Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1977

Thesis Director

Randall H. Best

Abstract

In 1976, Buryska constructed an instrument called the Transactional Analysis Freehand Script Maze to explore the possible injunctions a client may have in certain areas. These areas are body, senses, feelings, head, needing, sex, family and culture, others, doing, and being. The purpose of this study was to find the reliability and validity of the freehand script maze.

Before the maze could be discussed, introduction was given about the history and components of Transactional Analysis.

The subjects used for the reliability test of the study were 134 Eastern Illinois University students chosen from classes that were willing to participate. The subjects for the validity test were 16 trained T. A. clinicians or therapists, all of which were chosen at random from the T. A. member directory for the United States, and 12 of their clients.

The apparatus used was the freehand script maze which contains 60 boxes, all of which contain a statement of Permission to Do or to Be. The maze is formed by the subject when he closes off part of or all of a box. This closing indicates a possible injunction on the part of the subject.

Standardized instructions were used for the administration of the maze. For the reliability, the maze was administered to a group of students in different college classes. The validity part of the maze was given by the clinician or therapist to his clients individually. While the client filled out his maze, the therapist or clinician was suppose to fill out a maze of how he thought his client's maze would look when finished.

Each maze, after completion, was then scored with each box receiving a score of 0 to 2. A score of 2 indicates an emphatic injunction, a score of 1 indicates a partial injunction, a score of 0 indicates no injunction. Analysis was run on Bio-Med 08 factorial program with subjects and items as random factors; test-retest and areas as fixed.

Because of a lack of participation by clinicians and therapists, only one participated, no validity results could be computed. The reliability findings of this study found a Pearson Product Moment coefficient of .67 for the test-retest reliability. This indicates that it has low reliability as a consistent test. The ADV table showed the C/A effect as being significant at the p<.01 level, indicating that some rows of the maze showed more problems than others. One could possibly use the maze then, as an index of adjustment. Subject by item interaction account for 72% of variance in scores. It would then be wrong to assume that a subject would enter the boxes randomly or that one injunction would evoke a response because of another injunction.

It was concluded, however, that the maze is probably best used, at present, as a tool for discovering where the client has his greatest problems or injunctions and as an enjoyable rapport builder for both the therapist and the client.

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