In international relations transactions have to do with contacts and dealings, both governmental and nongovernmental, between states. Transactions may, for example, be analysed with respect to substance (e.g. concerning economic, political, cultural, social or technical matters), or with respect to the states involved and the directions of the transactions between them. The volume and frequency of such transactions is also considered. From such information, permutations of substance, direction, intensity, and time define patterns of transaction flow, and these in turn describe structure and process in the international system. Analysing transaction flows then theoretically opens the way to observing and recording who deals (or has dealt) with whom, how, or how much, about what, and when (and under some circumstances, provide projections of probable transaction patterns in the future). Different transformations of the basic data may be used to measure relative direction, relative intensity, dependence, interdependence, partnership, concentration, acceleration, and other quantities or qualities in transaction relationships. Transaction analysis may be used to detect international or regional integration and community formation.
Transactional analysis is a system of group psychotherapy based on the assumption that there are three positions from which one individual communicates with another (child, adult, parent) and three kinds of growth (stimulus-hunger, recognition-hunger and structure hunger) resulting in typical sequences in behaviour or games. Transactional analysis diagnoses the ego states in any transaction and "crossed transactions" when the ego states of the two parties to a transaction are different, with consequent breakdown in communication. Typical sequences of behaviour, or games, are identified, together with the intensity, tenacity and flexibility with which they are "played". The aim is to build up the "adult" state by filtering out the "child" and "parent" states, allowing the adult to work out a new system of values, and enabling the individual to relearn the capacity for awareness, spontaneity and intimacy, which results in autonomy.