Goffman Impression Management Essay

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Goffman’s Impression Management and its Influence on Contemporary Sociology
Introduction
Erving Goffman was a highly influential in the study of sociology, specifically in the vein of symbolic interactionism. With his contributions to sociological groundwork, there were many significant theories on his behalf that changed the shape of sociology as we know it today. One of these concepts was “impression management,” which was coined by Goffman in his 1959 publication The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. This concept introduced deeper levels into the theory of “self” and how a person operates on a daily basis to maintain the image they want others to see them as. In this paper, I will delve deeper into the concept of impression management by first explaining it in Goffman’s terms, then looking at scholars who influenced Goffman as well as those who were influenced by his theory. In doing this, I will come to the conclusion that impression management is a vital concept of sociology today and helps …show more content…

One way this was done was by breaking down the meaning of “impression management” and dissecting its many interrelated components. Over time, impression management became synonymous with the term “self-presentation,” but in Impression Management: The Self-Concept, Social Identity, and Interpersonal Relations, Dr. Barry R. Schlenker distinguished impression management as the attempt to create an image for oneself in real or imagined social interactions, while self-presentation focuses solely on these created images being “self-relevant” (1980:6). This distinction helped separate the identities people hold for themselves among other identities they perceive in society, but may not necessarily belong to or identify with, such as the impressions and expectations a patient has of a

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