Erving Goffman Flashcards
Week Five
– He suggests that individuals engage in impression management,
similar to actors on a stage, to present a particular image to
others.
– Goffman highlights that individuals play different roles in various
contexts, each with associated scripts and expected behaviors.
– Goffman explores how stigmatized individuals manage their social
identity and cope with the consequences of stigmatization.
– He argues that total institutions impose strict social control and
lead to a loss of personal identity.
Key Arguments of Goffman
social life is akin to a theatrical
performance.
Dramaturgical Perspective
people engage in behaviors and
presentations to create specific impressions on others
Impression Management
in social interactions, people
agree on a shared understanding of the context and
meaning of the interaction
Definition of the situation
Individuals who deviate from social norms or
possess attributes that are socially devalued.
Stigma
Closed and highly regulated settings like
prisons or mental hospitals.
Total Institutions
– When people talk to each other, they try to learn and share different
things about themselves and the people they’re talking to.
– For instance, social status, self-concept, attitudes, competence, and
trustworthiness
– Understanding this information helps individuals “define the
situation” and know how to interact with others effectively
Presentation of Self in Society
– Information in Social Interactions
– Impression management refers to the deliberate or unconscious
efforts by individuals to shape the impressions they convey to others.
Presentation of Self in Society
– Impression Management
– Social interactions that lack genuine belief in the role or impression
they are presenting
– E.g., actions of…politicians; salespeople; marketing; celebrities
Presentation of Self in Society
– Cynical Performance
– Part of an individual’s performance that consistently and
intentionally defines the situation for those who observe the
performance.
– E.g., clothing, posture, speech patterns, facial expressions,
bodily gestures
Presentation of Self in Society
-Front
– Breakdown of Spheres of Life
– Uniformity and Scheduling
– Loss of Identity and Control
– Dehumanization
Asylums
-Characteristics of Total Institutions
– Loss of Free expression
– Exposure of Self—expose personal
information and past actions
– Degrading Encounters
– Self becomes Malleable—begins the process
of redefining the self
– Eventually, the self becomes a reflection of the
goals of the institution—the “mortification of
self”
Asylums
-The Moral Career of the Mental Patient
– To counteract the challenges to self, people engage in practices
that protect their self-autonomy
– “Acts of hostility against the institution have to rely on limited, ill-
designed devices, such as banging a chair against the floor or striking a
sheet of newspaper sharply so as to make an annoying explosive sound.
And the more inadequate this equipment is to convey rejection of the
hospital, the more the act appears as a psychotic symptom, and the more
likely it is that management feels justified in assigning the patient to a
bad ward.”
– However, this can create a vicious cycle of definition
Asylums
- Resistance and Secondary Adjustments
– The transformation of self-identity and behaviors because of
their confinement in total institutions.
– They become reliant upon the institution for their sense of
self
– Undermines the rehabilitative claims of total institutions
Asylums
– Institutionalization
