SOCA01H3 Chapter 5: Chapter 5 - Ungar
Document Summary
Goffman contends that individuals seek to convey idealized and, in most instances, self- enhancing impressions to others. Individuals prefer to present themselves in ways which impress others. Research has revealed that self-enhancement motives are sufficiently strong to occasion self-enhancing presentations even when there is some risk that these presentations could be publicly refuted. Self-presentational theorist and researchers have generally equated self-enhancement with self-presentation. Ambivalence serves to attenuate commitment and give rise to role distancing behaviours. The conflicts arising from contrary normative expectations are usually resolved through the negotiation of a working consensus. Actors only adhere to the working consensus with limited commitment. Status altering actions claim something else as a performer and/or re-negotiate the statuses of the participants. Performers mock or caricature themselves so that they can. Forms of conduct which, in the face of potentially disruptive events, simultaneously sustain the flow of actions between individuals and sustain a link between conduct and culture.
