Child development specialists have emphasized the role played by early life experiences in the formation of the personality. Such experiences give rise to a range of habitual feelings and beliefs that remain consistent and stable over time. However, social and psychobiological research now appears to suggest that the roots of personality can be traced back to life in utero. If this is so, then prenatal experiences may influence basic beliefs about self and, therefore, the foundations of personality. This has implications for transactional analysis, and this article considers the relevance of these issues to our understanding of Eric Berne's structural model of ego states.
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