Abstract
Aspiring graduate students in science and technology generally lack formal training in understanding human behavior and traits that can adversely impact their ability to perform and innovate at the highest level. Positive intelligence (PI) and Transactional Analysis are two practical methods in human psychology that millions of people have tested for self-growth. The author previously published the application of PI for enhancing engineering students (Tyagi, P., Positive Intelligence Education for Unleashing Student Potential. ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition 2019, Volume 5: Engineering Education, V005T07A009). This paper focuses on training graduate students about the popular and practical transactional analysis science and assessing their competence in utilizing this knowledge to decipher their own and other people’s. Transactional analysis was taught to students via Student presentation-based effective teaching (SPET) methodology developed by the author. Under this approach, graduate students enrolled in the MECH 500 Class were provided a set of questions to answer by self-reading of the recommended textbook “I am Okay You are Okay by Thomas Harris”. Each student individually answered the assignment questions and then worked in the group to prepare a group presentation for the in-class discussion. Three group discussions were conducted to present different views about the four types of transactions and underlying human traits. Before transactional analysis training, students were also trained in Positive intelligence psychology tools for a similar objective. After the discussion, students were surveyed about the depth of their understanding. Students also reflected their views on the utility of transactional analysis with respect to positive intelligence. More than 75% of students mention that they gain high competency in understanding, defining, and utilizing transactional analysis. This study presents insights for positively impacting graduate students’ mindsets as they pursue an unpredicted course of research that can sometimes become very challenging.
