Transactional analysis (TA) is a theory of personality and behavior developed by Eric Berne in the 1950s. It views human personality as comprising three ego states - Parent, Adult, and Child. The Parent ego state represents learned behaviors from caregivers, the Adult deals with present facts objectively, and the Child contains feelings from one's own childhood. TA aims to help people improve communication and become aware of when different ego states are operating so they can choose behaviors and move towards psychological health. It is used in psychotherapy, education, organizations, and other settings.