The Internalisation Of Values In The Goffman's Theory Of Social Identity

In the essay “Medfield, Massachusetts,” Author John Preston recounts his childhood growing up in a small town. He recalls deep rooted connections to the community and to the history of Medfield. At first it appears that Preston’s identification to his role as a member of his hometown is secure, but as he later reveals, an irreconcilable identity conflict develops which causes him to make a very difficult choice. The theory of the formation of in-groups and their impact on how an individual’s identity is formed offers some insight into what change is taking place to Preston’s identity that will eventually cause him to seek acceptance in a new reference group outside of Medfield, the town he felt so much a part of in his youth.

Social status often establishes one 's credibility and integrity within a society. The power that social status has, encourages people to heavily focus on it. With this focus on social status ever pressing, one’s identity often gets intertwined with and reliant on their place in the hierarchy of society. People become fixated on one idea they have of a person in a certain social class, that anybody who breaks out of specific stereotypes may often cause anger amongst others. In the short story “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor, the main character, Mrs. May, is obsessive about the way others perceive her and her place in society. Mr. May’s identity is so strictly tied to her desire to get to a higher social class and her notions how society

| Steven Herrick’s free verse novel explores this value of events that shape a persons identity and hence their sense of belonging in their world.  The cause of his alienation appears to be physical and psychological abuse from his father, lack of caring from his school and his run down neglected neighbourhood with its “deadbeat no hoper… downtrodden house in Longlands Rd, Nowheresville”.

Sociological approaches are “systematic, sceptical and critical study of the social. It studies the way people do things together”. (Macionis and Plummer 2012) It also “goes beyond everyday common sense by using systematic methods of empirical observation and theories” (Boundless [online] 2015). I will be using Goffman’s functionalist sociological approach of Dramaturgy to understand human life and to analyse my first few weeks of university. Goffman’s sociology is “concerned with everyday life, in particular with showing the tenuous nature of social life.”(Smart, n.d) His theory is based on symbolic interactionalism and used widely to look at micro sociological accounts of social interactions which occur in day to day life. Over my first few weeks at university I noticed a wide range of social practices and observed people handing unfamiliar situations as well as experiencing them first hand myself. Therefore I felt that taking the functionalist approach of dramaturgy was a relevant and fitting theory to explain an approach to understanding both human and university life and the presentation of self in society.

shows characteristics of great piety to his parents and the lack of desire to be

In Harte’s short story “The Outcast of Poker Flat”, Harte uses stereotyped characters to relay an important message. In the short story, a few improper people are forced out of the town of Poker Flat. During their journey Harte begins to convey John Oakhurst and Mother Shipton’s true identity. Harte uses John Oakhurst and Mother Shipton as stereotyped characters to get a point across. Harte allows the readers to see that just because people have flaws does not make them a bad person.

Throughout history, mental illness has been labeled as a defining deformity, that harnesses in its “victims,” into a box, parallel to the familiar “mime in a box” image. In a world where we glorify “normality,” a lack of illness, which by all means is a gift, the beauty of one mind takes away from the beauty of an outlier, even though, ironically people may not even recognize their differences. Hester, at a glance suffers from a literal scarlet letter, but an imprint on her brain may exist as well. Irrational actions, sudden emotional episodes, and destructive thoughts can only prevail for so long following sin; Hester’s persona has branches of self-defeating personality disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. No one of her time, however, will bring the issue to light, Hester will be left known as the mistress, a witch, or “A,” rather than to explore her “complicated” condition. As decades pass, Hester’s state will remain, as the “A,” the mark of the stigma on mental illness today. When left neglected, society rejects the possibility that under a visible coating, mental deformities may lie; those who are divergent, who require affection more, are made subordinate, marginalized with no quest for a cure.

Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff are both high-class protagonists in society but are lying about their lives to preserve their reputations. “You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town . . . I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury . . . ” (Wilde 1498). Ernest is Jack’s fictional brother, who always gets into mischief and uses him an excuse to go into town. Likewise, Algernon uses Bunbury, his fictitious and ill friend, to allow him to go to the country. These characters enable these gentlemen to retreat from their social obligations. Missing an essential reception to aid their “brother” or “friend,” gives the appearance that they are caring men, which is an admirable trait among the rich, but they are not. The name “Bunbury” is an interesting name

This paper will be a critique of Erving Goffman’s theory of Stigma. Goffman provides a very powerful analysis of motivation in everyday social interactions. He implements a strong emphasis on the idealized forms of behavior and mannerisms of the pressures on individuals to conform to the given societal expectations. (what does Goffman stigma tell us?) This paper will further offer an exploration of Goffman 's ideas and will identify both strengths and weaknesses within Goffman 's theory of stigma. To begin, this paper will offer a summary of the theory. Next, a critique examining stigma and comparing it to many related processes. To continue, I will be discussing the lack of attention Goffman gives to the broader, social- structural concerns that lead to stigmatization. To conclude, this paper will recognize the great work his theory has provided for understanding deviancy.

Goffman felt that there was already good work done on the topic of stigma. However, he wanted to discuss the previous works and his own ideas regarding stigma. Writing Stigma Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity provided him a place to discuss his ideas regarding prior work on stigma, and to give his spin on it.

A Critical Review of Erving Goffman’s Stigma In his preface Goffman states his intentions to use ‘popular work’ on stigma as a basis for his own review and expansion within his preoccupation of ‘social information,’ the information an individual directly conveys about himself. The book opens with a letter to a “lonelyhearts” column from a girl born without a nose which concludes ‘Ought I commit suicide?’ This sets the tone for a book which aims to be a comprehensive and illuminating excursion into the situation of persons who are unable to conform to standards that society calls “normal.”

Goffman looks at variety of strategies when it comes to stigmatized individuals, especially ones that deal with rejection from others. Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity was published in 1963 and in the first chapter the book, Goffman determines the three types of stigma; stigma of character traits, physical stigma, and stigma of group identity. Stigma of character traits are “blemishes of individual character perceived as weak will, domineering, or unnatural passions, treacherous and rigid beliefs, and dishonesty, these being inferred from a known record of, for example, mental disorder, imprisonment, addiction, alcoholism, homosexuality, unemployment, suicidal attempts, and radical political behavior” (Goffman, 1963). Physical stigma is the deformities of the body, whereas the stigma of group identity is a stigma that derives from a particular race, nation and/or religion. These three types of stigma have one thing in common, their sociological features: “an individual who might have been received in normal social

Social identity theory, it is a person’s sense that is based around the group they are in, either by their personal identity or with different kinds of social identities. That is, people will try to improve their own image of themselves. The theory was proposed by Henri Tajfel. People can increase their self-esteem by both their own achievement and interaction with a successful group of people. This shows the importance of social belonging. This theory is based around three mental processes, social categorization, social identification and social comparison.

Furthermore, Goffman introduces the reader to two main groups of characters in his logic: the “normal” and the stigmatized and classifies the stigmatized again into the discredited and the discreditable. The discredited show an obvious discrepancy between their actual and their virtual social identity, while the discreditable do not immediately show their differentness. Additionally, the reader gets introduced to the terms (1) social information, (2) symbols, (3) status symbols and (4) stigma symbols

Differences in a person’s social context and hobbies can sometimes create barriers to belong to a community. In ‘Romulus, My Father’ a comparison is drawn between Raimond and typical Australian farm boys, ‘I had virtually no interest in farm life...’ (p.60) and ‘...I was the only boy in the area who did not kill rabbits…’ These comparisons alienated Raimond and perhaps disabled him from creating strong friendships with the farm boys because of a lack of common interests. Later in the story Raimond recognised