1922 _ 1982

Presentor: Melika Rajabi

micro sociologist

Born in 1922 in Mannville, Alberta

From Ukrainian Jewish parents

From 1937 Goffman

attended St. John's

Technical High

School in Winnipeg

In 1939 he enrolled

at the University of

Manitoba,

majoring in

chemistry

Early 1940s – first

encountours with

sociology (Dennis

Wrong)

He interrupted his

studies and moved

to Ottawa to work

in the film industry

1945 – BA in

sociology and

anthropology

graduated at

University of Toronto

1949 – MA

1951 _ PhD in

sociology

1952 married Angelica Choate

1958 Became a faculty member at the University of California in Berkley

1959 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

•He used the imagery of the theater to portray the importance of human and social action

1961 Asylum: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates

• examined the nature and effects of being hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital

1962 Full professor

1964 His wife commited suicide

1968 Received Benjamin Franklin Chair in Sociology and anthropology at the

university of Pennsylvania

1971&

1974

Relations in Public (his ideas about everyday life, seen from a sociological

perspective

Frame Analysis (The study of the organization of social experiences)

1981 73rd president of American Sociological Association

Forms of Talk (includes five essays Each addresses both verbal and nonverbal communication through a sociolinguistic model)Goffman married sociolinguist Gillian Sankoff. The following year, their

daughter Alice was born

1982 died from Stomach cancer, in Philadelphia

He was influenced by:

Herbert Blumer Lloyd Warner

Goffman’s Prominent Theories

•Dramaturgy

•Self

•Impression management

•Interaction order

•Total institutions

•Symbolic interactions

-Emphasises the conscious involvement of the actor in social life

-Recognises that social contact is meaningful

-Identifies the need for understanding action in social situations

•Social stigma: an attribute, behavior, or reputation which is socially discrediting in a particular way: it

causes an individual to be mentally classified by others in an undesirable, rejected

stereotype rather than in an accepted, normal one.

•Roles

•Gender

GOFFMAN, ERVING (1922–82)

the best known and most accessible micro sociologist.

Goffman’s approach centered on his analysis of dramaturgy

a view of social life as a series of dramatic performances, and he was

interested in how the self is shaped by the dramatic interactions between

social actors and their audiences.

Basic unit of

analysisteam

any set of individuals who

cooperate in staging a

single act or routine.

the ways in which people routinely monitor the presentation of their selves – almost like actors on a stage – in social situations.

Stigma

when there is a gap between a

person's virtual social identity and

actual social identity.

emerges

Frames

rules that constrain social

action and function to

organize experience.

Central themeimpression

management

The techniques that social

actors use to maintain

particular images of

themselves when they

encounter problems during

interactions

We control the view the audience have of us because we are worried what they will think of us

Goffman's Books

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

1959

Asylum

1961

Relations in public 1971

Frame analysis 1974

Forms of Talk

1981

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Life is a dramatic performance for us

We ‘perform’ for others.

We present a kind of ‘act’ to them.

We perform differently in different situations - and the

world is our ‘stage.

“Life itself is a dramatically enacted thing”

In social interactions, humans are actors on a stage playing

a performance for an audience. The only time that

individuals can be themselves and get rid of their role or

identity in society is backstage where no audience is present.

“The World is like a stage”

No matter where you are,

you always “put a mask” to

get where you want and to

be part of something.

Politeness developed by Brown and Levinson, who extended Goffman'sdramaturgical approach by proposing a heuristic of politeness strategies peopleuse to manage face-threatening acts

Face: How people manage their public identities.Goffman Facework: The process by which people maintain face

Impression Management/ Self Presentation

Face Lose face: To have one's face invalidated by othersHave face: To have it sanctioned

When in the presence of others, one's face is alwayson display and others will form impressions andrespond to these impressions

Cooperative mechanism Interaction

order

BACK STAGE OR REGION

In Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy

Back stage Front stage

Ex: In a restaurant, the kitchen is the back stage area in which waiters can joke,

mock customers and toy with the food. When they come through the door into

the restaurant’s front stage, they are supposed to slip effortlessly into the

controlled performance of the attentive waiter.

We present ‘ourselves’ in six different ways:

Persona Performance staging teams rolePersonal

style

Persona“The aspect of someone’s character that is presented to or

perceived by others” or “a role or character adopted by an

author or an actor”

The different personality ‘masks’ we wear in

different situations, for different people.

Formal: Job interviews, meetings

These could include Informal: Being surrounded by friends,

Family: Parent, child, sibling, long

distant relative, etc.

Ex: For instance, the way we behave with our

family on a picnic is different to how we would

behave with prisoners if we worked as a Prison

Warden.

PerformanceThis refers to how we wear our persona or

personality mask.

for example: we could be deadly serious or

likewise laugh with joy.

Performance describes the extent to which the

core self is engaged in the act of self

presentation.

We might be ‘sincere’ in how we behave. We are honest in what we say and do.

orWe might be ‘cynical’ – and not really believe in our performance.

Staging/ Dramaturgy

Goffman insinuated that people could use

their surroundings when ‘staging’ our

performance of our personae.

What do we need for our ‘performance’?

1. A physical locations.2. Props/objects. 3. Costume/uniform.

These form the context for our performance.

Teams

The group of people we associated in a

social interaction or likewise support in an

event/ circumstance1

Goffman’s suggested that our teams’ are the

company we enlist or support; our friends

and fellow actors

Role‘The function assumed or part played by a person or

thing in a particular situation’.

Our social role plays a massive part of the persona we

give off and the way we perform. It allows us to fit into

the social norms of society, through our primary and

secondary socialisation.

Roles could include; parent, child, sibling, friend,

enemy, teacher, etc.

He argued that we moved from role to role depending

on who we were speaking to, especially given the fact

we had to respect the social hierarchy.

This refers to the individual ‘jobs’ or

responsibilities we have in a ‘team’.

Personal stylePersonal Style takes into account our own individual

styles. Rather than conforming to the social norms

of a situation or group.

“If we accept everything as it is, we would not leave

room for individuality”

Goffman argues, personal style acts as a glue that

ties and supports together all the rest of the elements

• Without personal style, our performance loses the

chance will have no fluidity and no confidence - we

would become ‘bad actors’

This is what makes you different to others

Unusual approach

Unsystematic collection of his materials

(Small groups)

Insufficient detail to let others check his

observations

Avoided theory but in Frame Analysis he set

out the basis for a systematic framework

Short comings

Thanks

for

your

attention

References

http://sociology.about.com/od/Profiles/p/Erving Goffman.htm

http://www.blackwood.org/Erving.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erving_Goffman

http://www.slideshare.net/nadiamireles/erving-goffman-

dramaturgical-approach-presentation

http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0072817186/student_view0/c

hapter10/chapter_summary.html

Goffman, Erving (1959 [1971]), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.

Bruce, S and Yearley, S (2006), The Sage Dictionary of Sociology.

London: Sage