The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Essay Example

Status symbols are specific material clues that refer to an individual’s position in society such as a doctor with a stethoscope or an athlete with a basketball. h)Roles. Roles are specific patterns of behavior that are expected of people who fall within a specific social status position. K) Major institutions.

A major institution is any institution as defined above that is significantly large and well organized such as a school system or the national government. n)Mechanical solidarity. This refers to a situation in which things happen essentially in the same way they have always happened bringing about social cohesion based on shared experience and knowledge skills. o)Organic solidarity. Organic solidarity suggests there is a sort of collective consciousness that exists due to society’s inescapable mutual interdependence which exists in proportion to that society’s complexity in its division of labor.

The theory that Goffman presents suggests that the forces that shape who we become, who we are, and how we will act in various situations are significantly affected by the people with whom we associate. According to this theory, each individual tends to present themselves as what we want others to think of us as if we are permanently on stage. In keeping with the metaphor, he suggests we spend a great deal of time rehearsing our performances in the backstage action using the life script we are given by our society before our ‘live’ performance.

This performance, again like that seen on a stage, also requires the participation of other characters/cast/individuals if it is to be successfully presented to those who sit in judgment of our performance or simply as the audience. It requires everyone to play their role correctly and say the appropriate script to keep the entire show progressing smoothly.

Even though Goffman’s ideas tend to undermine my concept of the self and individual identity, I find myself agreeing with his analogy of life as a performance conducted on a stage.