SOC 346 Chapter Notes - Chapter Reading 2 pt 2/2: Socioeconomic Status, Erving Goffman
Document Summary
Goffman - the presentation of self in everyday life. When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to get information about them or to bring into play information about them already possessed. Information about the individual helps to define the situation. If people know, through interaction, about the individual, they can rely on assumptions as to the persistence and generality of psychological traits as a means of predicting his present and future behavior. The real" attitudes, beliefs, and emotions of the individual can be ascertained only indirectly, through what appears to be involuntary expressive behavior. When an individual offers a product or service, the person they are interacting with will be forced to accept some events/behavior as natural signs of something not directly available to the senses. Individuals feel they have to act unintentionally express themselves and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.
