The document provides a summary of Erving Goffman's book "Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity". It discusses the book's structure and key concepts. The book is divided into five chapters that examine the conceptualization of stigma and identity, the impact of social and personal information on identity, strategies for managing a spoiled identity, considerations about societal norms and deviations, and implications for the study of other social issues related to deviations. Goffman defines stigma as a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that arises when there is a gap between perceived attributes and stereotypes. He explores the dynamics between social groups ("normals" and the "stigmatized") and strategies for managing tensions in social
This document discusses Erving Goffman's concepts of stigma from his book Stigma. It covers key terms like stigma, discredited vs. discreditable stigma, and how individuals manage their stigma through information control and covering. It also discusses the tensions individuals face in balancing their in-group identity with stigma versus aligning with out-group or "normal" identities. Maintaining this balance can be challenging and influences how individuals present and view themselves.
This document summarizes key concepts from Erving Goffman's book Stigma. It discusses how Goffman defines stigma and the relationship between stigma and a person's social, personal, and ego identity. It also covers his concepts of discredited versus discreditable stigma, stigma management through passing and covering, the roles of in-group and out-group alignment, and deviations from social norms. The summary examines how stigma influences interactions and a person's psychological well-being. It poses discussion questions about applying Goffman's framework to understanding stigma in modern society.
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
This document discusses attribution theory, which examines how people explain the causes of behaviors. It introduces attribution theory and its two types: personal (internal) attribution, which looks within an individual to explain outcomes, and situational (external) attribution, which looks outside the individual. Some common attribution errors are discussed, including self-serving bias, where people attribute successes to themselves but failures to outside factors, and the fundamental attribution error, where we tend to attribute others' behaviors more to internal causes rather than external ones. The halo effect is described as making broad generalizations about a person based on a single characteristic. In conclusion, the document advocates considering both situational and personal factors rather than making quick judgments.
Ethnomethodology (EM) emerged from the work of Harold Garfinkel in the 1960s as an approach interested in how social order is actively constructed by members in everyday life using commonsense knowledge and methods. Unlike functionalists who see social order as imposed from above, EM views it as achieved from below as members produce meanings and order through language and descriptions that make situations seem clear and organized. EM uses experiments like breaching interactions to disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions and demonstrate that order is accomplished, not inevitable. However, EM has been criticized for potentially trivial findings and for ignoring wider social structures that influence meaning construction.
Erving Goffman was a prominent Canadian-American sociologist born in 1922 in Alberta, Canada. He studied chemistry and sociology at the University of Manitoba and University of Toronto, collecting data for his doctoral dissertation on the Scottish island of Unst from 1949-1951. In 1958, he began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley where he published his influential books The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life in 1959 and Asylum in 1961. Goffman resigned from Berkeley in 1968 and took a position at the University of Pennsylvania, publishing Frame Analysis in 1974. Considered one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century, Goffman examined how people manage impressions and adopt roles in social situations
Social perception involves forming impressions of others based on available information. We use verbal and nonverbal cues like facial expressions and body language to understand others' feelings and make inferences about them. Attribution is identifying the causes of behaviors in context. Common theories studied in social perception are attribution theory, which examines how people explain events, and implicit personality theory, which involves categorizing traits as central or peripheral to form impressions. Social biases like stereotyping, the halo effect, and ingroup bias can influence social perception.
Dramaturgy and Goffman's Presentation of SelfDanielle Dirks
1. Erving Goffman's book Presentation of Self discusses how individuals manage impressions through social performances and interactions.
2. Goffman outlines different aspects of front, including setting, appearance, and manner, which help set the stage for performances. Performances can involve idealization, concealing discrepancies, and mystification.
3. Minor mistakes or cues being misunderstood can shatter the impression fostered by a performance. Performers also sometimes conceal "dirty work" or sacrifices made to maintain their performance of a role.
This document discusses Erving Goffman's concepts of stigma from his book Stigma. It covers key terms like stigma, discredited vs. discreditable stigma, and how individuals manage their stigma through information control and covering. It also discusses the tensions individuals face in balancing their in-group identity with stigma versus aligning with out-group or "normal" identities. Maintaining this balance can be challenging and influences how individuals present and view themselves.
This document summarizes key concepts from Erving Goffman's book Stigma. It discusses how Goffman defines stigma and the relationship between stigma and a person's social, personal, and ego identity. It also covers his concepts of discredited versus discreditable stigma, stigma management through passing and covering, the roles of in-group and out-group alignment, and deviations from social norms. The summary examines how stigma influences interactions and a person's psychological well-being. It poses discussion questions about applying Goffman's framework to understanding stigma in modern society.
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
This document discusses attribution theory, which examines how people explain the causes of behaviors. It introduces attribution theory and its two types: personal (internal) attribution, which looks within an individual to explain outcomes, and situational (external) attribution, which looks outside the individual. Some common attribution errors are discussed, including self-serving bias, where people attribute successes to themselves but failures to outside factors, and the fundamental attribution error, where we tend to attribute others' behaviors more to internal causes rather than external ones. The halo effect is described as making broad generalizations about a person based on a single characteristic. In conclusion, the document advocates considering both situational and personal factors rather than making quick judgments.
Ethnomethodology (EM) emerged from the work of Harold Garfinkel in the 1960s as an approach interested in how social order is actively constructed by members in everyday life using commonsense knowledge and methods. Unlike functionalists who see social order as imposed from above, EM views it as achieved from below as members produce meanings and order through language and descriptions that make situations seem clear and organized. EM uses experiments like breaching interactions to disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions and demonstrate that order is accomplished, not inevitable. However, EM has been criticized for potentially trivial findings and for ignoring wider social structures that influence meaning construction.
Erving Goffman was a prominent Canadian-American sociologist born in 1922 in Alberta, Canada. He studied chemistry and sociology at the University of Manitoba and University of Toronto, collecting data for his doctoral dissertation on the Scottish island of Unst from 1949-1951. In 1958, he began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley where he published his influential books The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life in 1959 and Asylum in 1961. Goffman resigned from Berkeley in 1968 and took a position at the University of Pennsylvania, publishing Frame Analysis in 1974. Considered one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century, Goffman examined how people manage impressions and adopt roles in social situations
Social perception involves forming impressions of others based on available information. We use verbal and nonverbal cues like facial expressions and body language to understand others' feelings and make inferences about them. Attribution is identifying the causes of behaviors in context. Common theories studied in social perception are attribution theory, which examines how people explain events, and implicit personality theory, which involves categorizing traits as central or peripheral to form impressions. Social biases like stereotyping, the halo effect, and ingroup bias can influence social perception.
Dramaturgy and Goffman's Presentation of SelfDanielle Dirks
1. Erving Goffman's book Presentation of Self discusses how individuals manage impressions through social performances and interactions.
2. Goffman outlines different aspects of front, including setting, appearance, and manner, which help set the stage for performances. Performances can involve idealization, concealing discrepancies, and mystification.
3. Minor mistakes or cues being misunderstood can shatter the impression fostered by a performance. Performers also sometimes conceal "dirty work" or sacrifices made to maintain their performance of a role.
This playlist includes 7 songs that deal with various social psychology concepts related to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination such as explicit prejudice, hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, illusory correlation, modern racism, and ways to reduce prejudice. The chapter overview discusses stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and how they differ, perspectives on intergroup bias including economic, motivational, and cognitive perspectives, the experience of being a member of a stigmatized group, and ways to reduce stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.
Our perceptions of others are influenced by several factors: observing others' appearances and behaviors to make first impressions, using stereotypes, our own emotional states, and how we interpret others' messages based on context and shared language. To improve the accuracy of our perceptions, we should question our initial judgments, seek more information, recognize that perceptions may change over time with new insights, and practice perception checking by verbally describing behaviors and getting feedback.
This document discusses perception in organizational behavior. It defines perception as how individuals organize and interpret sensory impressions to make sense of their environment. Perception is influenced by both external factors like physical characteristics and internal factors like beliefs. The perceptual process involves selecting stimuli, organizing that information, and interpreting it. Selection is influenced by things that grab our attention. Organization involves grouping information together in a meaningful way. Interpretation is subjective and involves making attributions and judgments. Perceptual errors can occur through biases like stereotyping, where people overgeneralize about entire groups, or the halo effect, where one trait colors judgment of others.
Labelling theory argues that acts are not inherently criminal, but become defined as deviant when labeled as such by others in society. For labelling theorists like Becker, a deviant is someone who has successfully been given the label of deviant. Moral entrepreneurs play a role in leading campaigns to change laws in ways that create new groups of outsiders and expand the power of social control agencies. Whether someone is arrested and charged depends on factors like their interactions with these agencies and characteristics like class, gender, and ethnicity. Lemert distinguishes between primary deviance, which involves acts that go unnoticed and unlabeled, and secondary deviance, where the label itself leads to further deviant acts and identity.
This document discusses attribution, which refers to how people explain their own and others' behavior. It covers several theories of attribution, including Heider's model, which analyzes how people interpret causes of behavior as either environmental or personal factors. Kelley's theory of causal attribution examines how people answer why questions based on consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness information. The document also discusses biases people have in attribution, such as the self-serving bias where people take credit for successes but blame failures on external causes.
Personality And Values | Types Of Personalities | Organizational Behavior |FaHaD .H. NooR
We begin by defining personality. This is a concept that has a lot of preconceived ideas in people. So we want to ensure we are all using the same basic definition to describe a very complex topic. Personality is a dynamic concept, meaning it is changing all the time, an that is is the total of growth and development of a psychological system for the individual. This suggests it includes all of the components of the psyche and their aggregate becomes greater than any of the parts. So the text definition is that personality if the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
One of the greatest challenges in the study of personality has been “How we measure it.” The most important reason this is needed is that accurately measuring personality gives managers advantage in the recruitment and hiring processes. It is difficult since most measurement of personality is accrued through self-report surveys filled out by the individuals themselves. However, strides have been made to put personality measurement into observation by others making the determination of personality more independent.
Extraversion is a comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet. Agreeableness is Individual’s propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness people are cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness people are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic. Conscientiousness is a measure of reliability. A high conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.Emotional stabilitydescribes a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure. And lastly, Openness to experience suggeststhe range of interests and fascination with novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the other end of the openness category are conventional and find comfort in the familiar.
This document discusses several key concepts in social perception:
1. Nonverbal communication plays an important role in social perception. Facial expressions, eye contact, body language, posture, and touching can all reveal emotional and mental states. Basic emotions are often expressed through specific facial movements.
2. Attribution refers to how people seek to understand the behaviors of others by inferring underlying traits or motives. Correspondent inference theory holds that behaviors perceived as freely chosen and distinctive are more likely to be attributed to internal traits. Kelley's theory examines how attribution is influenced by consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness.
3. Impression formation is the process by which people combine diverse information to form unified impressions of others. Initial
Social Identity Theory proposes that people categorize themselves into social groups to derive self-esteem and a sense of belonging. Through social categorization, people perceive themselves and others in terms of social groups rather than as individuals. Social comparison involves assessing one's own group relative to other groups, and social identification occurs when one's identity is tied to their group membership. SIT explains in-group favoritism and conformity to norms. While it shows discrimination need not stem from conflict, it has been criticized for low real-world validity and does not fully explain why in-group favoritism can lead to violence or be overridden by other factors like poverty. SIT is applicable to leadership by helping leaders craft a shared group identity and
Social perception involves forming impressions of other individuals based on three key clues: the person themselves, the surrounding situation, and observed behavior. When perceiving others, people are subject to biases like the halo effect and in-group bias. Attribution processes are used to explain the causes of others' behavior, but the fundamental attribution error means observers underestimate situational influences and overestimate personal factors. Social perception is an important part of social skills and interaction.
Chapter 5 perception and individual decision makingFahAd MalIk
Michael has just engaged in rational decision making. He considered multiple criteria, weighed the options, and selected the alternative he perceived as best.
WILL COVER
COMMON SENSE PSYCHOLOGY
CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE THEORY
COVARIENCE MODEL
CONSENSUS
CONSISTENCY
DISTINCTIVENESS
FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
ACTOR OBSERVER EFFECT
SELF SERVING BIAS
AND APPLICATIONS
Social cognition involves encoding, storing, retrieving, and processing social information in the brain about conspecifics. It involves both automatic and controlled processing. Schemas are mental frameworks that help organize social information and act as filters, but can also lead to errors and biases like stereotyping. Heuristics are simple rules or mental shortcuts used to make judgments that can be erroneous. Affect and cognition interact, as current moods and emotions can influence thoughts, memories, and judgments. Feelings shape thoughts and thoughts shape feelings in social cognition.
People's behavior is based on their perception of reality rather than reality itself. Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information in a way that reflects our past experiences. Many factors influence perception, including characteristics of the perceiver and the target, as well as the context and social situation. Perceptual biases can lead to errors in judgment like stereotyping or projecting our own views onto others.
1) The document discusses various concepts related to decision making and reasoning, including heuristics, biases, deductive and inductive reasoning, and syllogisms.
2) Key heuristics and biases discussed include availability, anchoring, framing effects, representativeness, and confirmation bias.
3) Deductive reasoning uses logical propositions and premises to reach certain conclusions, while inductive reasoning uses specific observations to derive probable conclusions.
4) Syllogisms are deductive arguments with two premises and a conclusion, and can take various forms like categorical and linear syllogisms.
This document discusses perception and decision making. It covers factors that influence perception like the perceiver, time, and target. It also discusses how people make judgments about others based on distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. Common shortcuts in judging others are also examined, like selective perception and stereotyping. The document also discusses decision making processes and models. It analyzes rational decision making steps and common biases. Influences on decision making like personality, gender, and mental ability are explored. Finally, the document discusses improving creativity in decision making.
Understanding Stereotypes for Cognitive Designallisonvleach
As part of my Cognitive Science class this last Spring, I presented an overview of how stereotypes influence human behavior. This topic is especially useful to cognitive designers - a category of designers who regularly incorporate findings from cognitive science to enrich the development of new products and experiences.
This document is from a chapter on organizational behavior and perception in decision making. It discusses key topics like how perception influences behavior, factors that influence perception, attribution theory, biases in judgment and decision making. Rational decision making models are outlined, but the document notes actual decision making is bounded and intuitive. Biases like overconfidence, anchoring and confirmation bias are also reviewed.
Social Cognition How We Think About The Social WorldRebekahSamuel2
Social cognition focuses on how people think about and interact with the social world. It involves selectively attending to, interpreting, remembering, and using social information to form judgments and make decisions. There are two main modes of social thought: automatic/unconscious thinking and controlled/deliberate thinking. Schemas and heuristics are important components of social cognition that help reduce the cognitive load of processing social information. Schemas are mental frameworks that organize knowledge into themes like people, roles, and events. Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow for decisions to be made efficiently under conditions of information overload.
The document discusses personality and the Big Five model of personality traits. It defines personality as an individual's unique psychological characteristics and how they interact with their environment. The Big Five model categorizes personality into five broad dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience. Each dimension is described in terms of traits that define where someone falls on that spectrum. The Big Five model is commonly used in human resources to help place employees and predict job performance based on an individual's personality traits.
1- Discuss Cooley and his theory of socialization 2-Define the co.pdfinfo824691
1- Discuss Cooley and his theory of socialization ?
2-Define the concept of socialization in detail?
3- Discuss Goffman and his theory of socialization. Discuss four of the phrases he used in his
analysis of social structure.such as front stage ,back stage impression management
4- Discuss the concept of anticipatory socialization and relate it to your life on campus ?
Solution
Ans 1 :Cooley and his theory of socialization :
The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept, created by Charles Horton Cooley in
1902 (McIntyre 2006), stating that a person\'s self grows out of society\'s interpersonal
interactions and the perceptions of others. The term refers to people shaping their self-concepts
based on their understanding of how others perceive them. Cooley clarified that society is an
interweaving and inter-working of mental selves. The term \"looking glass self\" was first used
by Cooley in his work, Human Nature and the Social Order in 1902.
There are three main components of the looking-glass self:
1. First, we imagine how we must appear to others.
2. Second, we imagine the judgment of that appearance.
3. Finally, we develop our self through the judgments of others.
Ans 2 : Concept of socialization :
Socialisation is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political
scientists, and educationalists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating
norms, customs, values and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits
necessary for participating within their own society. Socialization is thus \"the means by which
social and cultural continuity are attained\".
Socialisation describes a process which may lead to desirable outcomes—sometimes labeled
\"moral\"—as regards the society where it occurs. Individual views on certain issues, for instance
race or economics, are influenced by the society\'s consensus and usually tend toward what that
society finds acceptable or \"normal\". Many socio-political theories postulate that socialization
provides only a partial explanation for human beliefs and behaviors, maintaining that agents are
not blank slates predetermined by their environment; scientific research provides evidence that
people are shaped by both social influences and genes. Genetic studies have shown that a
person\'s environment interacts with his or her genotype to influence behavioral outcomes.
Ans 2 : Goffman and his theory of socialization :
Dramaturgy is a sociological perspective commonly used in microsociological accounts of social
interaction in everyday life. The term was first adapted into sociology from the theatre by Erving
Goffman, who developed most of the related terminology and ideas in his 1959 book,The
Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that the elements of human interactions are dependent
upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, the self is a sense of who one is, a
dramatic effect emergin.
Social Model of Disability & Social Self & Stigma.pptxILYASSREKIK1
George Herbert Mead originated the concepts of the "I" and the "Me" to describe how the self develops through social interactions and experiences from a young age. According to Mead, children first develop a sense of self or "Me" by seeing themselves through the perspectives of others during play. Over time, they learn to take on generalized social roles and perspectives as their sense of self matures. Erving Goffman further explored how social stigma can form based on physical, biographical, or character attributes that are socially disapproved of. He described how the stigmatized manage their identities and face discrimination. While early conceptualizations of stigma focused on individuals, later scholars emphasized how stigma is socially constructed and can be challenged through
This playlist includes 7 songs that deal with various social psychology concepts related to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination such as explicit prejudice, hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, illusory correlation, modern racism, and ways to reduce prejudice. The chapter overview discusses stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and how they differ, perspectives on intergroup bias including economic, motivational, and cognitive perspectives, the experience of being a member of a stigmatized group, and ways to reduce stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.
Our perceptions of others are influenced by several factors: observing others' appearances and behaviors to make first impressions, using stereotypes, our own emotional states, and how we interpret others' messages based on context and shared language. To improve the accuracy of our perceptions, we should question our initial judgments, seek more information, recognize that perceptions may change over time with new insights, and practice perception checking by verbally describing behaviors and getting feedback.
This document discusses perception in organizational behavior. It defines perception as how individuals organize and interpret sensory impressions to make sense of their environment. Perception is influenced by both external factors like physical characteristics and internal factors like beliefs. The perceptual process involves selecting stimuli, organizing that information, and interpreting it. Selection is influenced by things that grab our attention. Organization involves grouping information together in a meaningful way. Interpretation is subjective and involves making attributions and judgments. Perceptual errors can occur through biases like stereotyping, where people overgeneralize about entire groups, or the halo effect, where one trait colors judgment of others.
Labelling theory argues that acts are not inherently criminal, but become defined as deviant when labeled as such by others in society. For labelling theorists like Becker, a deviant is someone who has successfully been given the label of deviant. Moral entrepreneurs play a role in leading campaigns to change laws in ways that create new groups of outsiders and expand the power of social control agencies. Whether someone is arrested and charged depends on factors like their interactions with these agencies and characteristics like class, gender, and ethnicity. Lemert distinguishes between primary deviance, which involves acts that go unnoticed and unlabeled, and secondary deviance, where the label itself leads to further deviant acts and identity.
This document discusses attribution, which refers to how people explain their own and others' behavior. It covers several theories of attribution, including Heider's model, which analyzes how people interpret causes of behavior as either environmental or personal factors. Kelley's theory of causal attribution examines how people answer why questions based on consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness information. The document also discusses biases people have in attribution, such as the self-serving bias where people take credit for successes but blame failures on external causes.
Personality And Values | Types Of Personalities | Organizational Behavior |FaHaD .H. NooR
We begin by defining personality. This is a concept that has a lot of preconceived ideas in people. So we want to ensure we are all using the same basic definition to describe a very complex topic. Personality is a dynamic concept, meaning it is changing all the time, an that is is the total of growth and development of a psychological system for the individual. This suggests it includes all of the components of the psyche and their aggregate becomes greater than any of the parts. So the text definition is that personality if the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
One of the greatest challenges in the study of personality has been “How we measure it.” The most important reason this is needed is that accurately measuring personality gives managers advantage in the recruitment and hiring processes. It is difficult since most measurement of personality is accrued through self-report surveys filled out by the individuals themselves. However, strides have been made to put personality measurement into observation by others making the determination of personality more independent.
Extraversion is a comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet. Agreeableness is Individual’s propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness people are cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness people are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic. Conscientiousness is a measure of reliability. A high conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.Emotional stabilitydescribes a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure. And lastly, Openness to experience suggeststhe range of interests and fascination with novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the other end of the openness category are conventional and find comfort in the familiar.
This document discusses several key concepts in social perception:
1. Nonverbal communication plays an important role in social perception. Facial expressions, eye contact, body language, posture, and touching can all reveal emotional and mental states. Basic emotions are often expressed through specific facial movements.
2. Attribution refers to how people seek to understand the behaviors of others by inferring underlying traits or motives. Correspondent inference theory holds that behaviors perceived as freely chosen and distinctive are more likely to be attributed to internal traits. Kelley's theory examines how attribution is influenced by consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness.
3. Impression formation is the process by which people combine diverse information to form unified impressions of others. Initial
Social Identity Theory proposes that people categorize themselves into social groups to derive self-esteem and a sense of belonging. Through social categorization, people perceive themselves and others in terms of social groups rather than as individuals. Social comparison involves assessing one's own group relative to other groups, and social identification occurs when one's identity is tied to their group membership. SIT explains in-group favoritism and conformity to norms. While it shows discrimination need not stem from conflict, it has been criticized for low real-world validity and does not fully explain why in-group favoritism can lead to violence or be overridden by other factors like poverty. SIT is applicable to leadership by helping leaders craft a shared group identity and
Social perception involves forming impressions of other individuals based on three key clues: the person themselves, the surrounding situation, and observed behavior. When perceiving others, people are subject to biases like the halo effect and in-group bias. Attribution processes are used to explain the causes of others' behavior, but the fundamental attribution error means observers underestimate situational influences and overestimate personal factors. Social perception is an important part of social skills and interaction.
Chapter 5 perception and individual decision makingFahAd MalIk
Michael has just engaged in rational decision making. He considered multiple criteria, weighed the options, and selected the alternative he perceived as best.
WILL COVER
COMMON SENSE PSYCHOLOGY
CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE THEORY
COVARIENCE MODEL
CONSENSUS
CONSISTENCY
DISTINCTIVENESS
FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
ACTOR OBSERVER EFFECT
SELF SERVING BIAS
AND APPLICATIONS
Social cognition involves encoding, storing, retrieving, and processing social information in the brain about conspecifics. It involves both automatic and controlled processing. Schemas are mental frameworks that help organize social information and act as filters, but can also lead to errors and biases like stereotyping. Heuristics are simple rules or mental shortcuts used to make judgments that can be erroneous. Affect and cognition interact, as current moods and emotions can influence thoughts, memories, and judgments. Feelings shape thoughts and thoughts shape feelings in social cognition.
People's behavior is based on their perception of reality rather than reality itself. Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information in a way that reflects our past experiences. Many factors influence perception, including characteristics of the perceiver and the target, as well as the context and social situation. Perceptual biases can lead to errors in judgment like stereotyping or projecting our own views onto others.
1) The document discusses various concepts related to decision making and reasoning, including heuristics, biases, deductive and inductive reasoning, and syllogisms.
2) Key heuristics and biases discussed include availability, anchoring, framing effects, representativeness, and confirmation bias.
3) Deductive reasoning uses logical propositions and premises to reach certain conclusions, while inductive reasoning uses specific observations to derive probable conclusions.
4) Syllogisms are deductive arguments with two premises and a conclusion, and can take various forms like categorical and linear syllogisms.
This document discusses perception and decision making. It covers factors that influence perception like the perceiver, time, and target. It also discusses how people make judgments about others based on distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. Common shortcuts in judging others are also examined, like selective perception and stereotyping. The document also discusses decision making processes and models. It analyzes rational decision making steps and common biases. Influences on decision making like personality, gender, and mental ability are explored. Finally, the document discusses improving creativity in decision making.
Understanding Stereotypes for Cognitive Designallisonvleach
As part of my Cognitive Science class this last Spring, I presented an overview of how stereotypes influence human behavior. This topic is especially useful to cognitive designers - a category of designers who regularly incorporate findings from cognitive science to enrich the development of new products and experiences.
This document is from a chapter on organizational behavior and perception in decision making. It discusses key topics like how perception influences behavior, factors that influence perception, attribution theory, biases in judgment and decision making. Rational decision making models are outlined, but the document notes actual decision making is bounded and intuitive. Biases like overconfidence, anchoring and confirmation bias are also reviewed.
Social Cognition How We Think About The Social WorldRebekahSamuel2
Social cognition focuses on how people think about and interact with the social world. It involves selectively attending to, interpreting, remembering, and using social information to form judgments and make decisions. There are two main modes of social thought: automatic/unconscious thinking and controlled/deliberate thinking. Schemas and heuristics are important components of social cognition that help reduce the cognitive load of processing social information. Schemas are mental frameworks that organize knowledge into themes like people, roles, and events. Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow for decisions to be made efficiently under conditions of information overload.
The document discusses personality and the Big Five model of personality traits. It defines personality as an individual's unique psychological characteristics and how they interact with their environment. The Big Five model categorizes personality into five broad dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience. Each dimension is described in terms of traits that define where someone falls on that spectrum. The Big Five model is commonly used in human resources to help place employees and predict job performance based on an individual's personality traits.
1- Discuss Cooley and his theory of socialization 2-Define the co.pdfinfo824691
1- Discuss Cooley and his theory of socialization ?
2-Define the concept of socialization in detail?
3- Discuss Goffman and his theory of socialization. Discuss four of the phrases he used in his
analysis of social structure.such as front stage ,back stage impression management
4- Discuss the concept of anticipatory socialization and relate it to your life on campus ?
Solution
Ans 1 :Cooley and his theory of socialization :
The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept, created by Charles Horton Cooley in
1902 (McIntyre 2006), stating that a person\'s self grows out of society\'s interpersonal
interactions and the perceptions of others. The term refers to people shaping their self-concepts
based on their understanding of how others perceive them. Cooley clarified that society is an
interweaving and inter-working of mental selves. The term \"looking glass self\" was first used
by Cooley in his work, Human Nature and the Social Order in 1902.
There are three main components of the looking-glass self:
1. First, we imagine how we must appear to others.
2. Second, we imagine the judgment of that appearance.
3. Finally, we develop our self through the judgments of others.
Ans 2 : Concept of socialization :
Socialisation is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political
scientists, and educationalists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating
norms, customs, values and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits
necessary for participating within their own society. Socialization is thus \"the means by which
social and cultural continuity are attained\".
Socialisation describes a process which may lead to desirable outcomes—sometimes labeled
\"moral\"—as regards the society where it occurs. Individual views on certain issues, for instance
race or economics, are influenced by the society\'s consensus and usually tend toward what that
society finds acceptable or \"normal\". Many socio-political theories postulate that socialization
provides only a partial explanation for human beliefs and behaviors, maintaining that agents are
not blank slates predetermined by their environment; scientific research provides evidence that
people are shaped by both social influences and genes. Genetic studies have shown that a
person\'s environment interacts with his or her genotype to influence behavioral outcomes.
Ans 2 : Goffman and his theory of socialization :
Dramaturgy is a sociological perspective commonly used in microsociological accounts of social
interaction in everyday life. The term was first adapted into sociology from the theatre by Erving
Goffman, who developed most of the related terminology and ideas in his 1959 book,The
Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that the elements of human interactions are dependent
upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, the self is a sense of who one is, a
dramatic effect emergin.
Social Model of Disability & Social Self & Stigma.pptxILYASSREKIK1
George Herbert Mead originated the concepts of the "I" and the "Me" to describe how the self develops through social interactions and experiences from a young age. According to Mead, children first develop a sense of self or "Me" by seeing themselves through the perspectives of others during play. Over time, they learn to take on generalized social roles and perspectives as their sense of self matures. Erving Goffman further explored how social stigma can form based on physical, biographical, or character attributes that are socially disapproved of. He described how the stigmatized manage their identities and face discrimination. While early conceptualizations of stigma focused on individuals, later scholars emphasized how stigma is socially constructed and can be challenged through
The summary analyzes Adrienne Rich's poem "The Knight" which depicts a knight riding into noon on his steed. While the knight appears radiant on the outside in his armor, the poem reveals his inner true nature is quite different - he is actually a "quivering pile of fat" beneath the armor, just as nervous and mortal as any other man. The knight wears a facade of purity and strength, but underneath is as vulnerable as any other. The poem suggests that all humans hide their true selves beneath masks and appearances, but our inner nature will ultimately be revealed.
Presentation of Erving Goffman`s dramaturgical approach.
SEMINAR FOR FIRST-YEAR PHD/EDD STUDENTS - FALL 2009 & WINTER 2010 University of Calgary
I will be happy to share the full text for this presentation if you need it. Contact me avatarnadezda@gmail.com
This document provides an overview of personality theories including:
- Gordon Allport's definition of personality as the unique patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings that determine an individual's adjustment.
- Allport's categorization of traits into cardinal, central, and secondary traits. Central traits form the basic personality foundations while secondary traits appear in specific situations.
- Raymond Cattell's identification of 16 source traits underlying surface personality traits through factor analysis. He developed the 16PF questionnaire to measure these traits.
- The Big Five model which proposes there are five key dimensions of personality that can be remembered with the acronym OCEAN.
Benjamin Franklin is discussed as an example of practicing diplomacy through his ethic of only speaking well of others. The document examines the relationship between speech, identity formation, and decision making, using Franklin's approach as a case study. It explores the modalities of speech, challenges of decision making, and how understanding figures like Franklin can provide insights into managing oneself and finding meaning in difficult times.
Social psychology and personality psychology have the same job: to seek to understand the meaningful, consequential, and for the most part social behaviors of daily life. Cognitive psychology examines component processes such as memory, perception, and cognition. Biological psychology seeks to understand the physical underpinnings of behavior in the anatomy, physiology, functional organization, genetic basis and evolutionary history of the nervous system. Developmental psychology explores the roots of behavior in genetics and early childhood experience, and changes across the life course. All of these fields could be viewed as foundational for the common concern of social and personality psychology, which is to understand what people do every day. In this light, it is unsurprising that courses in social and personality psychology are among the most popular offerings on most college campuses; their subject matter is not only important, it is personally relevant and intrinsically interesting.
Social and personality psychology began to come into their own about the same time – the 1920’s and 1930’s – through the work of many of the same people, such as the Allport brothers, Floyd and Gordon (F. Allport, 1924; G. Allport, 1931, 1937; F. Allport & G. Allport, 1921). What is surprising, in retrospect, is how the two fields diverged over the subsequent decades. Social psychology came to specialize in the study of what people have in common; in particular how aspects of situations can change what people, on average, will do. Personality psychology came to specialize in the study of how people differ from each other psychologically, and on ways to characterize and measure these differences. This division of labor makes a certain amount of sense, but problems arose as the fields gradually became so specialized that many practitioners of each field became unaware of the basic principles, findings and methods of the other, and grew worse when social psychologists began to suspect that personality psychology’s emphasis on individual differences was misguided. In his memoirs, the eminent social psychologist Roger Brown described one memorably awkward encounter between the two traditions:
A Sociological Approach to Self and Identity .docxransayo
A Sociological Approach to Self and Identity*
Jan E. Stets and Peter J. Burke
Department of Sociology
Washington State University
* Chapter for Handbook of Self and Identity, edited by Mark Leary and June Tangney, Guilford Press,
Forthcoming.
Note: This is a short, but difficult, reading. I have highlighted various words and phrases that are either important, or that should jump out
to you as things we have covered in the class. However, parts of this reading go beyond what we will ever cover in an Intro course,
so do your best to get through it and realize that you may not understand every aspect of what they are saying. In other words, don’t
get bogged down by the reading—just keep going.
You should pay particular attention to:
- how “the self” relies on social interaction
- how “the self” involves taking oneself as an object of thought
- how “identity” is different from the self
1
A Sociological Approach to Self and Identity
Thoughts on Social Structure
A sociological approach to self and identity begins with the assumption that there is a reciprocal
relationship between the self and society (Stryker, 1980). The self influences society through the actions
of individuals thereby creating groups, organizations, networks, and institutions. And, reciprocally,
society influences the self through its shared language and meanings that enable a person to take the role
of the other, engage in social interaction, and reflect upon oneself as an object. The latter process of
reflexivity constitutes the core of selfhood (McCall & Simmons, 1978; Mead, 1934). Because the self
emerges in and is reflective of society, the sociological approach to understanding the self and its parts
(identities) means that we must also understand the society in which the self is acting, and keep in mind
that the self is always acting in a social context in which other selves exist (Stryker, 1980). This chapter
focuses primarily on the nature of self and identity from a sociological perspective, thus some discussion
of society is warranted. The nature of the self and what individuals do depends to a large extent on the
society within which they live.
In general, sociologists are interested in understanding the nature of society or social structure: its
forms and patterns, the ways in which it develops and is transformed. The traditional symbolic
interactionist perspective known as the situational approach to self and society, sees society as always in
the process of being created through the interpretations and definitions of actors in situations (Blumer,
1969). Actors identify the things that need to be taken into account for themselves, act on the basis of
those identifications, and attempt to fit their lines of action with others in the situation to accomplish their
goals. From this perspective, the inference is made that individuals are free to define the situation in any
way they care to, .
ElasticityUnit I introduced the benefits of markets to impEvonCanales257
Elasticity
Unit I introduced the benefits of markets to improving outcomes for producers and consumers. Unit II examined the role of costs and prices in decision-making. For this assignment, you will answer a series of questions in the form of an essay. Support your answers with research from at least three peer-reviewed journal articles
Research elasticity information for two particular goods: one with an elastic demand and one with an inelastic demand. Using elasticity information you gather, predict changes in demand. The United States Department of Agriculture website has a good resource to help with this.
1. Describe how marginal analysis, by avoiding sunk costs, leads to better pricing decisions.
2. Explain the importance of opportunity costs to decision-making and how opportunity costs lead to trade.
3. Evaluate how better business decisions can benefit not just the producer but the consumer and society as a whole. In your evaluation, contrast the deontology and consequentialism approaches to ethics.
Your essay must be at least three pages in length (not counting the title and references pages) and include at least three peer-reviewed resources. Adhere to APA Style when writing your essay, including citations and references for sources used. Be sure to include an introduction. Please note that no abstract is needed
Instructions
This unit’s readings included information on pricing. You are introduced to the shutdown price, using elasticity to determine the effects of price changes, and cost-based pricing. Discuss the importance of considering elasticity in pricing decisions and the danger of relying solely on costs.
Journal entry must be at least 200 words in length. No references or citations are necessary.
Journal at Personality and Social Psycholoty
1968, Vol. 10, No. 3, 215-221
GROUP INHIBITION OF BYSTANDER INTERVENTION
IN EMERGENCIES l
BIBB LATANfi 2
Columbia University
AND JOHN M, DARLEY »
New York University
Male undergraduates found themselves in a smoke-filling room either alone,
with 2 nonreacting others, or in groups of 3. As predicted, Ss were less likely to
report the smoke when in the presence of passive others (10%) or in groups of
3 (38% of groups) than when alone (75%). This result seemed to have been
mediated by the way 5s interpreted the ambiguous situation; seeing other
people remain passive led Ss to decide the smoke was not dangerous.
Emergencies, fortunately, are uncommon
events. Although the average person may read
about them in newspapers or watch fictional-
ized versions on television, he probably will
encounter fewer than half a dozen in his life-
time. Unfortunately, when he does encounter
one, he will have had little direct personal
experience in dealing with it. And he must
deal with it under conditions of urgency, un-
certainty, stress, and fear. About all the indi-
vidual has to guide him is the secondhand
wisdom of the late movie, which is often as
useful as "Be brave" or as applic ...
This document discusses social psychology and how it has evolved over time. It describes some of the early contributors to social psychology, such as Norman Triplett who studied competitive behavior, and Gordon Allport who studied attitudes and the self. Kurt Lewin was also influential in developing the idea that behavior is a function of both the person and the situation. The document then discusses how social psychology developed in the 1950s with the emergence of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It continues by outlining how social psychology has expanded our understanding of social behaviors and influences through the study of topics like group dynamics and social norms.
REMELYN GIALOGO made a paper 3years ago and did not even bother to paraphrase it (or maybe she doesn't really know how to) and now her work is plagiarism. Maybe this is just one of her many many more plagiarized works. 😔
Chapter 1 Introduction to Social Psychology.pptxqulbabbas4
Social psychology seeks to understand individual behavior and thought in social situations. It studies how individuals are influenced by real, imagined or implied others. Social psychology employs the scientific method to test ideas about human social behavior. As a science, it aims to describe, predict, determine causality, and explain social phenomena. Some key principles are that behavior is purposive, influenced by both disposition and situation, and interpreted and shaped by culture.
This document discusses social influence and the dynamics between minorities and majorities. It covers research on conformity, obedience, and minority influence. Some key points:
- Majority influence, known as conformity, occurs when an individual yields to group pressures and norms. Minority influence can also influence majorities under certain conditions.
- Obedience research showed people often comply with authority figures, as seen in the Milgram and Stanford prison experiments. Unanimity among the influencing group increases its power.
- Social influence comes from informational influence, looking to others for guidance, and normative influence, wanting to be liked or avoid rejection. Strength, immediacy and size of the influencing group impact its effects.
This document discusses theories of self from psychology. It defines self as a sense of personal identity and discusses William James' conceptualization of the "I" as the thinking self and the "me" as physical and psychological characteristics. Identity and self-concept are similar concepts that involve personal traits, social roles, and affiliations that define a person. The self is seen as a mental construct created through interactions with others and memory. Factors like social comparison, narcissism, and self-esteem also influence the development of one's self-concept.
The document discusses transactional analysis, which is a technique used to understand interpersonal relationships and behavior. It involves analyzing ego states (parent, adult, child), transactions between people, scripts that guide behavior, and games people play. Transactional analysis aims to improve communication, understand motivations, and promote healthy relationships through awareness of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in interactions.
1. The document summarizes Marilyn Friedman's account of personal autonomy in her book. It discusses the basic features she argues are necessary for choices and actions to be autonomous, including various forms of self-reflection.
2. It examines her distinction between the constitutive and causal conditions for autonomy. Social relationships and cultural contexts play an important role in enabling autonomy.
3. While autonomy requires individuality, it is always grounded in social relationships and contexts. An overly individualistic view that ignores social influences can undermine autonomy.
This presentation covers the labelling theory and Talcott Parsons' sick role concept. The labelling theory explains how deviance is determined by societal reactions rather than by acts themselves. Being labeled changes one's self-identity and can lead to secondary deviance. Parsons' sick role concept argues that illness is a form of sanctioned deviance that exempts one from normal duties but obligates seeking treatment. The presentation defines key terms and concepts, explains the origins and types of deviance in labelling theory, and discusses how labelling relates to health and mental illness.
1) The document provides an overview of social psychology, which is defined as the scientific study of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as they relate to and are influenced by others.
2) It discusses four main areas of social psychology: discovering the self, thinking about others, influencing others, and group dynamics.
3) Within discovering the self, it describes key concepts like self-concept, self-schemas, self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-efficacy that comprise people's understanding of themselves.
1. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
Book Report
STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
by Erving Goffman
Simon and Schuster/Touchstone Books, New York
Reviewer: Rudy De Paoli
Date reviewed: January 31, 2004
Notes on the structure of this Book Report
Three Levels of summary can be accessed quickly and efficiently depending on the
time and interest in this subject matter.
1. A two-page “executive summary” can be efficiently gleaned by reading only the italicized
book overview in green italics on p.2 and 3 of this report.
2. A quick read summary can be obtained by reading the green italicized two-page “executive
summary” and the Chapter Overviews in blue italics for each chapter.
3. A third level of detail is the full book report that follows each Chapter Overview and
is a detailed distillation of key points within each Chapter. Every attempt has been
made to keep the reviewer’s perspective out of the picture and to keep the ideas true
to Goffman’s text. Of course, the mere selection and distillation or emphasis
process biases the objectivity and reflects subjective aspects of the reviewer. The
reviewer apologizes for this and also for inadvertent misunderstandings of
Goffman’s original text.
1
2. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
Two-Page Executive Summary
Overview of STIGMA – Notes on the management of spoiled identity
Structure of the Book
Goffman has structured his book STIGMA around five concept clusters with a chapter
for each:
1. Conceptual constructs for the phenomena of Identity, Spoiled Identity,
Stigmatization and its causes – in other words – what is Stigma; what is its
relation to Identity and Social Identity in particular; and how does Stigmatization
arise?
2. The impact of Social and Personal Information on our “Identity” and the
possibility of the Management of a Spoiled Identity.
3. The search for a doctrine or philosophy of life to deal with the ambivalent sense
of “self,” the influences on the stigmatized of “their own” versus normals’
expectations and demands, and the resultant “identity crisis” resulting from the
stigmatized individual’s choice of orientation or alignment to these two Groups’
“external imputations” of what a “self” should be.
4. Considerations that the concept of Stigma is a result of societal norms, gaps
between virtual and actual compliance and conformity to those norms, and the
extension that the “stigmatized” and “normal” are not, in the ultimate analysis,
fixed persons or instances, but points of view that all participants in society must
learn to be aware of and adopt as an adaptation skill. The concept of Deviation
is explored to link the study of Stigma to the study of the rest of the social world.
5. Contemplations about the relationship between the specific study of Stigma versus
general social studies on sociological issues whose core dynamic relates to
deviations and deviance. The point is made that the lessons from the specific
study of Stigma can be applied to the understanding of other social issues related
to deviations and deviance in a context of addressing normative dilemmas. In so
doing, students can focus on what distinguishes these other social challenges
while seeing that one of the aspects they have in common is addressed by
considerations of Stigma and its management.
Content of the Book
Goffman’s book STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
deals with the effects of varying degrees of social and self-identity awareness on the
possible adaptive patterns of behavior and accommodation that may arise when
stigmatized individuals interact with “normals” in immediate physical proximity of each
other in various social settings.
Goffman deals with various definitional aspects of Stigma and contrasts ego identity
(what an individual feels about stigma and its management) versus the more external
pragmatic challenges of social identity management (its effect on stigmatization) and
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3. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
personal identity (and its related information management challenges). He also
highlights various subtleties about whether the stigma is known before the encounter and
the degree to which it is perceptible or not to those involved. He also considers the time
dimension and the resultant “identity management” considerations before and after the
encounter for both normals and the stigmatized. This multidimensional analysis leads to
various specific strategies for dealing with the situations that arise. These strategies
include tension management and information management.
Goffman goes on to examine the specific phases in the socialization of stigmatized
persons as they struggle to reconcile experienced gaps between their own perceived
reality and the identity standards they choose to apply to themselves. He is careful to
point out the social group influences on such individuals and the effects of these groups
on the individual’s attempts to “find a self.”
Goffman makes an effort to extend the specific issues at the root of stigmatization and the
management of identity to society at large. He observes that “general identity values of a
society may be fully entrenched nowhere, and yet they can cast a shadow on encounters
everywhere.” He stresses that identity norms breed deviations as well as conformance,
and that, therefore, “stigma management is a general feature of society, a process
occurring wherever there are identity norms.” He encourages people to raise their
awareness of these issues so that they are able to play “both parts in the normal –
deviant drama.” He goes further to say that “normal” and “stigmatized” are not
persons but rather perspectives.
Goffman describes a win/win adaptation involving “a form of tacit cooperation between
normals and the stigmatized: the deviator can afford to remain attached to the norm
because others are careful to respect his secret, pass lightly over its disclosure, or
disattend evidence which prevents a secret from being made of it; these others, in turn,
can afford to extend this tactfulness because the stigmatized will voluntarily refrain from
pushing claims for acceptance much past the point normals find comfortable.”
Goffman concludes the book with a suggestion that the studies of deviations and deviance
on various social scales – from small, family-like groups to face-to-face encounters with
morality deviations at the local level, to metropolitan-scale social deviants expressing a
collective denial of the social order – are all sociological areas of concern that may
benefit from the specific study of Stigma and that the awareness gained and lessons
learned may be useful to all such studies of deviation. Goffman feels that these root
concerns are a common issue shared by many traditional fields of social problem study
and management.
[For the sake of readability, quotations will not be used in the remainder of this report around the
word “normal,” while recognizing the subtleties involved in identifying anything as normal.]
3
4. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
Chapter One – Stigma and Social Identity
Overview of Chapter 1
In the first chapter Goffman focuses on useful definitions of Stigma and the role of Social
Identity on the stigmatization of individuals.
Interaction between normals and the stigmatized can include a huge range of “contact”
situations, so Goffman narrows the field of study to the issues surrounding identity
management in mixed contact social situations involving immediate physical presence of
both stigmatized and “normals.” In these situations, the causes and effects of stigma
must be directly confronted by both sides and are considered to be more revealing of the
dynamics at work. It is these patterns of response and adaptation both on the part of
“normals” and stigmatized individuals that Goffman explores in later chapters.
Conceptual Definitions
Concepts/descriptions/definitions around Stigma
Early Greek usage of the term Stigma referred to markings of the body intentionally
applied to an individual to indicate unacceptable behavioral or moral traits as compared
to prevailing standards.
Later, Christian usage imputed two other meanings to the word and interpretations of
bodily physical features as: indicators of holy grace and/or physical disorder.
These approaches involve concepts of “imputing meaning onto something” which on its
own may not at all possess this meaning and secondly, “dealing with variations to a
norm.”
Goffman identifies three types of Stigma:
1. Body (physical)
2. Character (personal)
3. Tribal (social)
Concepts/descriptions/definitions around Stigmatization
Goffman envisions the trigger condition to stigmatization as being a “gap” or
“disappointment” between perceived attributes and stereotypes. According to Goffman,
Stigma is a relation between attribute and stereotype. But he introduces a wake-up call:
4
5. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
we are not fully aware that we have, project, and use stereotypes, and we are not fully
aware we anticipate conformity to this stereotype, and we are not fully aware that the
anticipation of things “fitting” to this stereotype turns into an expectation of “fit.” When
this “fit” is disappointed, there is a stigmatization that we must deal with.
Social Identity and Personal Identity attributes are contrasted to Ego identity issues that
concern an individual’s subjective feelings about his own situation, continuity, and
character. At this stage in the book, Goffman focuses on structural and other aspects of
social identity. These aspects are examined from both a virtual and actual point of view.
Discrepancies between the virtual and actual dimensions of social identity are at the root
of the dynamic that needs to be managed by both normals and stigmatized.
Concepts/descriptions/definitions around Stereotypes
Goffman asserts that stereotypes are composites of social categories available for
classification (be they socio-structural, e.g. occupation, or personal, e.g. honesty)
and their linked attributes. Members of a social category may be imputed attributes.
Members of other social categories sit in judgment of the degree of conformity of
evidence of attributes versus expected ones. We tend to hold others to this conformity for
being part of that group. We do not always consider the standards or expected attributes
to be universal or objective or as necessarily applying to ourselves. We often hold these
standards to others because of their social categories, but feel no “gap” and no stigma for
not demonstrating those standards ourselves if we see ourselves as lying outside the
social category in question. So it is not a question of objective standards and attributes
but only of those expected of a given social category. Then that particular link of
category and attribute set becomes a stereotype. The stereotype becomes a type of
shorthand for the anticipations and expectations about that group and its members.
Concepts/descriptions/definitions around Attributes
An attribute is neither creditable nor discreditable as a thing in itself but only relative to
our stereotypes. In the dynamics of being in the presence of someone, Goffman points
out that there is an emerging awareness of an attribute(s) perceived as being outside those
attributes stereotypically expected for a person in the socially anticipated category.
Dealing with the “gap” or Stigma
Identity beliefs have an effect on how one deals with Stigma. One can bear a stigma and
be relatively untouched, insulated and protected by identity beliefs of his own. Some
people may have a construct that acts as a frame of reference and expectations for
themselves and lies apart from other possible identity frameworks including social
identity.
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6. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
Other people may only have a sense of social identity and define themselves primarily by
that construct. Such people see themselves as unquestionably fitting into a selected social
category. They understand all too well the generally accepted social
expectations/standards for that category to which they belong. If there is an attribute
“gap,” an individual agrees that he falls short of what he really ought to be and he
experiences shame. So shame in this usage is the individual’s perception of one of his
own attributes being a defiling thing to possess. Such an individual virtually expects
others to hold him accountable to this “gap.” Stigmatized persons may try to avoid direct
confrontations with normals, given the uncertainty of status in the mind of normals. Such
a direct confrontation requires conscious calculation of impressions made, leading to a
state of anxious self-consciousness. The central feature of a stigmatized individual’s
situation in life is acceptance and the lack of it. It is often put into words as the “failure
to accord him respect.” Here we can see the clash between a virtual identity based on
stereotypes and imputed attributes and the actual identity. Where there is a negative
“gap” Stigma exists.
Where a person has his own constructs to insulate himself from these dynamics the issue
of Stigma is not a concern. However, when the stigmatized individual defines himself as
no different from any other human being, while at the same time he and those around him
define him as someone set apart, then “given this basic self-contradiction of the
stigmatized individual it is understandable that he will make some effort to find a way out
of his dilemma, if only to find a doctrine which makes consistent sense out of his
situation.” The person will attempt to hammer out his own code and also seek out
professionals to help.
The issue is one of stigmatized individuals projecting information about themselves and
the possible reactions of normals. The strategy in managing this projection, and
expectations, and dealing with the dynamics is in the scope of Goffman’s term
“Management of Spoiled Identity.” The “gap” between virtual and actual identity leaves
a “disappointment” of expectations between the perceived attributes and those anticipated
for the social category the person was assumed to belong to, and in the negative sense
this dynamic “spoils the identity.”
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7. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
Chapter Two – Information Control and Personal
Identity
Overview of Chapter 2
Goffman distinguishes Personal Identity from Social Identity and Ego Identity. The focus
of this chapter is Personal Identity and information control as part of stigma
management. Goffman elucidates information control through his considerations of
social information (signs and symbols) and personal information (Personal Identity and
Biography). Goffman deals with the concepts of The Discredited, The Discreditable,
Social Information and Strategies & Techniques (including “Covering”) available for the
Management of a Spoiled Identity where gaps exist between social aspects of identity and
personal identity, and also between virtual and actual identity constructs.
The Discredited – A focus on the Management of Tension
Where a stigma is visible – that is, plainly known and seen – the person may be
considered Discredited. Here the issue is one of managing the resultant tensions that may
arise in the interaction between normals and the stigmatized. Tension management
strategies depend on the nature of the perception of the stigma. This goes beyond the
mere physical perception of the stigma as a thing on its own.
Goffman provides further subtlety about “visibility.” He asks us to consider that the
“decoding capacity of the audience must be specified before one can speak of degree of
visibility.”
Therefore, he distinguishes between
1. “Known-about-ness” (the degree of previous knowledge about a person’s stigma),
2. “Obtrusiveness” (the degree to which the nature of the stigma causes it to
interfere with the normal flow of interaction)
3. “Perceived focus” (the degree of consideration given to a stigma’s impact on the
focus area of the interaction)
Therefore, these aspects of “visibility” impact the choice of tension management
strategies for the discredited.
The Discreditable – A Focus on the Management of Information
Where the stigma is hidden and unseen, the danger and anxiousness relate to the stigma
being discovered or revealed and the individual is termed Discreditable. This latter state
of being discreditable is far more sinister and complex. As Goffman points out, “it is not
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8. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
that he (the discreditable person) must face prejudice against himself, but rather that he
must face unwitting acceptance of himself by individuals who are prejudiced against
persons of the kind he can be revealed to be.” Of concern here is the management of
undisclosed discrediting information.
Both discredited and discreditable individuals may experience discrimination, and the
attitudes and behavioral reactions may vary in each case.
The Management of Spoiled Identity
This “management of spoiled identity” is presented as “management of tension” for those
cases of discredited individuals whose stigma is known to normals before the interaction,
whereas for discreditable individuals – where uncertainty exists as to whether the stigma
is believed to be known by normals – it is reduced to “management of information and
impressions.” The information that is being managed is considered in two areas … that
of Social Information and that of Personal Identity Information. Goffman holds that
Stigma management is a general feature of society, a process occurring wherever there
are identity norms. Goffman suggests that both normals and the stigmatized need to raise
their awareness of such situations where the choice of both tension and information
management strategies are useful.
Social Information – and Its Management
The author creates a useful definition of social information as having the following
properties:
Social Information is information:
1. About an individual
2. About abiding characteristics
3. Conveyed by the very person it is about through bodily expression in the
immediate presence of those who receive the expression
Goffman asserts that “signs” carry and convey social information. He distinguishes
between
1. Signs that are frequently and steadily available and are also routinely sought
and received. To this subset of signs Goffman ascribes the label “symbols.”
a. Status symbols or prestige symbols
b. Stigma symbols – draw attention to a debasing identity discrepancy
2. Signs that are intentionally used by the “actor” in a positive direction to throw
severe doubt on the validity of virtual identity
a. Dis-identifiers
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9. Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
3. Signs that are fugitive in nature and have not been institutionalized as information
carriers
a. Points: signs that make claims to prestige (e.g., clear diction)
b. Slips: signs that discredit tacit claims to prestige (e.g., faux pas behavior)
4. Signs designed by man solely for the purpose of conveying social information
a. Insignia (e.g., ex-military rank)
5. Signs that are permanent
a. Permanent Congenital signs (e.g., skin color)
b. Permanent Non-congenital signs (e.g., maiming)
6. Signs that are impermanent
a. Impermanent Signs implemented against the will (related to stigma
symbols)
b. Impermanent Signs willingly and voluntarily implemented (e.g., a
convict’s shaved head)
Goffman points out that signs are subjectively utilized and their use and interpretation
changes over time.
The author also includes observations that “who you are with” speaks volumes about who
you are, justly or not. Therefore, “who you are with” carries and conveys social
information.
The point of Goffman’s examination of signs, symbols and “the company you keep”
relates to areas of social information that people must be aware of if they are to succeed
in managing the totality of information they wish to convey about themselves. It also
raises awareness of how we interpret the signs and symbols we subjectively decode about
others.
Personal Identity – and Its Management
Goffman makes a point of distinguishing between identification in two areas:
1. Psychological identification
2. Criminological identification
He sees a continuum of relationships with public life at one end and intimacy at the other.
He asserts that familiarity and frequency of contact cannot automatically be correlated to
a simpler identity management task. He believes that stigma management is needed
throughout the spectrum.
Goffman maintains that we see people as “an instance of the category” to which we
perceive they belong with all the socially standardized anticipations regarding their
expected conduct and nature.
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“Identity” in Goffman’s constructs depends on the concept of uniqueness. He breaks
Uniqueness down as being composed of the following:
1. Identity pegs/marks
2. Collective combination of life history items as a whole
a. Social facts
b. Biographical facts
3. The core of a person’s being
With this in mind, we can view Personal Identity as defined by Goffman as including
points 1 and 2 but excluding point 3.
Goffman consider a person’s Biography as having two aspects that need consideration:
1. Management of role and audience segregation
2. Informational connectedness
He also introduces the conceptual differences between
• Social misrepresentation
• Personal misrepresentation
Goffman then explores the norms regarding social identity, which he takes as the roles,
repertoires, or profiles permissible for a given individual to sustain social personality.
The author draws our attention to the bearing of personal and social identification on each
other.
In examining the “World of Others” Goffman sees a continuum with those who know us
on one end and those who do not have personal identification facts or biographical facts
about us on the other end. He goes on to describe recognition along this continuum, from
cognitive recognition as an act of perception by those who know us, to social recognition
based on social identifiers and, finally, the public image of a person available to complete
strangers.
In consideration of the dynamics of personal information and social information being
known or not known to those around us, the question arises about making attempts to
disguise or hide the stigma from a class of people who might not know about it or from
whom you wish to conceal it. This attempt to “get away with” not revealing the stigma is
termed “passing.”
The author describes a natural cycle in “Passing”:
1. Unwitting
2. Unintentional
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3. For fun
4. Non-routine
5. Routine
6. Disappearance
Problems and Consequences of “Passing” include:
1. Unanticipated need to disclose discrediting information
2. “In deeper-ism”
3. Making efforts to conceal certain incapacities with the consequence that observers
impute the existence of other incapacities in their place
4. Learning what they “really think”
5. Not knowing “who knows what”
6. Exposure during face-to-face interaction
7. Being called to a showdown
8. Presence of fellow sufferers or “the Wise”
Control of Identity information varies in three types of Relationships:
1. Pre-stigma relationships
2. Post-stigma relationships
3. Fleeting relationships
Goffman distinguishes between voluntarily hiding from one class of people and being
forced by circumstances beyond the scope of the current dynamic interaction to present a
false image of yourself by default. In both cases there is a chance of being “found out.”
There is a threat of discreditation, which may lead to exposure to blackmail.
Goffman identifies three types of blackmail:
1. Pre-blackmail
2. Self-saving blackmail
3. Full or classic blackmail
He also goes on to distinguish between a simple double life and a double double life and
the increasing complexity of keeping the information story straight.
Goffman outlines the evolving learning process of a stigmatized individual. This
learning breaks down into phases in the socialization of stigmatized persons.
The five phases in the socialization of stigmatized persons are:
1. Learning the normal point of view
2. Learning he is disqualified as a normal
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3. Learning to cope with the way others treat the kind of person he can be shown to
be
4. Learning to Pass (turning point in moral career)
5. Learning that he can come to feel above passing, unlearn concealment, and adopt
voluntary disclosure. This is the final mature phase of socialization.
An individual with a secret differentness can find himself in three kinds of places:
1. Out of bounds
2. Civil places
3. Back places (both voluntary and involuntary)
In this manner the individual’s world is divided up spatially by social identity and
personal identity considerations.
This kind of spatial partitioning of an individual’s world establishes the going price for
• Revealing or concealing
• Significance of being known about or not
Considerations of the above impact an individual’s choice of information strategies to
manage his social and personal identity.
The key Identity Management issue: that what are unthinking routines for normals can
become management problems for the discreditable. As Goffman puts it, “The person
with a secret failing, then, must be alive to the social situation as a scanner of
possibilities, and is therefore likely to be alienated from the simpler world in which those
around him apparently dwell.”
Techniques of Information Control
Goffman uses a concept of “the daily round.” He distinguishes between the daily round
of the discreditable, which revolves around contingencies in managing information about
themselves, and the daily round of the discredited, which involves tension management
around the cycle of restriction to social acceptance.
The following Strategies and Techniques of information control are outlined:
Strategy 1 – Conceal or obliterate signs that have become stigma symbols
Techniques for Strategy 1:
• Name changing
• Reject equipment revealing failure
• Use of disidentifiers
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• Use of a cover
• Use of a special established routine for passing
Strategy 2 – Present stigma signs as merely those of another less stigmatic issue
(lesser of two evils approach)
Techniques for Strategy 2:
• Absentminded versus posing as “easily bored”
• Hard of hearing versus posing as “being a daydreamer”
Strategy 3 – Reveal nothing to a large group and selectively choose what to reveal to
a small group of confidants
Techniques for Strategy 3:
• Relationship distance management
• Disconnectedness
• Brief time exposures
• Isolation
Strategy 4 – Voluntarily disclose stigma, thus transforming the approach from an
information management challenge to a tension management challenge.
Techniques for Strategy 4:
• Voluntarily wear a stigma symbol
• Purposeful slips giving fleeting evidence
• Disclosure etiquette
Covering is described by Goffman as a technique with the following objectives:
1. To reduce tension
a. It is easier for himself and others to withdraw covert attention from the
stigma to help focus on the official content of the interaction.
2. To restrict the way in which a known attribute obtrudes itself into the center of
attention.
Covering – Techniques
• Management of standards associated with stigma bracket
• Restricted display of failings most centrally identified with the stigma
• Organization of social situations to minimize stigmatization
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Chapter 3 – Group Alignment and Ego Identity
Overview of Chapter 3
In Chapter 3 Goffman comments on an individual’s sense of self, two contexts which
impact the sense of self, and the nature of those two contexts. Goffman divides an
individual’s world of affiliations and sources of influence into an “us” and “them”
binary world with the stigmatized individual caught striving to find a place in both and
sometimes belonging to neither. He labels these two contexts “In-Group” and “Out-
Group.” He labels the like-stigmatized persons as “The Own” and acknowledges a gray
zone of “The Wise” who are from the “Them/Out-Group” side but have gained some
comfort with and acceptance into the “Own/In-Group” side.
In this chapter Goffman also provides insights into the professional spokespersons for the
“In-Group” and the political overtones that we need to be aware of.
The key point in this chapter is the ambivalence of self, the stigmatized feel. The
stigmatized may be searching for a “self” and often it feels as if that “self” were merely
a construct of “the alien voice of the group speaking for and through” the stigmatized
person. At the very same time, the individual is told he is “a human being like everyone
else” and also that he isn’t, by both the “In-Group” and “Out-Group,” but from different
perspectives. The stigmatized feel “people do not only expect you to play your part; they
also expect you to know your place.” Another poignant view is “that the stigmatized
individual can be caught taking the tactful acceptance of himself [by the “Out-Group” of
normals] too seriously”; in other words, actually believing it to be genuine and
unconditional when in reality the acceptance of himself by the normals is conditional.
Furthermore, this conditional acceptance “depends upon normals not being pressed past
the point at which they can easily extend acceptance – or, at worst, uneasily extend it.”
As Goffman points out, “This contradiction and joke is his fate and his destiny. The
stigmatized individual thus finds himself in an arena of detailed argument and discussion
concerning what he ought to think of himself.” This ambivalence of self is an acute
reality for the stigmatized.
Ambivalence
Before we can understand what Goffman says about ambivalence we need to review his
breakdown of Identity.
Goffman makes the following distinctions, which he details in Chapter 1 and 2:
• Social Identity: this construct of stereotypes, assumptions, and the relationships
of what a person is to society’s expectations for a given instance of a social
category stereotype leads to “unfulfilled gaps,” which lead to stigmatization.
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• Personal Identity: this construct of biographical and other personal data, the
relationships of what is known about this data and by whom, leads to the “tension
and information” control aspects of stigma management for the discredited and
discreditable respectively.
Now in Chapter 3 he introduces Ego Identity, the third aspect of Identity in his scheme.
• Ego Identity: “the subjective sense of his own situation, continuity, character as
it is felt by the individual.” This aspect of identity (and chapter 3) is all about
what an individual feels about stigma and its management (covered in chapters 1
and 2) and examines the sources and nature of the advice he is given from “In-
Group” and “Out-Group” sources.
Identity Ambivalence
Why Ambivalence?
• An individual feels identity ambivalence because of the gap between
his reality and the identity standards he applies to himself.
Expressions of Ambivalence:
• Oscillations of Identity and associations with fellow stigmatized
• Tendency to stratify his “Own” according to the degree to which their
stigma is apparent and obtrusive and further to react from a
“stigmatized” perspective to those with lesser degrees of stigma and
from the perspective of a “normal” to those with greater degrees of
appearance and obtrusiveness of their stigma.
• Social alliances –e.g., choice of friends, dates
Causes of acute feelings of Ambivalence occur when
• Physically close to his own behaving in stereotyped ways
• “Nearing,” which is a term Goffman uses to indicate a situation
wherein the stigmatized individual comes close to an undesirable
instance of his own kind while “with” a normal. That is, the presence
of a normal while such an instance is happening alters the situation and
causes acute stress about his identity.
Given this ambivalence, the individual searches for a doctrine or life philosophy to make
sense out of his situation and two sources of doctrines, platforms, politics, instructions,
suggested attitudes to self arise from
• In-Groups – in political terminology
• Out-Groups – in psychiatric terminology
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In-Group Alignments
The following are In-Group codes of advocacy to make sense out of the situation and
cope:
1. Patterns of revealing & concealing
2. Formulae for dealing with ticklish situations
3. Support to be given to his own
4. Type of fraternization with normals
5. Suggested reactions (ignore or react) to prejudice shown to his own
6. Balance between being normal and different
7. Facts about his own to generate pride
8. Facing up to his own differentness
9. Warnings against:
a. “Passing” completely
b. Fully accepting as his own the negative attitude of others toward him
c. Minstrelization and adopting a clownish role
d. Normalization
The consequences of In-Group Advocacy are highlighted as:
• Becoming a critic of the social scene
• Becoming too situation-conscious
• Dealing with the fact that these In-Group advocates have made what is most
private and embarrassing to the stigmatized individual public and collective and,
therefore, the individual must also deal with that unsolicited exposure and
betrayal by his own.
The point of view of the In-Group is that
• They are the stigmatized individual’s “real” family and “natural” group.
The individual can then
• Turn to his group and therefore they label him as “loyal and authentic”
• Turn away from his group and therefore they label him as “craven and foolish”
So in part, his “nature” is generated by the nature of his group affiliations, which can for
some In-Groups become political, militant and chauvinistic.
Out-Group Alignments
The point of view of the Out-Group advocacy is that
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1. The stigmatized individual should see himself as fully human and as someone
who, at worst, is only excluded from merely one area of social life.
2. The stigmatized individual should not be ashamed or try to conceal his condition.
3. Hard work, self-training, and a cheerful outgoing manner are best.
4. Normals mean no harm or, at worst, they don’t know any better.
5. Normals should be tactfully helped to act nicely toward the stigmatized.
6. The stigmatized bears the ownership for:
a. the sympathetic re-education of normals
b. conscious efforts to reduce tension in tricky situations with normals
c. proffering normals’ temporary status as “The Wise”
d. tactfully accepting encroachments on privacy
The consequences of Out-Group Advocacy are highlighted as:
• Obliging the stigmatized to protect normals in a variety of ways
• Danger when the stigmatized allow themselves to be taken in and to believe that
they are more accepted than they really are. They will then attempt to participate
socially in areas of contact that normals feel are not their proper place.
• Expecting the stigmatized to know their “real” place
• Acceptance is conditional.
• Tolerance is conditional and only part of a two-way bargain based on the
stigmatized knowing their place.
The individual can then
• Turn to the Out-Group; therefore, they label him “mature, with good personal
adjustment capabilities.”
• Turn away from the Out-Group; therefore, they label him as “impaired, rigid, and
defensive.”
An extremely revealing insight from Goffman is that: “Any mutual adjustment and
mutual approval between two individuals can be fundamentally embarrassed if one of the
partners accepts in full the offer that the other appears to make; every “positive”
relationship is conducted under implied promises of consideration and aid such that the
relationship would be injured were these credits actually drawn on.”
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Chapter 4 – The Self and Its Other
Overview of Chapter 4
This intriguing title seems to invite us to make the link between what on the surface
appear to be two discrete entities – “The Stigmatized” and “The Normal.” The author
leads us to consider “the other half” of ourselves and that we are at once both
stigmatized and normal from any number of perspectives. Goffman seems to want us to
see that all participants in Society can be seen as both characters in the social
stigmatization drama. He invites us to see that these concepts can be profitably used if
understood as two perspectives, two points of view, and two vantage points of experience,
whose critical lessons and “awareness” are mandatory if full adaptation is to occur in a
society with norms and deviances from those norms. Goffman argues that Stigma
Management is a general feature of society, a process occurring wherever there are
identity norms. He considers these patterns of response and adaptation as necessary in
every individual’s toolkit of adaptation to encounters within a mixed society. Goffman
wants to propose that the concept of Deviation can be a bridge between the study of
stigma and the study of the rest of the social world.
One can imagine a Bell Curve with standard deviations being marked on its x-axis.
Those closest to the center, the highest point of the Bell, can be considered as
• Ordinary deviations from the common
While those outlying areas at the extremes of the curve can be considered as
• Uncommon deviations from the ordinary
Goffman makes the point that “normals” may at best be seen not as perfect or ideal but
merely as ordinary deviations from the common. The “common” are societal norms, be
they existing or imagined as ideals, expressed or not, institutionalized, assumed, or
unconsciously held. Goffman holds that “General Identity values of a society may be
fully entrenched nowhere and yet they can cast some shadow on encounters everywhere.”
The author suggests that Identity Norms breed deviations as well as conformance. He
then goes on to distinguish between conformance and compliance and the resultant
subtlety of whether the issue is one of the individual’s condition or the individual’s will.
Goffman outlines the dynamics behind the Normative Predicament: the problem of
unsustained norms and possible outcomes of that predicament. He outlines three
orientations or places in which an individual may wish to locate himself to handle the
predicament:
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1. Tacitly accept the unreconciled dichotomy and participate as a member in a social
category that supports the existence of the unsustained norms in question, but is
generally recognized by itself and others … as not being the relevant category
that needs to realize the norm in question and put it into practice; in other
words, maneuvering oneself into a group that can expect others to hold to a norm
while excusing itself from that same norm and somehow accepting that
convention (at best) or hypocrisy (at worst).
2. Given a realization that identity norms can’t be attained perfectly and that you
yourself cannot attain that norm in question, even to societal standards, to resign
oneself to considering that the only recourse is to withdraw from society.
3. To adapt by becoming more aware of both the norms and your “self” and thus to
be able to design skill sets to execute patterns of response and adaptation to
encounters where gaps are exposed between norms and reality. As Goffman
points out, “passing and covering are involved, providing the student with a
special application of the arts of impression management, the arts, basic in social
life, through which the individual exerts strategic control over the image of
himself and his products that others glean from him … Also involved is a form of
tacit cooperation between normals and the stigmatized …”
Goffman invites normals to be aware of the third option as everyone is affected by the
Normative Predicament. He states, “The most fortunate of normals is likely to have his
half-hidden failing, and for every little failing there is a social occasion when it will loom
large, creating a shameful gap between virtual and actual social identity.” He continues
to say, “Aliveness to the role of the other must be sufficient so that when certain adaptive
tactics are not employed by one of the normal-stigmatized pair, the other will know how
to step in and take on the role.”
Goffman returns to his main thesis:
“Stigma involves not so much a set of individuals who can be separated into two piles,
the stigmatized and the normal, as a pervasive two-role social process in which every
individual participates in both roles, at least in some connections and in some phases of
life. The normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives. These are
generated in social situations during mixed contacts by virtue of the unrealized norms
that are likely to play upon the encounter.”
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Chapter 5 – Deviations and Deviance
Overview of Chapter 5
This chapter discusses contemplations about the relationship between the specific study
of Stigma versus general social studies on sociological issues whose core dynamic relates
to deviations and deviance. The point is made that the lessons from the specific study of
Stigma can be applied to the understanding of other social issues related to deviations
and deviance in a context of addressing normative dilemmas. In so doing, students can
focus on what distinguishes these other social challenges while seeing that one of the
aspects they have in common is addressed by considerations of Stigma and its
management.
Goffman conceives a group of individuals to be those who
• Share some values
• Adhere to a set of social norms
Those who do not adhere to the norms are conceived as
• “Deviators,” whose peculiarity of mismatch is termed the “deviation”; there exists
the possibility that such deviations can lead to “re-identification” of the deviators
and increased subsequent risk of stigmatization.
The author stresses the shifting varieties and meaning of deviation possible depending on
the context and scale of the group.
Goffman examines the following group “system of reference” scales:
Small, family-like groups
Goffman examines the following contexts of deviation in small, family-like
groups where the biographical data of the deviator is widely known or available:
• High rank within a small, close-knit group
• High rank within a large group
• The in-group deviant
• The village idiot, small town drunk, etc. who is very much considered as
part of the group even if it is an ambivalent inclusion
• The group isolate
• Constantly in social situations with the group but is NOT considered by
the group as one of their own
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Face-to-face local scales
• Instances of specialized roles that can be positively or negatively out of step with
the ordinary morality of the times
• Minister/priest roles
• Law officers
Metropolitan scales
Disaffiliates have five main aspects. They are those who
1. Decline voluntarily and openly to accept the social place accorded to them
2. Act irregularly and somewhat rebelliously in connection with our basic
institutions
3. Are engaged in some kind of collective denial of the social order
4. Are perceived as failing to use available opportunities for advancement in the
various approved runways of society
5. Represent failures in the motivational schemes of society
Disaffiliates can be considered to be of three types:
• Eccentrics and “characters” – those who take a stand on their own
• Cultists
• Those whose activity is collective and focused within some building or
place
• Those who consider themselves not merely equal to but superior to others
and
• Some of these cultists acquire converts by proposing alternative programs
of action.
• Social Deviants
• Are those who come together in a sub-community or milieu
• Express a collective denial of the social order, which reflects a failure in
the motivational schemes of society.
• Some of these can provide models of being for restless normals, obtaining
not only sympathy but also recruits to their lifestyles.
Goffman proposes a field of inquiry called “Deviance” and considers Social Deviants, as
defined above, to be its core.
Social Deviants include the following peripheral instances:
• Political radicals
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• The traveling rich
• The ethnic assimilation backsliders
• The metropolitan unmarried and merely married who disavail themselves of an
opportunity to raise a family … and support a vague society against the family
system.
Goffman then distinguishes between those who openly show disaffiliation and those who
are quietly disaffiliated and make little if any show of it, such as dedicated hobbyists who
have all but withdrawn from society except for the necessary civil attachments.
Goffman raises the issue of communities of social deviants. These deviant communities
can constitute a haven of self-defense and a place where the individual deviator can
openly take the line that he is at least as good as anyone else.
In considering the concept of deviant communities, Goffman draws our attention to two
types of social category among many that have been studied:
1. Groups of ethnic and racial minorities
2. Members of the lower class
Goffman points out that among many social categories,
• In-group deviants
• Social deviants
• Minority members
• Lower-class persons
“… are all likely on occasion to find themselves functioning as stigmatized individuals,
unsure of the reception awaiting them in face to face interaction and deeply involved in
the various responses to this plight.”
Goffman also highlights the plight of disadvantaged persons who are not stigmatized at
all.
He states, “A full consideration of any one of these leads beyond, and away from, what it
is necessary to consider in the analysis of stigma.” Goffman concludes by saying, “An
extraction has thus been made from the traditional fields of social problems, race and
ethnic relations, social disorganization, criminology, social pathology, and deviancy – an
extraction of something all these fields have in common.” This extraction has been
observed by Goffman under the title STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled
Identity.
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