Daily life in society (Goffman)

 

This society is a big stage, and each of us plays a role in the society.Goffman regards interaction

as a performance between individuals. In Goffman's view, society is a big stage, and a

"playwright" is a social system. Every individual is a performer on the stage. The performance of

the performer and the audience's reaction must obey certain explicit rules or implicit rules. Rules,

these rules and the performer’s social experience constitute the performer’s mind, define the

interactive context of the performance and guide the performer’s behavior. Performers create a

certain impression to the audience through their physical performance on the stage, and

constantly understand and use various symbolic postures and signs of the body to create the

desired impression, so as to maintain normal interaction, build social structure, and make social

order normal operation. Goffman believes that in interpersonal communication, people always

express themselves through behavior to give others an impression. There are two main ways of

expression: one is the expression that the behavioral individual is relatively easy to control,

including various language symbols and their substitutes. This is the external expression of the

mind of the socialized individual through the body. In this expression, the object I directly

suppressed the subject myself. The body is only a tool for expressing the use of symbols by the

mind. This expression is conducive to defining the situation and smoothly achieving interaction.

The other part is the expression in which individual behavior seems to be inattentive or not

controlled. It is included in a wide range of In the action, it is an implicit expression. This

expression is either the subject ’ s inadvertent disclosure, or the personal mind that is not

conducive to the self-interest of the interaction, and contains a certain informal motive or

purpose of the individual actor. In reality, if the two expressions are inconsistent, people tend to

believe in the latter, and the implicit subject I expressed. Therefore, if the individual wants to

create a certain impression in the interaction, he will intentionally or unintentionally control that

part. Part of the control. Goffman refers to the management behavior of the performer's explicit

and implicit expression when he controls his performance in order to create a desired impression

in the minds of others, which is called "impression management". In the entire process of making

impressions, individuals and individuals, that is, Goffman ’ s so-called “ performers ” and

“audiences”, define the interactive scene through the mind, determine individual behavior, and

through the body, including body language, body Actions, physical behaviors, etc. are used for

interaction, and the different interactions between performers and audiences make social order

possible. Goffman divides the actors' performances into front and back areas. Front area: a place

where the audience can see and get a certain meaning from it, where performers perform their

performances; backstage area: a place where performers can relax, rest, and prepare for

performances that are not seen by the audience. The foreground and background areas are two

different fields. There are different internal rules in the two fields. The performer internalizes therules into the object self and consciousness, and uses his own mind and habit to understand and

use the symbolic signs in them, define appropriate scenarios for interaction and construct social

order. The performer’s performance in the foreground field can be regarded as an effort. This

effort maintains and reflects some standard appearance. Therefore, the interaction at the front

desk is a more formal interaction. The performer’s mind and habits are in this field. The defined

interaction scenario requires a formal performance of the body to meet the two standards of

“polite” and “decent” defined by Goffman; the audience will also respond to the performer

with appropriate behaviors determined by the corresponding mind, in order to construct a

smooth scenario interaction . There are no special formal rules in the background field, and the

performer can relax. At this time, it is another kind of informal interaction under the mind, and

there is also a corresponding physical performance.

This is an aspect of the informal emotional relationship of social order, which is manifested

through the body of the performer as being closer to each other, joking with each other, eating

together, etc. In order to perform a common set of routine procedures in the same front-end

field, individuals often need to cooperate and maintain consistent collaboration, which

constitutes a "drama class". At this time, all members depend on each other, restrict each other,

and have a similar mindset. The troupe members have a similar understanding and use of various

symbols in the field, and can more accurately define the scene of the performance field. Through

physical performance, such as close contact between the troupe members' bodies, consistent

movement and behavior, etc. To create the impression that the performers expect from the

audience and complete the successful impression management. Members will also have such a

mindset that they will adopt some strategic behaviors such as "control the stage settings" and

"keep secrets" to ensure the success of their performances and the safety of the performance

process, and to ensure the safety of the troupe itself. . In order to better complete the

performance, performers will usually select the members of the drama class with whom they

cooperate in a targeted manner to eliminate performance failures due to improper mental or

physical performance. When two drama classes interact with each other for a certain purpose

and present themselves to each other, the members of the drama class tend to maintain the

behavior they think they should be in order to keep in line with the role. At this time, the inner

minds of the two drama class members are different. Therefore, when the drama class performs

face-to-face, each drama class member will perform the body as it should; when the other party

leaves, they will define the interactive scene with their own minds. , To make physical

performances that tend to maintain their own performance methods and the unity of the theater

class to maintain the ontological safety of the theater class. Specifically, Goffman believes that

the behavioral strategies they will use at this time include "absence treatment" and " Perform

miscellaneous talks, "drama class conspiracy" and "re-cooperation behavior". Whether it is a

performance by a single actor or a performance in a theater class, in "impression management",

the performer will use some special physical performance measures such as covering up real

thoughts and keeping a distance from the audience in an interactive situation defined by the

experience of the mind. Complete special performances such as "idealized" performances,

"misinformation" performances, and "mystified" performances to construct a more special order

structure in society, such as maintaining the majesty of the royal family and the mystery of

celebrities. In the process of performance impression management, there are also some major

types of performance breakdown: unintentional actions, untimely intrusions, disrespect andpublic noise. Goffman collectively referred to them as "incidents." This interaction is mainly due

to the performance at this time. The mind of the performer no longer functions, and the

performance of the body loses control, resulting in irrational behavior of the performer, which in

turn leads to failure of performance and interaction. In order to prevent the embarrassment

caused by the incident, the performers and the audience will take some measures in advance,

such as drama loyalty, drama literacy, and drama rigor, to ensure that the mind defines the

appropriate situation definition and the body's normal performance. Goffman regards individual

initiative, initiative and interaction between individuals as the main factors that explain why

society is possible.