Stage For Your Romantic Self Presentation example essay topic

There are numerous aspects of social interaction used in the shaping of social relationships. For the purpose of this paper, I thoroughly examined the theories of "Self-perception" and "Social perception "I decided to focus on the views given by Sociologist's Erving Goffman and Charles Darwin throughout chapter four. According to sociologist Erving Goffman, social interaction should be compared to a theatrical performance, with the members of society playing the roles of actors or actresses. Performers often worry and stress prior to going on stage. They worry about what the spectators will think?

Will they ever get another role? How will they know if the spectators like their performance, and if they don't what will happen to their career? Goffman believes "self-presenters sometimes worry about being judged incompetent; they often rehearse prior to their performance". However, performers are not the only individuals who are self -presenters.

Society is full of norms and rules that are socially acceptable or unacceptable. These societal norms shape and mold the behavior of human behavior throughout society. Individuals, who try to fit into those norms and rules, often find themselves rehearsing their roles and behavior. For example, applicants going for job interviews often rehearse what they will, and will not say in the interview. An applicant also observes the interviewers body language and responses, in order to figure out if they are being accepted or rejected.

Goffman, gives the example of an individual preparing "for a romantic dinner date, for instance, you might purchase your date's favorite wine, splash on some enticing cologne, and bring a romantic CD as a gift (the props) that will later be played at the right moment to properly set that stage for your romantic self-presentation. You might even practice your romantic gazes and postures in front of a mirror or rehearse a romantic speech beforehand" (Franzol, 85). The stated examples, illustrate the importance of being accepted. The acceptance or rejection from society shapes the individuals attitude towards self-worth, and will construct their future behavior and interaction.

Further, in the readings, Goffman introduces the term "Strategic self-presentations". The definition given to describe this term is "Conscious and deliberate efforts to shape other people's impression in order to achieve ulterior goals" (Franzol, 85). A common strategy used in self-presentation is self-promotion. Individuals, who use self-promotion, often boast about their positive assets.

The intended goals are respect and envy. These individuals feel they posse's humility and likability. However, these same individuals are more likely to be judged less likable because they are perceived to be a bragger and arrogant. The next section in the chapter, focused on attention-grabbing views of Charles Darwin. Facial expressions demonstrate another aspect of social perception. Darwin believed that facial expressions were the key to communication.

Facial expressions are innate and are one of the things that are understood all over the world. The modern world rarely gives a second thought to their facial expressions, All over the world the primary emotions are: happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust. Darwin also proposed the notion that these expressions are universally understood. Darwin reports " The ability to recognize emotion from the observation of facial expressions was genetically programmed into our species and had survival value for us".

This finding reinforces the concept of the power shaping of human behavior, and how construal concepts form social situations. In conclusion, there is a broad span of societal norms that shapes human behavior. In order for society to accurately asses human behavior, it was important to clarify the above concepts. individuals often unconsciously, loose "power" of their social situation. Therefore, they no longer have control over their own human behavior. The shaping, influenced by society continues to mold " Robotic" citizens.

Bibliography

Franzoi, Stephen. 1996. Social Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.