Theories of Contextual Behavior in Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

After examining Goffman and Schechner's theories of reception and performance a performance is unique and interactive. The uniqueness of a performance is on the interactivity of the creation or production from the audience. Goffman defines performance by the influence it has on participants. If it doesn't influence the participants or audience it’s not a performance. While Schencher defines a performance by what is placed into the performance. Performances are bits of restored behavior that include living behaviors recombined, rearranged, and reconstructed. In other words performances exist as actions, interactions, and relationships. There are many kinds of performance in the arts, in sports , and in ritual. For example, War Horse Film was a

Growing up in a generation with high expectations of identity that are constantly altering whether it’s the latest trends, styles and even mind-set principles, can be over whelming. When asked to describe one-self, we often are stuck thinking of what particular word could fully describe who we are as a person. We have such a hard time of coming with just one word because there is no form of describing one’s self. How we see ourselves, we may not want to be that the next day. “Looks can be deceiving” or “the first impressions are the most important” is commonly instilled in our mindset which it is true to some extent. Our work

The front stage is where we are able to control what someone may see. Whereas the back stage is where we are able to let our guard down. Both front and back stage is something we are able to control, how people perceive us is something we can not control.

Goffman refers to the act of an individual presenting themselves in front of an audience or a specific set of observers a ‘performance’. The performers convey impressions and information to others in order to support the identity they are presenting, some of the factors engrained in the performance are an appropriate setting, manners, appearance, and front. Goffman refers to a front stage, back stage, as well as an off stage, these regions are meant to reflect how an ‘actor’ may act when in front of different audiences or no audience at all. Goffman touches upon how an

The above example illustrates not only how the theatrical performance affects the audience, but also how the audience influences its dynamics, development and the characters within it. The actors feel a certain level of acceptance from the viewer, who demands a certain way of depicting the character. Theatre is not just entertainment, itís something much more than that ñ itís education. Theatre should always represent things, rather than

In the reading “Performance Studies” by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. She talks about the idea of performance studies as a broad interdisciplinary, intercultural study. She looks at performance studies from a different scope, which allows so much more to become a performance, rather than just having art and theatre as a performance. She backs up her arguments with the three paradigms, which are, the broad spectrum approach, aesthetic communication approach and ethnoscenology. Barbara shows how performance studies has evolved over the years and how the definition of performance studies has become broader in the sense that it no longer just talks about theatre and art but more so the idea that everything is a performance and we present it using embodiment, agency and event (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 43). The argument about embodiment, agency and event really caught my attention and helped me look at things with a different perspective. It also showed me the world in a new light. I’ve always looked at the world with a humanitarian perspective with the “why” but when looking at performances with the semantics perspective you tend to look at the “what” and then the “how”. For example what are they doing this for and what is the motive behind it and how is this a performance.

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

In The Presentation of Everyday Life, Goffman lays out the seven elements that create a performance: belief in the role that is being played, the front or ‘mask’, dramatic realization, idealization, maintenance of expressive control, misrepresentation, and deception/mystification. Using the simple description of someone interviewing for a job, we can see that “As he seeks to assume the role of an ideal employee (idealization), he tries (in his performance) to convey a certain image about himself through his dress, his speech, and his expressions (his front), emphasizing those things that he wants the interviewers to know (dramatic realization). He has to maintain control over these expressions throughout the interview (maintenance of expressive control). Any lapse in his performance in that role (misrepresentation) may lead to him revealing those things that he has been trying to conceal (mystification).” (Corbin, 2012)

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.

Performance. The interactions are viewed as a performance, constantly being shaped by the environment and audience, with the objective of providing others with impressions that are consonant with the desired goals of the actor. Specifically Goffman states as “all the activity of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his continuous presence before a particular set of observers and which has some influence on the observers” (1959, 32). Goffman (1959) uses the

In this essay I will take an updated look at Erving goffman 's theory of embarrassment, i will explore how embarrassment occurs and what updates can be adapted to goffman 's work considering not all social interaction happens face-to-face today. I will argue that Embarrassment for the generation of millennials is different and can take place online through social media, and the changes in what is considered embarrassing through generational changes. I will explore the idea of intimate publics and the risks associated with impression management. I will also look at the way goffman 's theory could translate into other modern developments with attention to the financial support offered by parents to young people today, and how financial independence has had a changing landscape.

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.

Finally the last element which Burke discusses is agency which is the theoretical points, he claims that the whole lot is realised through language. From these elements Goffman then went on to develop his own ‘dramaturgical’ investigations based on six themes: the performance, the team, the region, discrepant roles, communication out of the character and impression management. Nothing of Goffman’s dramaturgical world is quite what it seems. Rather, people are all portrayed as performers enacting rehearsed lines and roles in places that are carefully constructed in order to maximise the potential of deception. He then goes on to suggest that as performers people both ‘give’ and ‘give off’ impressions. It has been suggested that Goffman’s dramaturgical world is thus one of misdirection in which general suspicion is necessary; he developed an interest in espionage practices mainly because he recognised these as extensions of everyday behaviour. Goffman then went on to identify five moves in social interaction which are the ‘unwitting’, the ‘naïve’, the ‘covering’, the ‘uncovering’ and finally the ‘counter uncovering’ move (1959: 11-27). Each of these moves is designed either to achieve some advantage directly, or to reveal the strategies of other players. These moves are used in social worlds, or as Goffman called them, ‘situated activity systems’. Each is regulated by adopted norms known by system’s members. Rather than concentrating on the production of meanings, the

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.

In “Presentations of Self in Everyday Life,” Goffman is constantly explaining how everyday life is a dramaturgy. A dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and essentially the production of a theatrical play. A social situation is much like a play. Every play has a stage, actors, a script, a set, rehearsals, and practices. In a social situation, the stage is where the encounter takes place, the actors are the people involved in the encounter, the script is the social norms of the social encounter, and the set is the environment where the encounter takes place. It takes practices and