Similarities Between Mead And Erving Goffman

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George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman were both American sociologists. Goffman was said to be ‘the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century’(Crossman, 2016). Both Mead and Goffman developed and interpretated the concept of the self, however the following essay will examine the similarities but also the diffrences in their interpretation.

Mead and Goffman, although alike in there understanding of the self, the main basis of the orgin of the self differs between them. Mead takes the stance that the self develops through education and social exposure, wheras Goffman took the view that in given situations we learn to act out socially prescribed roles, using the anology of the ‘theature’. The use of an anology enables further

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