week 4 slides Flashcards
what is self?
- our sense of who we are as individuals
- the source and object of reflexive behaviour
- the actions of one individual and the individual whom the actions are
- the self as both passive (let it happen) and active (choose to identify a certain way)
Mead’s “I” and “me”
- both I and the Me make up the self
- Me is the socialized self (passive)
- I is the impulse (active)
importance of language?
- an important step in acquiring a sense of self is learning one’s name as a child
- one of the earliest steps
role taking
- the process of imaginatively occupyinf the position of another person and viewing the self and the situation from the person’s perspective
- another important step in the development of self
cooley and the looking glass self
- self as a social object
- perception of self is based on the perceptions of others’ perceptions
- the image of our self is acquired through social relationships (“significant others”)
mead’s play and game
- 2 stages to emergence of self
- play (imitating roles they see enacted by adults)
- game (more complex: taking on the roles of those around them)
the generalized other
- a conception of the attitudes and expectations held in common by the members of the organized groups with whom they interact
- when we imagine what the group expects of us, we are taking on the role of the generalized other
identities
- meanings attached to the self by one’s self and others
- we possess multiple identities
- role identities (role that we play in relation to social group we are in)
- social identities (based on our belonging to social groups)
situated self
- the self in particular situations
- multiple identities make up the self and not all are compatible
identity salience
- which identity is more prominent
- hierarchy of identities
- more salient identities will be enacted more frequently
- more salient identities will be enacted in more situations
- more salient identities are less situational
- conform more with role expectations of salient identities
unified experience of self
ex. bi racial, sister, engineer, genx, and woman
self presentation
- inherent in all social situations
- the process by which individuals attempt to control the impressions that others form of them in social interactions
- authentic, ideal, and tactical
authentic self presentation
- the self you believe you are
- internalized sense of self
ideal self presentation
-who you want to / aspire to be
tactical self presentation
-self that you present that is consistent with expectations of others
shared definitions of a situation
- for social interaction to run smoothly, we need:
- shared understanding of the situation
- sense of situated identity
- shared sense of interaction goals, appropriate actions and behaviours
frames
- a set of widely understood rules or conventions pertaining to a transient but repetitive situation that indicates which roles should be enacted and which behaviours are proper
- ex first date frame
situated identity
-our conception of who we are in relation to the people around ys
self-disclosure
- process of revealing feelings/behaviours to others
- the more comfortable we get, the more we reveal-more authentic self
- reciprocal process
impression management
-ie insta vs reality
tactical impression management
- conscious decision to control info in an interaction to influence impressions
- why do we do this? to get people to like us, to get people to respect us, to get people to fear us, to get people to feel sorry for us
impression management topics
-physical appearance and props
front stage and back stage
- goffman
- text refers to “regions”
- putting on a performance
impression management tactics: ingratiation
- the attempts we make to get someone to like us (agreeing, flattery)
- can be done consciously or automatically
ingratiation strategies
- opinion comformity
- other enhancement
- supplication
- selective self presentation
aligning actions
- results from an impression management “fail”
- how we neutralize the situation
- disclaimer and accounts
when impression management fails:
cooling out
- eased out of the role
- alternative identity options
- close relationships
identity degradation
- forced out of the role
- no adequate alternative identites
- dramatic degradation ceremony
- ex prisoner
stigma and spoiled identities
- goffman (again)
- an attribute, behaviour, reputation or identity that is socially discrediting in some way
- discredited and discreditable
- a number of coping strategies (concealment, remedy the stigma, overly pleasant)
