ipl-logo

Erving Goffman Essay

635 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Female gender expectations

Katie Carroll Introduction to Sociology 24 September 2014 Presentation on Self Sociologist, Erving Goffman, interpreted social interaction. He believed that people live their lives as though they are actors preforming and the world is their stage. As we carry out of different roles in everyday life, we are thought of as actors. Goffman calls this idea dramaturgical perspective, or “a person’s efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others” (Macionis 132). With dramaturgical analysis comes status and role. Goffman views status as a “part in a play” and role as the “script” (132). The way we display ourselves by acting out these parts and scripts is considered our performance. Goffman defines our performance as the presentation …show more content…

These social roles are behaviors that are expected of someone in a particular status. One single status can have a number of different roles which makes up the role set. As a girl, I feel like I am expected to perform the roles of being respectful, pleasant, and lady-like. As a daughter, my role set includes obeying my parents, being honest, working hard, and doing my best. Being an eighteen year-old gives me the roles of having fun but not too much fun. Also, this is when I need be in school and preparing for my future. As a student my roles are to attend class, do my work, study, and make good grades, and as a friend, I am expected to be there for my friends, be supportive of one another, and to have fun together. My student roles and my friend roles are the most salient to me. As a college student, I am constantly with my friends, and we have a lot of impact on one another. Having friends and being a good friend is a very important important to me. However, doing well in college is also very important. These competing roles of being a student and a friend create a role conflict. For example, I have the role of studying and a making good grade on a test, but I also have the role of spending time with my friends. I am pulled in many directions as I try to fulfill my different statuses. Sometimes I have to decide which role is more

Show More
Related
608 Words | 3 Pages

“All this play acting, this theatrical fiction, helps us give shape to our social world.” Theatrical performances go beyond the surfaces of reality, revealing a deeper perspective for the audience. The audience plays an important role in performances because if the audience is not satisfied throughout the play then the performance was not successful. The characters and the meaning behind the performance bring life to theater.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

As a student, I learned to function in this role through a combination of formal education, socialization, and observation of others. My role as a student involves attending classes, completing assignments, and interacting with professors and peers. Through years of schooling, I have internalized the expectations, norms, and scripts associated with being a student. For example, I have learned to follow classroom rules, respect authority figures, and engage in academic tasks. As a son, I acquired knowledge and understanding of my role within the family through socialization and observation of my parents and other family members.

Read More
537 Words | 3 Pages

In class, I strive to not only do well but to have the ability to help others that need assistance. Every day I try to set an example and be a role model in class and even for the people in the grades below. No matter what

Read More
684 Words | 3 Pages

With learning about persona we learn that it is something that is performed. With the proper study of persona, Goffman defines performance in persona as all the activity of a given participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in

Read More
1448 Words | 6 Pages

With each social role one adopts, their behavior changes to fit the expectations both they and others have of that role. Social

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

As we present ourselves in various situations, we are much like actors putting on performances for their audience, for example we revise our behaviours to suit or situation in the sense that we act differently when surrounded by friends as opposed to in the presence of authoritative and respectable figures. The way in which Goffman explains how people present themselves in society is with the metaphor of a theatrical performance shaped by environment and audience, constructed to provide others with "impressions" that are consonant with the desired goals of the actor (Goffman 1959, 17). A dramaturgic constructs the story and then plays the part using structure, metaphors and symbolic gestures to portray the story and the character they represent to the audience. It is important to note that an actor is also an audience to the audience, the actor can gauge the audience 's reaction to his performance and adjust it

Read More
145 Words | 1 Pages

School is my number one priority although I do a few extracurricular activities; Key Club, CEC, Youth Group, and French Club. I also enjoy volunteer work; visiting elderly people at local nursing homes, helping out at The Pink Lemonade, benefit

Read More
775 Words | 4 Pages

Gender role refers to those behaviors and attitudes that are considered to belong to one sex. Gender role is based on femininity and masculinity that differentiate women and men by giving men some roles and women which results to gender inequality. There some work in society that is regarded to belong to women such as cooking, taking care of children and other less important roles while men are given roles that makes them superior than women. Most of the gender roles associated with women makes them inferior and creates a room to be oppressed. Gender roles are constructed by society and attributed to women or men.

Read More
1743 Words | 7 Pages

Usually, society views those who have a score of four and higher to be successful and adored by many. Therefore, an individual with a low score can cause society to view them negatively. As Lacie strives to maintain a positive impression on others, she depicts a performer of her own theatrical performance. By using a Symbolic Interactionist perspective, Nosedive is explained through Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis which includes the aspects of front stage, back stage, and embarrassment. Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis depicts life in the form of a theatrical performance where everyday life represents a stage and each individual is a performer (Brym et al.

Read More
374 Words | 2 Pages

Term gender role is described as a set of social norms of what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate or desirable for a person based on their sex ussualy centered around opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity. Gender roles traditionally were often divided into distinct feminine and masculine gender roles, until especially the twentieth century when these roles diversified into many different acceptable male or female roles in modernized countries throughout the world. Gender roles are closely linked with gender stereotypes.

Read More
962 Words | 4 Pages

Contemporary theatre breaks the structures of drama by redefining the concepts of meaning and interpretation in elements such as character, conflict, time in progression and space of reference. This poses a question in theatre as the art of representation, but with post-drama, is mimesis still integral to theatre? Performances that have gone against canonical drama and a theatrical text itself prove that theatre has gone beyond words in order to show scenic semiotics, which is the basis for

Read More
727 Words | 3 Pages

In this essay, the relationships between the dramatic character, actor and spectator will be the focus, as well as the role of the dramatic character, actor and spectator in plays that uses metadramatic techniques to represent the fictional world. To illustrate some of these relationships and roles, I will use examples from Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Bogatyrev (1938) refers to the most important aspect of the relationship between the dramatic character, actor and spectator is that the spectator always knows that the character is being played by an actor. Passow (1981:237-254) refers to the relationship between the dramatic character, actor and spectator as a vital part in the creation of the fictional world of drama. Passow also the

Read More
1690 Words | 7 Pages

Outline and assess the dramaturgical approach of Erving Goffman. In your answer you should consider how Goffman’s ideas could be applied to an everyday situation of your choice. We are all social actors according to Erving Goffman. In everyday life, in every situation, we are continuously portraying ourselves in a certain way. We want to be perceived in a certain way, so we have different ‘masks’ for each social interaction we have.

Read More
1074 Words | 5 Pages

Drama is a study of human relationships that makes the individual active, and affects the cognitive, affective, dynamic, and social aspects of a person. With its layout, drama has qualities, which enable the individual to take pleasure, and develops one’s aesthetic appreciation of drama (Bruner, et al, 1976). Drama is actually an activity that children do excitingly and with a passion. Children, love role play and acting out as this is the only key ways in which they make sense of the world they live it and try to connect to it. All areas of a child’s growth can be stimulated by dramatic play and in this case dramatic play refers to role play and drama.

Read More
1687 Words | 7 Pages

Since birth until now, I have held a numerous amount of statuses as a sister, friend, mother, wife, soldier, teacher, and a voter. In those statuses, I had to carry myself in certain behavior occupying those statuses. These are known as roles. As a sister, more importantly, a big sister of my house as a child, I had to make sure I looked after my two baby sisters as well as, help them with homework, brushing their teeth, and helping them pick out their clothes. I also had to obtain a job,

Read More

More about Erving Goffman Essay

Related Topics

Open Document