Extra Credit : The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life--CAI YAYU

(1) Goffman is an American sociologist and one of the leading figures in symbolic interactionism. He is the author of The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, and his main representative sociological ideas include the analysis of dramatic elements and impression management.

(2) Goffman's analysis of symbolic interactionism is mainly based on his famous theatre theory. Trained in anthropology and influenced by symbolic interactionism, his focus was on the analysis of 'actor' performances. He argued that the world is a stage and that everyone is an actor, whose activities are performed and constitute the plot of a living drama in some sense.

(3) According to Goffman, if an actor wants to play his role well and make a good impression on the audience, he must manage his actions during the performance, otherwise he will not be able to achieve the desired effect. Otherwise the desired effect will not be achieved. He calls this management 'impression management'.

*Goffman compares society to a large stage and considers that everyone performs on it, and that this performance consists of the performance of all participants in social interaction, both in terms of the performance of the self, the expression of feelings, the sending of messages, and the understanding of these actions and symbols by those around them. Goffman compares human activity to a performance in a theatre, and studies social interaction from a theatrical perspective, hence his theory is called 'Dramaturgy'.

*Impression Management: In performance, we are all very concerned with and try to control the impressions we give to others. We use words, gestures, gestures, etc. to make the impression we want others to have (self-performance). This process is called 'impression management'. This process is called 'impression management'. The behaviour of the individual in the interaction changes from satisfying his or her own needs to satisfying the needs of others. The theory is also known as 'impression management theory'.

*Appraisal of Goffman's ideas:

Goffman's theory is devoted to the study of some interaction phenomena and techniques in people's daily lives, revealing some basic facts of social life and some basic laws of interpersonal interaction. To a certain extent, it fills the deficiency of the early symbolic interaction theory in the study of concrete implementation processes such as action strategies and planning.

At the same time the delineation of performance areas and scenes allowed his theory to reflect the interconnected and mutually constraining tensions between social settings (structures) and individuals, which became the theoretical source for Giddens and others to analyse everyday life.

But through these performative devices he attempted to harmonise interpersonal relations in society and maintain the order of social life. In a capitalist society of class antagonism, it is inherently impossible to achieve harmonious interpersonal relations.