Zaychenko Daryna

Institute of Sociology, Psychology and Social Communications, student (Ukraine, Kyiv)

Pet’ko Lyudmila

Ph.D., Associate Professor,

Dragomanov National Pedagogical University (Ukraine, Kyiv)

ERVING GOFFMAN:

THE MAJOR FIGURE IN THE SYMBOLIC INTERACTION PERSPECTIVE

E.Goffman [17] (11 June 1922, Manville, Canada – 20 November 1982, Philadelphia, the USA) was born in Canada to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. He is a Canadian-American sociologist noted for his studies of face-to-face communication and related rituals of social interaction, and one of the leading proponents of symbolic interactionism, a legacy of the so-called Chicago school in modern sociological thought. The development of symbolic interactionism as a sociological perspective was associated with George Simmel, George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley, and Herbert Blumer, among others. Goffman gave symbolic interactionism a profound importance and took it to the level of the average man. Symbolic interactionism is about social interactions, use of symbols and the assignment of meanings to these symbols, interpretation of stimulus and response, and development of the self as a construct emerging from interactions, use of symbols and interpretation [8].

His The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) laid out the dramaturgical perspective he used in subsequent studies [5], such as Asylums (1961) and Stigma (1964) [15]. In Frame Analysis (1979) and Forms of Talk (1981), he focused on the ways people “frame” or define social reality in the communicative process [9].

He studied sociology as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto and completed his graduate work at the University of Chicago. Goffman began teaching at the University of California at Berkley and becoming a full professor in 1962. His major areas of study included the sociology of everyday life, social interaction, the social construction of self, social organization (framing) of experience, and particular elements of social life such as total institutions and stigmas [7; 12].

Social stigma is the extreme disapproval of (or discontent with) a person or

group on socially characteristic grounds that are perceived, and serve to distinguish them, from other members of a society. Stigma may then be affixed to such a person, by the greater society, who differs from their cultural norms [18; 6]. According to E.Goffman there are three forms of social stigma: 1) Overt or external deformations, such as scars, physical manifestations of anorexia nervosa, leprosy (leprosy stigma), or of a physical disability or social disability, such as obesity; 2) Deviations in personal traits, including mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, and criminal background are stigmatized in this way; 3) "Tribal stigmas" are traits, imagined or real, of ethnic group, nationality, or of religion that is deemed to be a deviation from the prevailing normative ethnicity, nationality or religion [18; 10; 11; 13].

E.Goffman pioneered the study of face-to-face interaction, also known as micro-sociology, which he made famous in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life [5]. He used the imagery of the theater to portray the importance of human and social action. All actions, he argued, are social performances that aim to give off and maintain certain desired impressions of the self to others. In social interactions, humans are actors on a stage playing a performance for an audience [1; 9]. "Interaction is viewed as a "performance," shaped by environment and audience, constructed to provide others with "impressions" that are consonant with the desired goals of the actor [2] ".

E.Goffman also believed that all participants in social interactions are engaged in certain practices to avoid being embarrassed or embarrassing others. This led to Goffman's dramaturgical analysis. E.Goffman saw a connection between the kinds of acts that people put on in their daily life and theatrical performances. In social interaction, as in theatrical performance, there is a front region where the “actors” (individuals) are on stage in front of the audiences [3]. This is where the positive aspect of the idea of self and desired impressions are highlighted. There is also a back region or stage that can also be considered as a hidden or private place where individuals can be themselves and set aside their role or identity in society [19; 11].

Thus, in every situation involving communication with others, we all assume roles. There are the roles that we play, and the stage that we act out these roles. There is also an audience. E.Goffman sees this as how we all interact with one another; social interaction is then a performance. The study and theory behind this concept is referred to as dramaturgy. It is measured by observation and frame analysis. When we look at a transcript of what was said during a social interaction, coupled with behaviors or non-verbal communication, it is like looking at the script of a play, act by act. This concept and its methodology can easily be studied when looking at the communication of individuals and groups in an on-line environment.

E.Goffman also concludes that there are social rules and rituals practiced by people, and that there is often a background, or given understanding of such rules and rituals. An example of this would be his studies of a pedestrian walking down the street. The pedestrian sees two people engaged in a conversation, and the accepted ritual would be to walk around the two people conversing rather than walking in between them, therefore disrupting their conversation. If the pedestrian violates this ritual and does walk in between them s/he is expected to engage in some sort of "corrective ritual" in the form of an apology, or by saying "Excuse Me". Members of society understand such rules and rituals, and there is a background expectation that such "rules" be followed. When a person conducts himself or herself in a way that is not consistent with societal expectations, she/he often does it secretly if this behavior is satisfying to the individual. So, when giving a performance, people are able to conceal things about themselves that may not be consistent with the rituals or unspoken rules of the audience one is performing to [16].

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