My Notice 'The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life' Erving Goffman

1. Which is more important than the appearance and content?

How can you answer if asked like this?
Many people answer "I am absolutely content is important".
However, even such a person should not be totally indifferent to appearance.

Even though it is easier it will not go to school with a room wear, and in this scenario (interview, date etc) you will pay attention to the appearance to have a good impression on your partner.

2. "I" to act


In English "person" there are meanings such as "person" and "human", "role" and "character".

That comes from the fact that the Latin word [persona], the etymology of [person], has the meaning of a performer's acting mask or acting role on the stage.


As this suggests, "person" has an aspect that plays a role in the stage of daily life.

Focusing on this point, it was Gofman (Goffman: 1922-1982) that tried to draw people's mutual actions from a directional perspective.

The viewing angle adopted in this report is the viewpoint of the performance of the theater. The principles derived are the principles of the production. I will show how people in normal work situations present their own behavior to themselves and others, how he will direct and control the impression others have about their self, While I continue my performance in front of others, I will think about what is good and what is wrong.

(Goffman 1959 = 1974: iii)

Each scene of everyday life, such as home, school, circle, part-time job place, train, etc., is a stage in a theater in a sense, people are conscious of the sight of other people who are the audience (audience) (Son, student, seniors, employees, passengers) who are suitable for the stage of the stage.

Through such acting (performance), we are "impression producers" who manage their impressions given to others.

※ The purpose of this book is to write in detail the various "self-presentation" or "impression management" practices of people made at the theater called daily life.

3. Dramatrural approach


So why do people perform in social situations?

After all, there will be selfish motivation "I want to give a good impression to others at least" "I want to show myself well".


→ However, people do not always perform for the purpose of "private gain" only.

On the other hand, a person performs performance for others.

    Doctor prescribing pneumillary medicine
    The staff of the gas station checking the tire pressure many times for a worried driver
    Patient mental hospital patient who behaves bizarre so that apprentice nurse will not discourage only normal behavior
    A passerby who makes a pretense without looking at a person who has stung by a road

In addition to these reasons it is important that performance is done to maintain the stage itself.

For example, a baseball umpire must make a decision without having to make a round (even without showing a swinging swing), even if he is not sure of his judgment.

For, under the hesitant hesitation, the game will not proceed smoothly.


Thus, we are performing for ourselves, for others, and for the ordering of the whole stage.

However, the reality (situation) established in this way is "a delicate breakdown that can be shattered with a very trifling unfortunate event" (Goffman 1959 = 1974: 64).

If we fail in "seal management", "other people at the same seat feels hostile to him, all the participants are a kind of anomie (anomie caused by collapse of small social system of facing interaction) I feel restless, I am at a loss, I lose my complexion "(Goffman 1959 = 1974: 14 - 15).

Therefore, we must make use of various directing techniques (dramaturgy) to make the performance successful.

4. Various concept devices for reading and understanding performance

Gofman presents various conceptual devices for reading and understanding the performance being performed in everyday life.

5. "Performance Team"


Although we may do performance alone by one person, it is not unusual to cooperate with multiple people to perform the performance.

At this time, "a set of people who are cooperating to play a single coherent routine" is called a "performance team".


· Teammate selection

· Suspension of immediate 'compulsory sanctions'

6. "Top Bureau Area" and "Back Office Area"


As in theater, everywhere there is a "backstage", the theater called daily life also has a stage where performance is performed and "behind the scenes" where an audience can not normally enter.

Gofman calls the former as the "front region" and the latter as the "back region" and reveals that they are deeply involved in the success or failure of the performance.


· Boundary management of "front-station area" and "back-off area"

· Function of "back-end area"

"Separation of spectators"


The authenticity of acting can often be compromised by spectators who are not related to the performance.

A means for avoiding such danger is "audience segregation".


· Clerk recommending different items at the same store

· Friends who do not bring up at home only when parents are out.

In each social scene, we act as a "role (role)" appropriate to the situation, thereby maintaining interaction with others as an ordered person.

However, a person is not the only one who obeys "role expectation" uniquely.

· Immersion in the role and "self-loss"

According to Gofman, immersing in the role and fully engaging in that role brings about a kind of "self-loss".

To accept a role is that it completely disappears in "fictional self" which is considered to be obtained in that situation, it is what can be seen in relation to the image completely, The role is to establish clearly that people accept.

(Goffman 1961 = 1985: 113)

7. "Role Distance"


A method for avoiding such "self-loss" is what is called "role distance".

That means that "not everything is defined by the role that you are playing".

    Adults jog on the merry-go-round
    Surgeon who jokes during surgery
    Failure to join the athletic festival seems unwilling

→ People transmit "effectively" to others by showing "distance derogically" from the role they are performing, not merely playing that role.

8. Performance as "moral obligation"

In this way, it is the Gofmann society that is positioned as being produced and maintained through mutual actions with other people, such as role acting (self presentation), rather than instituting self as an entity existing as such itself Although it is science, there may be some people who do not have a good impression on the human figure depicted there, that is, the appearance of a human being who carefully looks at the appearance and starts with formal performance.


· Gourdner's criticism of Gofman

"It is important whether it is moral for Gofmann whether it is moral for others or not," and criticizes that viewer's view

→ Negative labeling such as "sociology of deception"

Indeed, there are times when I feel the sense of embarrassment and labor in acting.

However, it is undeniable fact that our mutual actions are supported by these performances.

In that sense, maintaining the "situation definition" through impression manipulation is a kind of "moral obligation".