All of the sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when working at a doctor’s office. While there I was able to observe the actions of my fellow coworkers, behavior of the office’s providers and my boss, as well as the behavior of the patients and how they interact with others. On an average day, patients will be coming in and out of the office for appointments, my coworker and I will interact checking them in and out and scheduling follow up appointments.
One interesting observation I made was of my coworker, a woman in her late fifty’s, using the computer. This coworker and I both are front desk staff, a position where the majority of our time is spent using technology. Recently there have been updates made to the system of medical billing, where all new codes are used to identify a diagnosis. It has cause a lot of stress towards my coworker, and because of this I was showing her how to save a website on the bookmark bar that could help make converting the old codes to new easier.
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The Dramaturgical approach is a “view of social interaction in which people are seen as actors on a stage” with the goal of making their performance believable (Witt, 2015, pp. 78-79). In this situation, the doctor wears “costume” of a white coat and dress clothes to make his role believable. The office is his stage, the exam tables and stethoscope are two of his props. However, another one of Goffman’s theories applies when observing how our doctor also uses his clothes to changes people’s impression. Impression management is how an individual presentments themselves in order to change people’s perception of them (Witt, 2015, p. 79). In this situation, our doctor wears bright colors in order to change his appearance and seem more approachable and friendly to his patients, while still maintaining a professional side with the white coat so he still fits into the role of a
Dramaturgy is a view of social life as a series of dramatic performances akin to those taken place in a theatre (Ritzer, 144). Much of Goffman’s dramaturgy is concerned with the processes by which such disturbances are prevented and dealt with (Ritzer, page 144). In the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman developed a new approach to the sociological study of human interaction, due to a mental health court scenario, of what he referred to as “dramaturgical” because of the analogy it had of the theatre to describe how an individual engages in social interaction with others in a performance (Staton et al, page 5). This performance was a way for actors to influence their audience in a given situation. In the addition of the mental health scenario, age, gender, and race relevant. The human relationships observed in the mental health court was analyzed was theorized so Goffman could explain characteristics of human interactions.
Erving Goffman said the dramaturgical analysis “would lead us to describe the techniques of impression management employed in a given establishment, the principal problems of impression management in the establishment, and the identity and interrelationship of the several performance teams which operate in the establishment” (240). Goffman compares social interactions with an act, there is the actors, the audience, and the stage. For different plays the actors take on a new role just as with varying groups someone might portray themselves
One of the key ideas to Goffman is his idea of impression management. Through interaction with others in society, an impression of ones self is given off to others. This is automatic and inevitable. The way one perceives you is through this social interaction. This means that through messages that are given off, whether intended or unintended, they are the judgments by which people will hold their opinion of you (Layder 1998:172-175).
Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality and Irving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life analyze human interaction in the context of actions we perform and the meanings that such actions take in social environments. I will analyze Goffman’s account of modification of the “self” through performance within the context of Berger and Luckmann’s hypothesis. The theatrical performance metaphor looks at how socialization and experience affect the use of fronts, expressions, and expressions given off.
In an ever changing world, sociology as a discipline works to keep up with the shifting climate of today's world and how people fit into it. A key way sociologists organize research is by looking at it from varied levels and standpoints. The major perspectives sociologists focus on are interactionism, conflict theory and functionalism. Each of these perspectives helps explain the influence people have on society and vice versa. Every one of these perspectives hones in on a scaled view of different groups; these views go from looking at individual relationships of families, all the way to analyzing an entire population within a big city.
The work place is something we can all relate to because we all have had a job at some point in time and we all understand that we act differently when we are at work compared to when we are with our friends at the bar or with our family at dinner. These are all different types of social systems that we belong to. The social system I will be using the Johnson Framework to analyze our behaviors is my current employment at the Bucyrus Arby’s. Arby’s is a fast food franchise that specializes in selling roast beef sandwiches and is considered higher quality that McDonalds but lower quality than Chipotle. For this paper, I will discuss my role and my coworkers roles in this social system using the Johnson framework.
For this paper, I will be focusing on Erving Goffman’s concept of dramaturgy. Erving Goffman was a sociologist who studied social interaction, and is well known for his work on ‘the self.’ His book, Presentation of Self, continues to be an important and relevant book in sociology since it explains by social interaction within humans is important. In his theory, Goffman explains that people are like actors performing on a stage because of how they live their lives. Drama is used as a metaphor for how an individual presents their self to society. In his work, Goffman explains that ‘the self’ is the result of the dramatic interaction between the actor and the audience he or she performs to. There are many aspects of how an individual performs his or her ‘self’.
The sociological approaches focus on identifying the two sociological theories. We critically analysed the biomedical model and doctor patient relationship. We also evaluated how the medical professionals exercise social control and medical professional’s contribution to ill health. The difference between society and health is studied by sociologist in relation to health and illness. This also discusses health in relation to social institutions for example family, employment and school. However, health can be defined in a number of ways such as negative and positive.
The Goffman's dramaturgy supposes that every human who is an actor, play in the daily life. The humans have to act with their roles which show others can see themselves. The doctor has to wear the polite costume and behaves by the well-educated because people believe that when a person graduates in the medical, he/she has an extensive knowledge and the polite behavior. Their props often are white blouse and glasses. The script is,the doctor checkups, heals, and behaves politely with their assistant and patients. The
How we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. Throughout the interview I knew that the way I interacted within the group would determine whether or not I would be able to study as a student nurse. Subsequently, I wanted to appear socially desirable. Therefore, I believe there was a distortion of self-image because the interview was very important to me. Using Goffman 's theory of self (1959), the 'social mask ' I put on during the interview, could be seen as 'performance ', '...the term ‘performance’ refers to all activity of an individual in front of a particular set of observers, or audience... ' , I wasn 't my: bubbly, hyper self, I felt I had to keep this hidden as I was in a professional environment. Therefore, Johari 's window demonstrates mundane realism, because my self-image did change. My bubbly, hyper personality which is usually 'open/public ' was now 'Hidden/private '. However, Johari 's window see 's self-awareness constructed by the individual alone, which makes the theory over –simplified and not interactionist as it only considers 'nurture ' factors impacting on an individual’s self-awareness, when in reality it’s a combination of biological/genetic and social factors (nature nurture). Therefore the theory is reductionist as it over simplifies human behaviour. Although Johari 's window doesn 't give a holistic reflection for my own self-awareness and communication, the fact I can identify this as a result of using Gibb’s model means that I have a rounded analysis of my interviewing
Throughout the day’s observation, a plethora of sociological concepts become abundantly apparent. However, for the purpose of this paper, we will only focus on the day’s greatest prevalent concepts. The first concept that strikes as a significant sociological concept is family as it is the opening and closing concept of the day. Next, the concept of gender roles appears as important because of the masculine groups that are so prevalent during observation. Third, the theory of religion grabs its place in prevalence due to its ability to center and focus the entire day. Lastly, the concept of stage theory rears into the spot as a result of interactions in the work center. When reviewing these sociological concepts, it becomes abundantly clear
This theory can essentially be summed up by the Shakespeare quote “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Goffman theorized that people are constantly putting on a performance to appear in an ideal light to the group they are with in that moment. He proposed that social life is all just a complex theatrical and constructive performance. Goffman was not implying that people are being fake when socializing, but rather implying that everyone is constantly acting on a subconscious need to fit into a situation. Most people feel as though they are their ‘true self’ when they’re with a close friend or by themselves, however Goffman would argue that even these interactions are a performance in some ways. There is no ‘true sense of self’ that you show to your close friends, because even that image has been molded over years of interactions and development as a
Erving Goffman uses a dramaturgical perspective in his discussion of impression management. Goffman’s analysis of the social world primarily centres around studies of the self and relationship to one’s identity created within a society. Through dramaturgy, Goffman uses the metaphor of performance theatre to convey the nature of human social interaction, drawing from the renowned quote “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It.’ Much of our exploration of Goffman’s theories lies within the premise that individuals engage in impression management, and achieve a successful or unsuccessful performance. Impression management refers to the ways in which individuals attempt to control the impression that others have of them stemming from a basic human desire to be viewed by others in a favourable light. Goffman argues that our impressions are managed through a dramaturgical process whereby social life is played out like actors performing on a stage and our actions are dictated by the roles that we are playing in particular situations. In a social situation, the stage is where the encounter takes place, the actors are the people involved in the interaction, and the script is the set of social norms in which the actors must abide by. Just as plays have a front stage and back stage, this also applies in day-to-day interactions. Goffman’s theory of the front and back stage builds on Mead’s argument of the phases of the self. The front stage consists of all the public and social encounters with other people. It is similar to the ‘me’ which Mead talks about, as it involves public encounters as well as how others perceive you. Meanwhile the back stage, like the ‘I’, is the time spent with oneself reflecting on the interactions. Therefore, according to Goffman’s dramaturgical
Adopted into sociology by Erving Goffman, he developed most terms and the idea behind dramaturgical analysis in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. This book lays out the process of human social interaction, sometimes called "impression management". Goffman makes the distinction between "front stage" and "back stage" behavior. “Front stage" actions are visible to the audience and are part of the performance. We change our hair color, eye color, complextion. Wearing make-up, the way our hair is styled, the clothes we wear. The demeanor we present to the world to the. All of these things lead to an outward appearance of what we want others to think we are. People engage in "back stage" behaviors when no audience is present. We whine and moan about the customers we deal with. Hair goes un-styled, make is wiped off. Clothing is comfortable and unrestricting. When a person conducts themselves in certain way not consistent with social expectations, it is often done secretly if this ...
instance in our scene we had to enter a lift but to show this in a