Social psychology

Impression Management

Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

Impression Management (IM)

Makes visible the interaction order, a dimension of interpersonal behavior that previous scholarship had overlooked.

Impression Management

Goffman vs Mead Goffman followed Mead’s concerns with investigating the “Me” (how others see us).

But Goffman focused on how the I tries to get others to see a particular Me through impression management (IM).

Impression Management

Our Main Effort To fit into a situation in a way that: 1) confers moral value upon ourselves and 2) seems consistent with who we claim to be.

Impression Management

Main Challenge We portray ourselves as having a durable and situationally-transcendent identity.

Situational Identity

… when in actuality we have situational identities.

Key Points A situationally-transcendent identity is a myth.

We don’t have one, but we portray ourselves as having one.

Situational Identity

The Power of the Situation He says that people don’t have certain kinds of moments because of who they are, but rather certain kinds of moments create certain kinds of people.

Situational Identity

The Fundamental Attribution Error When, without information about the situation, people explain someone’s behavior in terms of that person’s personality or other attributes

Our Main Motivation To convince others that: 1) we are presenting a real self identity; 2) that our self identity does not fluctuate

between situations; 3) and to avoid embarrassment

Impression Management

Discreditable Selves We can easily lose the support of others to play along with our performance.

Example: you send a message through private chat, but it actually goes to everybody

Impression Management

The Implicit Contract We are all in tacit agreement to help each other maintain our self claims and not to point out inconsistencies between presentations of self.

But we still do, sometimes.

Impression Management

For example, we use tact to minimize or prevent embarrassment.

Not Upholding the Implicit Contract Goffman says that we sometimes undermine another’s presentation of self.

This is performance sabotage.

Impression Management

Impression Management The strategic effort individuals employ to convey that they possess a particular self identity.

Impression Management

Our Experience of Strategic Effort “calculating” OR “relatively unaware”

Relatively unaware individuals may be “taken in by their own act” (e.g. “sincere”)

Calculating individuals are not (but they are not always self-interested)

Impression Management

Two Forms of Impressions 1. Impressions intentionally “given” (strategic and calculating) 2. Impressions unintentionally “given off” (unintended)

Impression Management

Dramatic realization: highlighting important facts about ourselves that might go unnoticed

Idealization: accenting positive aspects of ourselves

Definition of the Situation (DotS) Involves claims about the nature of the social situation regarding values and roles of co- present others.

Impression Management

The DotS makes a Moral Demand on Others A DotS projects a right way for you to treat a situation and a wrong way to treat it.

Impression Management

Conflicting Definitions of the Situation

Conflicting definitions of the situation may lead to hostility, embarrassment, or shame.

Impression Management

The Regions and Resources of IM 1) Front Stage: where a person formally performs a portrayal of self and adheres to a DotS. 2) Back Stage: where the audience members are not allowed to enter. Performers may step out of character and violate the DotS.

Impression Management

3) Sign Equipment

Setting: The physical scene

Personal front: Physical/virtual props that individuals are able to personally use to convey a particular impression.

Impression Management

Identity negotiation: process of trying out identities to see what others accept

Working consensus: agreement about each other’s identities.

Ekman et al. (1988)

Involuntary Expressions

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The Challenge of Managing Impressions

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Remember the two types of impressions? 1. Impressions “intentionally given” (strategic and calculating)

2. Impressions “unintentionally given off” (unaware)

Impression Management

“Aces and Bombers” Albas & Albas (1988)

Testing Goffman’s Ideas

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Their Research Question:

How do students manage impressions after receiving a graded exam?

Classroom IM

How do students manage impressions after receiving a graded exam in the classroom?

Aces – Did well Bombers – Did poorly

Classroom IM

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Strategies of Revelation 1. Repressed Bubbling 2. “Accidental” Revelation 3. Passive Persuasion 4. Active Persuasion 5. Question-Answer Chain Rule 6. Foot-in-the-Door 7. Selective Revelation

Classroom IM

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Strategies of Concealment 1. Absenteeism/early departure 2. Duplicity 3. Emphatic concealment 4. Subtle concealment 5. Air of Nonchalance

-“couldn’t care less”

Classroom IM

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Three Basic IM Dynamics 1) Aces – Aces 2) Aces – Bombers 3) Bombers – Bombers

Classroom IM

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“Wherever there exists an ongoing tension between competition and ascendancy on one hand, and approbation and rapport with others on the other hand then individuals will be led almost inevitably to practice various forms of impression management” (301).

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Goffman versus Mead Two key contrasts:

1) Mead did not elaborate on the strategic work of creating the “Me.” For Goffman, the self is a strategic project.

Situating Goffman

Goffman versus Mead

2) Mead treated “Me” as short-term and long-term.

Goffman argued that our self identities are always recreated in the situation.

Situating Goffman

Critiques of Goffman’s Impression Management Theory 1. No true self 2. What about the non-strategic moments? 3. Assumes ongoing desire to maintain identity

across situations 4. Reductive

Impression Management