Integration of Psychodrama and Transactional Analysis Methods in psychoeducational work with school-age children in Russia

Abstract

Beginning with a comparison of the concepts and methods of psychodrama and transactional analysis, the authors identify similarities and present their experiences of combining these approaches in order to conduct workshops for 5^th grade (11-12 years) students within the Russian educational system.  They provide their rationale for this work, details of the content of the training and an example of the work of the students in the form of an agreement on cooperation between students and teachers.  They provide an analysis of the reported emotions during lessons for 78 students compared to 38 within control groups, showing increased positive emotions and decreased negative emotions for those in the transactional analysis/psychodrama lessons.  They conclude that the role-play method used was more effective than traditional educational methods within Russia for the development of autonomy, motivation and involvement of students.