response for determination of style. But, having said the above, I still see the social style structure in unison with and an extension of transactional analysis with each helping to understand the other. The backup styles noted in the social style model open the door to understanding stressed Parent and stressed Child actions and interactions.
2. Why is the description of each of the sixteen different types not more detailed?
ANSWER-
- There has been three pairs of authors writing in three books providing a fuller description of the attributes of each of different types. For two sets of authors, who had written “Please Understand Me” and “Type Talk”, I have provided the page numbers to review in Chapter 5 of my book for the reader to do some of their own research. I could not see a way to adequately paraphrase their works to include all of the major characteristics that each noted. Therefore, I targeted a few key characteristics that I needed to make the argument that I had properly placed each in the correct spot on the major chart. For the third pair of authors (Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger writing in “Do What You Are”), the key chapters are Chapter 3 where each reader is asked to read a short section on each of the 16 types and then select the one that best fits the reader and then follow by going to Part Three of the book and in Chapters 8 though 23 and read the chapter that describes your type. When I finished my review of the sixteen types and placed them in the social style model, I was stunned at the symmetry seen in the finished chart of opposite types found directly across the diagonal from each other in the master chart.
3. In Chapter 8 Words and Games, why doe it appear that you have not finished explaining some of the attacks described by Dr. Haden Elgin?
ANSWER- To be honest with you-the reader-I did not study each of the incompletely identified attacks to fully enough explain them to my own satisfaction. And, I should note, there are probably other unidentified attacks to be identified and explained. My presentation to this point was to present to the reader the problems that arise when persons are confronted with attacks hidden in presuppositions.