The structure and development of ego states was discussed in the preceding section. They may also be viewed in terms of the functional effect that they have upon behavior. The second order Adult is the same from either point of view. Differences occur with the second order Child and Parent ego states.

     The function of the Parent can be seen as either nurturing or controlling. Nurturing aspects center around life affirmation, care for self and others, encouragement toward growth and development, and, to some extent, protection. Controlling here refers to training, the setting of limits, discipline, protection, and manipulation. A healthy balance of each of these is important to a properly functioning Parent ego state. There are both controlling and nurturing aspects to the behavioral recordings from each of the important others which serve as sources of Parent information. Diagrammatically one can show, for example, mother-controlling (MC) or father-nurturing (FN), etc. influences within P2:

     The Child ego state exhibits varying effects upon the behavior of the individual as well. The Natural Child and Little Professor may act to provide the free and spontaneous expression of feelings or drives and promote intimacy within relationships. Free Child expression is enormously potent in fostering well-being, self-esteem, and OK'ness in the self and others.

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     On the other hand, the Primitive Parent and Little Professor may act to produce behavior adapted to the demands of the socialization process as realized within the context of the primary family unit or learned at a later time. Two types of Adapted Child responses are seen. The compliant Adapted Child behavior can run the gamut from the utilization of effective social and coping skills to overt catatonic paralysis out of the fear of doing anything at all, from the little angel to the sullen and withdrawn nonentity that could be called "the little cipher." The other facet of Adapted Child response is rebellion. At the negative extreme, this can take the form of defiant antisocial behavior or sociopathy. At the more positive end of the spectrum, small amounts of rebellious adaptation can reinforce the self-confidence to step outside the status quo when appropriate; the ability to dare to be different that helps prevent our becoming programmed automatons and provides individually unique characteristics to the personality.

     Some transactional psychotherapists use vertical bar graphs to functionally diagram the client's personality. The example below is a commonly seen dysfunctional picture of a person with a Weak Adult, Nurturing Parent, and Free Child, but is dominated by the Controlling Parent and the Adapted Child. Such a person might seem uptight, irrational, mean, and domineering. This particular pattern is seen often enough to have earned the name: Murgatroyd. It has been suggested that the "ideal" personality would be obtained by inverting this structure to form a Reverse Murgatroyd, with a strong A₂ directing the personality. This does seem a balanced, but perhaps, a somewhat boring "Clark Kent" type of personality (my personal prejudices showing).

     Functional analysis is a valid and important perspective from which to evaluate the personality. In the next section we will see how transactional theory explains social interaction.