Impression Management And The Presentation Of Self : A Comparative Analysis Of Heathers And Easy A.

Both Cooley and Goffman have studied the social nature of the self. In this essay I will analyse their views of the self in social interactions and compare which one of these positions is more accurate.

Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach is an example of interactionist perspective. This involves using a smaller idea, such as actors putting on a play, to understand the bigger picture, society. In this approach, each person involved in a play represent individuals in a society. Just as each person has a part to make the play successful, each individual in real life has a role to maintain society. The front stage is where the performance happens; it is where the props and actors are shown to the audience. Conversely, the backstage involves the hidden preparation for the performance. In order for the play to be successful, the people involved in the play must work together to create a performance that the audience will enjoy. Similarly, individuals use impression management and face-work to have a certain image appropriate in

In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman (1959) focuses on the self as a staged production in which people actively present themselves to different audiences one encounters. To bolster his conceptualization, Goffman used an interesting metaphor of “all the world’s a stage” (1959, 254). This, he terms as a “dramaturgical approach” (Goffman 1959, 240) in which an actor puts on a show for others; drawing analogies between human behaviors and the theater. Goffman (1959) likens the individual to an actor on stage performing for and with other individuals involved in the situation. Three types of space exist for the actor to perform on, to enact the self, and to interact with others: the front stage, the backstage, the outer region. Goffman (1959) utilizes specific dramaturgical terms such as performance, teams, front and back regions, sign-vehicles, and highlights the process of dramatic realization. These terms will be discussed in the following sections.

George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman are two theorists in the study of sociology that have impacted the way we see sociology today. Their works, when closely examined, actually share some extreme similarities. Both of these men seemed very interested in the perception of self in the eyes of others as well as yourself. “Mind, Self, and Society” is an article written by Mead which was placed in the book entitled “Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to Post-Modernism” which was edited by Farganis with the copyright of McGraw-Hill in 2004. This primarily deals with the development of one’s self, or their identity. “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” is an article written by Goffman which was arranged to be in the book “Inner Lives and

Erving Goffman’s theory presentation of self is an influential concept and is relevant even in today’s society. The TV series Cat Fish serves as a great example of Goffman’s sociological theory presentation of self in everyday life. The TV show depicts individuals creating a false identity for instance, posting false pictures on social media in hopes of getting someone to fall in love with them. The MTV show Catfish helps people to figure out whether or not they are being cat fished by the person they are connected with online. Social media connects people very quickly; however the drawback is it can also, disguise people very easily.

Humans by nature, as suggested by Aronson, are a highly socialable species and care a lot about what others think of them. This has lead to the existence of a belief in public appearance or the sub-conscious development of self presentation. This is the foundation for Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts” (William Shakespeare). This essay

Erving Goffman was a sociologist known for developing the symbolic interaction and dramaturgical theory perspective. The dramaturgical theory is a social psychological perspective that studies human behavior and social interaction in terms of the analogy of the theater. This perspective is also related to symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a theory based on interaction and communication, facilitated by many different words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired various meanings. Dramaturgical theorist focus on how people manipulate various aspects of themselves and their settings to influence how others define and respond to them. In this perspective, “the self” is constructed of the various roles that one acquires, in order to present their various selves in ways that sustain particular impressions to their audiences. “The self” is a private possession established in and reflective of an individual’s personality, which includes ones values, beliefs, motives, traits, and dispositions. In addition, a person’s “self” is acquired through social relationships and is a structurally fundamental process that may change due to various situations. As humans interact with one another they are placed in social categories based on their attributes and actions. These assessments are primarily based on ones knowledge of roles.

Erving Goffman is one of the most important American sociological theorist in the second half of the century and was also influenced by Durkheim, Freud, and Simmel in his work. He is well known for his analysis of human interaction which is now called “dramaturgical analysis”. Dramaturgical Analysis is the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance. For example, Goffman uses terms like “front”, “setting”, and “performance” when explaining his theory. The front is also known as the expressive equipment, intentional or unintentional kind employed by the performer. The setting is also part of the front and involves the physical layout like

Goffman referred to society as a play, and that we are all as individuals, actors in this play, or in the drama of everyday life. The expected ways of behaving, or social norms are the script, for example, greeting someone with ‘Good morning’ is expected. He suggests that the roles we carry out are simply a performance

Goffman illuminated the significance of seemingly insignificant acts. Of particular import are a person’s demeanor (conduct, dress) and the deference (honor, dignity, respect) it symbolically accords to others. By expressing oneself to be a well or poorly demeaned person, an individual simultaneously bestows or withholds deference to others. The reciprocal nature of deference and demeanor is such that maintaining a well-demeaned image allows those present to do likewise as the deference they receive obligates them to confer proper deference in kind. Each is rewarded for his or her good behavior by the deference that person reaps in turn. Yet, whether or not an individual is judged to be well demeaned is determined not by the individual himself but, rather, by the interpretations others make of his behavior during interaction. Indeed, claiming oneself to be well demeaned is a sign of poor demeanor (484).

Before we discuss Hochschild’s surface and deep acting, let us review one of the classic sociological accounts of the presentation of self, for the theatrical model of social roles has a long heritage that Hochschild is drawing on. Particularly influential is Erving Goffman’s 1959 work, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. By ‘presentation of self’, Goffman (1959, pp. 9-18) means the performance that people put on, for the benefit of both other people and themselves. This performance is based on how the individuals want to be perceived by others and themselves; guided by motives, it is an attempt to control the responses from others that reflect on the self. Such performances can be classified into two situations (Goffman, 1959, pp. 28-29). In the first

When applying Erving Goffman’s theory of dramaturgy to social networking media such as Facebook, it can be observed that people present themselves to others to appear more desirable. People presenting themselves to be more desirable on Facebook can be seen in the artifact of the Catfish Movie- Trailer (Universal Pictures, 2010). While looking at Facebook as a stage in terms of Dramaturgy it can be viewed that impression management, performance, and front and back stage are consciously or unconsciously used by Facebook’s users, which will all be applied in context of Facebook users. Dramaturgy will be applied using Facebook as the stage due to it being the “most dominant social networking platform” (Duggan & Smith, 2013), although Goffman’s Dramaturgy is limited to face-to-face interactions, Dramaturgy can still be observed when looking at Facebook users due to the social interaction between one another. Due to users convenience of being able to monitor what images they put up of themselves, such as pictures, friends, and groups, they are able to seem more desirable to their peers then they may actually be which will be displayed through Catfish and the application of four scholar articles.

In this analogy, Goffman likens social interactions to those of actors performing on a stage. This analysis presents the idea that people’s everyday lives can be examined and better understood as resembling performers in a theater on a stage. With this idea, we present ourselves in various situations and therefore are putting on a performance (Allan 2014). Through the presentation of self, or impression management, social media allows everyone to utilize the presentation of their character, or self, to the fullest. Social media allows the rare opportunity for its users to emphasize and de-emphasize certain sign vehicles allowing us to only show a “highlight reel” or the most positive and appealing side of our “self”. In his Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman explains this specific orchestration

Goffman, E. 1959. ‘Performances’ chapter 1, from the presentation of self in everyday life. London: penguin.

Goffman was the first to introduce the topic of dramaturgy in his work. Dramaturgy is his idea that life is a play. The people are actors and the every day world around us is our stage. (1959, p.13) He uses the image of a theatre performance to express the behaviour of people in everyday social interactions. Although not always aware of it, every individual in a social situation is assigned a role in the performance. Every individual obtains a role in social interaction and the audience observes and reacts to the performance. Goffman discussed the three different regions of performance as the front stage, the back stage and off stage. Each region has a particular impact on one’s performance.