As with so many topics in the field of communication, the study of face and facework begins with Erving Goffman. Goffman’s 1955 essay “On Face-Work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements of Social Interaction” is the first in his canon to emphasize the omnipresence of symbolic construction of meaning in everyday life—specifically, through our communication with others (Goffman, 1955). With this essay, Goffman adopts the dramaturgical perspective, which posits that human beings are social actors who engage with other actors on the “stages” of social settings. As these interactions occur and lead to other interactions, shared histories are developed with other actors and used to maintain the performer’s persona (Goffman, 1955). Stemming from the dramaturgical …show more content…
However, Goffman is careful to note that practices which might be considered to be “universal” human nature, but are not innate. Rather, as societies develop individuals within those societies must develop rituals to regulate interactions for net benefit of all actors. While Goffman did not directly address the means through which those interaction strategies are developed, and such strategies are refined over time. This reflects some of the central propositions of Bandura’s social learning theory (to be developed as social cognitive theory), which suggests that individual behavior is refined through direct experience (the individual engaging in behaviors) or vicarious experiences (an individual watching others engaging in behaviors) and evaluating the rewards or costs incurred as a result (Bandura, 1971, 2001). Similarly, Goffman’s interaction rituals enable individuals to develop face maintenance strategies through direct experiences (they themselves experiencing a threat to face, or witnessing another actor’s threat to face). Despite Goffman’s lack of explication about the processes through which face maintenance strategies are developed, it can be inferred that those strategies are developed through time and experience as actors in the social …show more content…
Returning to Goffman’s conceptualizations of the “front stage” and the “back stage”, it is evident that some actors (by virtue of their roles or responsibilities) are more able to draw distinctions between their front and back stages. However, these difficulties may be mitigated by other actors on the “team”, and the goals that are shared between them. If other actors value maintaining the distinction between front stage and back stage, between transparency and privacy, then co-operation to achieve that shared goal will better distribute the burden of maintaining those boundaries (Goffman, 1959). In this respect, impression management and more specifically face maintenance are dependent on the support of other social actors. This more clearly illustrates that recovering face after incidences of threat requires a concerted effort from multiple social
Dramaturgy is a view of social life as a series of dramatic performances akin to those taken place in a theatre (Ritzer, 144). Much of Goffman’s dramaturgy is concerned with the processes by which such disturbances are prevented and dealt with (Ritzer, page 144). In the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman developed a new approach to the sociological study of human interaction, due to a mental health court scenario, of what he referred to as “dramaturgical” because of the analogy it had of the theatre to describe how an individual engages in social interaction with others in a performance (Staton et al, page 5). This performance was a way for actors to influence their audience in a given situation. In the addition of the mental health scenario, age, gender, and race relevant. The human relationships observed in the mental health court was analyzed was theorized so Goffman could explain characteristics of human interactions.
The concept of face is referring to the socially approved self-image. It is about honor and shame belief and value systems. Facework is the verbal and nonverbal interactions we use in regards to our own social self-image and the social image of others.
‘On face-work’ is Goffman’s first essay from his book entitled ‘Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-face Behavior’ which was originally written in 1955. It considers the approaches to human interaction alongside five more essays featured in this book and focuses on the concept of the face. His essay on face-work offers an analytic study which explores interaction as a ritual process. It is instrumental in providing a sound understanding of the definition of face and is a comprehensive insight into basic kinds of face-work.
This face of the other, the stranger serves as an “indicative surface” to us. Lingis (1994) states “The face of another is a surface upon which one senses directions and directives that order me; w...
The social learning theory “states that behavior is learned from the environment through observational learning” (McLeod, 2011). For instance, I saw my mom getting ready for church and eventually I noticed that she put her hair in a ponytail only on Sundays. Furthermore, after seeing her do this so many times I began doing the same thing on Sundays. As a child, I observed her every move and I wanted to imitate her behavior. Through observational learning, I learned what was socially acceptable by watching my mother’s
Adopted into sociology by Erving Goffman, he developed most terms and the idea behind dramaturgical analysis in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. This book lays out the process of human social interaction, sometimes called "impression management". Goffman makes the distinction between "front stage" and "back stage" behavior. “Front stage" actions are visible to the audience and are part of the performance. We change our hair color, eye color, complextion. Wearing make-up, the way our hair is styled, the clothes we wear. The demeanor we present to the world to the. All of these things lead to an outward appearance of what we want others to think we are. People engage in "back stage" behaviors when no audience is present. We whine and moan about the customers we deal with. Hair goes un-styled, make is wiped off. Clothing is comfortable and unrestricting. When a person conducts themselves in certain way not consistent with social expectations, it is often done secretly if this ...
In this context, face holds the same meaning as the metaphorical application of ‘saved my face,’ which would be applied to a situation in which an embarrassing situation is deftly avoided (88). However, the notion of ‘face’ in a metaphorical application finds its origins in word conducted by Erving Goffman. Based off of Goffman’s work, Brown and Levinson produced their politeness theory, which asserts: “The reason we are polite is that we are concerned with maintaining two distinct kinds of face: negative face [and] positive face” (88). Negative face means that one’s actions are unimpeded by others, and positive face means that one’s wants are desirable to at least some others (88). The notion of face, considered as a general term, is a widely accepted factor in the evaluation of politeness
The idea that people learn from one another through observations, modeling, and imitation has been identified as the theory of social learning. Psychologist, Albert Bandura, proclaims that human personality is an interaction between the environment and the mental processes of the individual. To test this theory, Bandura established that children can learn a social behavior such as aggression simply by observing the modeled behavior of another person. Physically aggressive children acquire aggressive tendencies by how their parents have disciplined them. If screaming, slapping, beating, etc., is evident, children are likely to mimic such behaviors and this has the potential for escalated abuse and essentially, violence begets violence. This theory also infers the influence media violence on
For this paper, I will be focusing on Erving Goffman’s concept of dramaturgy. Erving Goffman was a sociologist who studied social interaction, and is well known for his work on ‘the self.’ His book, Presentation of Self, continues to be an important and relevant book in sociology since it explains why social interaction within humans is important. In his theory, Goffman explains that people are like actors performing on a stage because of how they live their lives. Drama is used as a metaphor for how an individual presents themselves to society.
The presence of nonverbal messages in our communication is very important. Following the text, researchers have estimated it is up to “65 percent of social meaning we convey in face-to-face interactions is a result of nonverbal behavior” (131). The movie “Mrs. Doubtfire” is a typical example about the interactions among characters, also with audience. Several scenes in this movie show us the effects of nonverbal messages in communication, especially through the character Daniel, who disguises himself as a middle-aged British nanny in order to be near his children.
He suggested the metaphor of the stage, where people play roles in specific everyday situations using trust and tact, the control of bodily gestures, face and gaze and the use of language to set the parameters of their social interactions. People individually participate in these rules of conduct to produce social order. Looking at Goffman's work of the Presentation of One Self in Everyday life, Stigma and Asylums, Goffman argues that it is these interactions, or the interactional order, that constructs society. This Essay looks to give an Insight of how Foucault and Goffman Compare and contrast in their theories to give an understanding of how the exertion of power and expert knowledge constructs individuals identities. Michel Foucault’s
According to Erving Goffman’s performances theory, the way we interpret ourselves is similar to a theater in which we are all actors on a stage playing a variety of roles. The way in which we act in front of a group of observers or audience is our performance. Goffman introduces the idea that we are always performing for our observers like actors performing on a stage. The impression that we give off to an audience in a scenario is the actor’s front. You can compare an actor’s front to a script. Certain scenarios have scripts that suggest the actor how he or she should behave in every situation. The setting for the performances includes the location and scenery in which the acing takes place.
The social learning theory states, that an individual learn behavior through observing their environment as a child. “Without the process of reasoning observational learning cannot happen. Children witness the people around them behaving and acting in numerous ways. People that are being observed are best known as the “model”. In todays’ society children are surrounded by countless influential models, such as their mother and father within the family, characters on television, friends that they associate with and teachers at school. These people provide behavior examples that children watch closely and later imitate. Ki...
Goffman, E. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Double Day
Erving Goffman uses a dramaturgical perspective in his discussion of impression management. Goffman’s analysis of the social world primarily centres around studies of the self and relationship to one’s identity created within a society. Through dramaturgy, Goffman uses the metaphor of performance theatre to convey the nature of human social interaction, drawing from the renowned quote “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It.’ Much of our exploration of Goffman’s theories lies within the premise that individuals engage in impression management, and achieve a successful or unsuccessful performance. Impression management refers to the ways in which individuals attempt to control the impression that others have of them stemming from a basic human desire to be viewed by others in a favourable light. Goffman argues that our impressions are managed through a dramaturgical process whereby social life is played out like actors performing on a stage and our actions are dictated by the roles that we are playing in particular situations. In a social situation, the stage is where the encounter takes place, the actors are the people involved in the interaction, and the script is the set of social norms in which the actors must abide by. Just as plays have a front stage and back stage, this also applies in day-to-day interactions. Goffman’s theory of the front and back stage builds on Mead’s argument of the phases of the self. The front stage consists of all the public and social encounters with other people. It is similar to the ‘me’ which Mead talks about, as it involves public encounters as well as how others perceive you. Meanwhile the back stage, like the ‘I’, is the time spent with oneself reflecting on the interactions. Therefore, according to Goffman’s dramaturgical