In Transactional Analysis, it is theorized by Eric Berne that there are three ego states, each of which contains different aspects of the self's experience. The relational aspects of ego states are understood in terms of how a person relates to other people.

The Parent state contains positive and negative messages from the past, from parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers or other authority figures from one’s childhood. The message could have been verbal or nonverbal (just as loud).

The Child state contains and processes feelings, which began in infancy. This state begins to shape itself between the ages of 5 and 8 years old.

The Adult state contains the willful decision-making capacity needed to meet a variety of goals in one’s life. Ideally, the adult state is not overwhelmed by either the child or the parent states. If the Child state or the Parent state is distorted, the Adult state can be somewhat paralyzed in a more functional manner.

Ideally, an adult would relate to another adult from the adult ego state as opposed to from the parent ego state or the  child ego state.