Erving Goffman was a Canadian-American sociologist born in 1922 in Alberta, Canada. He is considered one of the most influential microsociologists of the 20th century. Goffman studied chemistry and sociology at the University of Manitoba and the University of Toronto, receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1953. He developed the theory of dramaturgy, likening social interaction to theatrical performance. He viewed individuals as actors who manage impressions through their performance and use of props, settings, and roles. Goffman made major contributions to the studies of the presentation of self, stigmatization, and total institutions with works like The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) and A

1. 1922 _ 1982
Presentor: Melika Rajabi
micro sociologist

2. Born in 1922 in Mannville, Alberta
From Ukrainian Jewish parents
From 1937 Goffman
attended St. John's
Technical High
School in Winnipeg
In 1939 he enrolled
at the University of
Manitoba,
majoring in
chemistry
Early 1940s – first
encountours with
sociology (Dennis
Wrong)
He interrupted his
studies and moved
to Ottawa to work
in the film industry
1945 – BA in
sociology and
anthropology
graduated at
University of Toronto
1949 – MA
1951 _ PhD in
sociology
1952 married Angelica Choate

3. 1958 Became a faculty member at the University of California in Berkley
1959 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
•He used the imagery of the theater to portray the importance of human and social
action
1961 Asylum: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates
• examined the nature and effects of being hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital
1962 Full professor
1964 His wife commited suicide
1968 Received Benjamin Franklin Chair in Sociology and anthropology at the
university of Pennsylvania
1971
&
1974
Relations in Public (his ideas about everyday life, seen from a sociological
perspective
Frame Analysis (The study of the organization of social experiences)
1981 73rd president of American Sociological Association
Forms of Talk (includes five essays Each addresses both verbal and nonverbal
communication through a sociolinguistic model)
Goffman married sociolinguist Gillian Sankoff. The following year, their
daughter Alice was born

4. He was influenced by:
Herbert Blumer Lloyd Warner

5. Goffman’s Prominent Theories
•Dramaturgy
•Self
•Impression management
•Interaction order
•Total institutions
•Symbolic interactions
-Emphasises the conscious involvement of the actor in social life
-Recognises that social contact is meaningful
-Identifies the need for understanding action in social situations
•Social stigma:
an attribute, behavior, or reputation which is socially discrediting in a particular way: it
causes an individual to be mentally classified by others in an undesirable, rejected
stereotype rather than in an accepted, normal one.
•Roles
•Gender

6. GOFFMAN, ERVING (1922–82)
the best known and most accessible micro sociologist.
Goffman’s approach centered on his analysis of dramaturgy
a view of social life as a series of dramatic performances, and he was
interested in how the self is shaped by the dramatic interactions between
social actors and their audiences.
Basic unit of
analysis
team
any set of individuals who
cooperate in staging a
single act or routine.
the ways in which people routinely monitor the presentation of their
selves – almost like actors on a stage – in social situations.

7. Stigma
when there is a gap between a
person's virtual social identity and
actual social identity.
emerges
Frames
rules that constrain social
action and function to
organize experience.
Central theme
impression
management
The techniques that social
actors use to maintain
particular images of
themselves when they
encounter problems during
interactions
We control the view the audience
have of us because we are worried
what they will think of us

8. Goffman's Books
The Presentation of
Self in Everyday Life
1959
Asylum
1961
Relations in
public 1971
Frame analysis
1974
Forms of Talk
1981

9. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Life is a dramatic performance
for us
We ‘perform’ for others.
We present a kind of ‘act’ to
them.
We perform differently in
different situations - and the
world is our ‘stage.
“Life itself is a dramatically enacted thing”

10. In social interactions, humans are actors on a stage playing
a performance for an audience. The only time that
individuals can be themselves and get rid of their role or
identity in society is backstage where no audience is present.
“The World is like a stage”
No matter where you are,
you always “put a mask” to
get where you want and to
be part of something.

11. Politeness developed by Brown and Levinson, who extended Goffman's
dramaturgical approach by proposing a heuristic of politeness strategies people
use to manage face-threatening acts
Face: How people manage their public identities.
Goffman Facework: The process by which people maintain face
Impression Management/ Self Presentation
Face Lose face: To have one's face invalidated by others
Have face: To have it sanctioned
When in the presence of others, one's face is always
on display and others will form impressions and
respond to these impressions
Cooperative
mechanism
Interaction
order

12. BACK STAGE OR REGION
In Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy
Back stage Front stage
Ex: In a restaurant, the kitchen is the back stage area in which waiters can joke,
mock customers and toy with the food. When they come through the door into
the restaurant’s front stage, they are supposed to slip effortlessly into the
controlled performance of the attentive waiter.

13. We present ‘ourselves’ in
six different ways:
Persona Performance staging teams role
Personal
style

14. Persona
“The aspect of someone’s character that is presented to or
perceived by others” or “a role or character adopted by an
author or an actor”
The different personality ‘masks’ we wear in
different situations, for different people.
Formal: Job interviews, meetings
These could include Informal: Being surrounded by friends,
Family: Parent, child, sibling, long
distant relative, etc.
Ex: For instance, the way we behave with our
family on a picnic is different to how we would
behave with prisoners if we worked as a Prison
Warden.

15. Performance
This refers to how we wear our persona or
personality mask.
for example: we could be deadly serious or
likewise laugh with joy.
Performance describes the extent to which the
core self is engaged in the act of self
presentation.
We might be ‘sincere’ in how we behave. We are
honest in what we say and do.
or
We might be ‘cynical’ – and not really believe in
our performance.

16. Staging/ Dramaturgy
Goffman insinuated that people could use
their surroundings when ‘staging’ our
performance of our personae.
What do we need for our ‘performance’?
1. A physical locations.
2. Props/objects.
3. Costume/uniform.
These form the context for our performance.

17. Teams
The group of people we associated in a
social interaction or likewise support in an
event/ circumstance1
Goffman’s suggested that our teams’ are the
company we enlist or support; our friends
and fellow actors

18. Role‘The function assumed or part played by a person or
thing in a particular situation’.
Our social role plays a massive part of the persona we
give off and the way we perform. It allows us to fit into
the social norms of society, through our primary and
secondary socialisation.
Roles could include; parent, child, sibling, friend,
enemy, teacher, etc.
He argued that we moved from role to role depending
on who we were speaking to, especially given the fact
we had to respect the social hierarchy.
This refers to the individual ‘jobs’ or
responsibilities we have in a ‘team’.

19. Personal style
Personal Style takes into account our own individual
styles. Rather than conforming to the social norms
of a situation or group.
“If we accept everything as it is, we would not leave
room for individuality”
Goffman argues, personal style acts as a glue that
ties and supports together all the rest of the elements
• Without personal style, our performance loses the
chance will have no fluidity and no confidence - we
would become ‘bad actors’
This is what makes you different to others

20. Unusual approach
Unsystematic collection
of his materials
(Small groups)
Insufficient detail to let
others check his
observations
Avoided theory but in
Frame Analysis he set
out the basis for a
systematic framework
Short comings

21. Thanks
for
your
attention

22. References
http://sociology.about.com/od/Profiles/p/Erving Goffman.htm
http://www.blackwood.org/Erving.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erving_Goffman
http://www.slideshare.net/nadiamireles/erving-goffman-
dramaturgical-approach-presentation
http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0072817186/student_view0/c
hapter10/chapter_summary.html
Goffman, Erving (1959 [1971]), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.
Bruce, S and Yearley, S (2006), The Sage Dictionary of Sociology.
London: Sage