Travel Chaos!!
With the amount of snow that has fallen it is unsurprising that many people are encountering the stresses and strains of delayed journeys or of unfulfilled plans. This results in a whole range of reactions. A common one is that of anger, cue pictures of passengers shouting at the train conductor or airport manager bringing news of further delays. Another reaction might be that of passive acceptance, a slump-shouldered withdrawal that is giving up on any active engagement with what is happening. These two reactions can, from a psychological perspective, be seen as examples of how different personality states operate. The first, the angry one, may reflect what can be termed a 'parental' state, in which an individual's authority is asserted in a direct way, perhaps with limited relevance to the actual outcomes such an approach might provide. The second, the withdrawal, may be more of a 'child' state, whereby the individual reacts in a way that diminishes his or her ...