Week 5- Presentation of Self

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What is the self? How can it be socially managed and produced?

Erving Goffman attempted to answer these questions in his paper, 'the nature of Deference and Demeanor'. According to Goffman, 'deference' and 'demeanor' play an active role in how individuals act and respond to social interactions. They can sometimes work together to support an individuals image of self, or can work in conflict to injure that image. They provide an interesting insight into the way in which the self is a social construction.

• Deference is the use of rituals and codes by a subordinate to show respect to their superordinate. Deference can take the form of compliments, apologies, and even criticisms.

•  Demeanor refers to the appearance of the self, which is displayed through actions, language use, etc. A person can convey a different demeanor depending on their context and what role they take on in these contexts. 

There are a few extra things that help to shape an individual's demeanor, such as 'rules of conduct'. In the reading, Goffman explains that society has placed 'rules of conduct' on how an individual should act in the form of obligations and expectations. An individual's status in society determines the 'rules of conduct' that they must present through their demeanor. For example, a doctor has an obligation to provide treatment to a patient, depending on the result of the demeanor. The patient then gives the doctor deference- praise or criticisms for their help. The doctor can decide to accept the praise. If it is negative deference they may change to fix it.

What I found most interesting about Goffman's work is facework- which is all of the little things we do in life to develop and maintain our 'selfs'. It conveyed to me how cautious we are about keeping our dignity intact when interacting with people (eg. to keep 'good face' or 'saving face'). There are negative sanctions for those who 'lose face' in interactions, such as 'social death' (not being accepted by society) and feeling ashamed.

I found an article titled, 'Managing impressions online', which relates to Goffman's ideas on presentation of self. It explores online dating participants and how they manage their online presentation of self in order to accomplish the goal of finding a romantic partner. I agree with the statement that self presentation strategies are important during relationship initiation, since others will draw on that information to decide whether to pursue a relationship. The same can be said for social networking sites, such as Facebook and Myspace, where users draw on the information and photos that are provided to form impressions of their 'friends'.

References:

Goffman, E. 1967, 'The Nature of Deference and Demeanor,' in Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour, New York: Pantheon Books, pp.47-96.

Ellison. N, Heino. R and Gibbs, J. 2006, 'Making Impressions Online: Self Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment,' in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol.11, no.2, pp.415-441.