IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT SOCIOLOGY HOW TO

Just imagine the “impression” that can be made by how a person dresses.

Those entering the courtroom are expected to adhere to the scene being set. For example, a judge in a courtroom has many “props” to create an impression of fairness, gravity, and control-like her robe and gavel. Impression management is a critical component of symbolic interactionism. Performance of the back stage self can include behavior that would be unacceptable when performed in front of the audience. Players perform a different self for each other than they do for the audience. The backstage is still a region of performance, but the players can let go of conventions necessary for the front stage self. The backstage self, by contrast, is employed when players are together, but no audience is present. She carries out behavioral conventions that are meaningful to the audience in an attempt to give them a certain perception of her behavior. A person performs her front stage self when she knows she is being watched and that her behaviors is subject to judgment by an audience. The front stage self encompasses the behavior a player (person) performs in front of an audience (usually society, or some subset of society). In the theater metaphor, a person has both a front stage and back stage self for various social situations. Even if you’re not consciously trying to alter your personality, your grandparents, coworkers, and date probably see different sides of you. Think about the way you behave around your coworkers versus the way you behave around your grandparents or with a blind date. Each situation is a new scene, and individuals perform different roles depending on who is present. Calling his theory dramaturgy, Goffman believed that we use impression management to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived. Sociologist Erving Goffman presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Role performance is how a person expresses his or her role. All we can observe is outward behavior or role performance. Of course, it is impossible to look inside a person’s head and study what role they are playing. Even a single status such as “student” has a complex role-set, or array of roles, attached to it. One person can be associated with a multitude of roles and statuses. However, you also play other roles in your life, such as “daughter,” “neighbor,” or “employee.” These various roles are each associated with a different status. Currently, while reading this text, you are playing the role of a student. Roles are patterns of behavior that we recognize in each other, and that are representative of a person’s social status. New York: Abelard-Schuman.During interactions with others, humans modify their behavior to affect their self-presentation or how they are perceived.Īs you can imagine, people employ many types of behaviors in day-to-day life.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT SOCIOLOGY HOW TO

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