Study of Impression Management

Study of Impression Management

Activity #3

1. Choose a setting in which to study impression management used by people (we will study objects and impression management in activity 4). This setting can be from typical face-to-face interactions in your everyday life, media like television shows or magazines, or businesses like stores in the mall or restaurants. Please do not choose to analyze your Social Psychology instructor for this assignment.

2. Observe and write an analysis on techniques of impression management used in this particular social setting. Use Goffman’s work on impression management for ideas. Keep this analysis for your journal.

3. Questions which might be used to analyze impression management:

What impressions are the actors trying to create through their appearance, words, or behavior?

What attitudes or values do the actors want audiences to attribute to them? Do actors try to appear "confident", "successful", "helpful", etc? How do they try to accomplish this?

Do you think the actors feel "role distance"; displaying certain impressions which might be different from their "real feelings"?

Is the actor’s performance part of a "team performance"? What is the team trying to accomplish through impression management?

How are social group memberships and self-identity dramatized? How is "gender" acted? How are claims to a particular social class or status accomplished? How do people "act their age"?

What props are used in the performance, to accomplish what ends?

What are the front and back stage regions of this performance?

Especially note if the performance breaks down into awkward, embarrassing moments. What went wrong in impression management?

4. Share results (post #3) with your email group. Print and keep your post for your journal.

5. Reply to other posts within your email group on this activity.

6. Come to class prepared to discuss your findings in small groups.

7. If you have trouble with the assignment, consult the bibliography below. Some of the best are on 2-hour reserve in the library.

Bibliography for Activity 3


Brissett, Dennis & Charles Edgley, eds
	1990	Life as Theater, 2^nd edition. NY: Aldine.

Goffman, Erving
	1955	"On Facework: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social Interaction", in Psychiatry, 18:213-231.

	1956	"The Nature of Deference and Demeanor", in American Anthropologist, 58:473-502.

	1959	The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City: Doubleday.

	1961	Encounters. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

	1967	Interaction Ritual. Garden City: Doubleday.

	1969	Strategic Interaction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

	1974	Frame Analysis. NY: Harper & Row.

	What impressions are the actors trying to create through their appearance, words, or behavior?
	What attitudes or values do the actors want audiences to attribute to them? Do actors try to appear "confident", "successful", "helpful", etc? How do they try to accomplish this?
	Do you think the actors feel "role distance"; displaying certain impressions which might be different from their "real feelings"?
	Is the actor’s performance part of a "team performance"? What is the team trying to accomplish through impression management?
	How are social group memberships and self-identity dramatized? How is "gender" acted? How are claims to a particular social class or status accomplished? How do people "act their age"?
	What props are used in the performance, to accomplish what ends?
	What are the front and back stage regions of this performance?
	Especially note if the performance breaks down into awkward, embarrassing moments. What went wrong in impression management?