In the Shetland Islands, Goffman observed how islanders were sometimes amused to watch the manners of neighbours who dropped in for a cup of tea. This dynamic between a person’s self-presentation and the audience’s critical discernment sets in motion a number of micro-level structures that govern the course of social interactions no matter their specific content. So in the absence of confirming or disconfirming information that the person is as they claim, they compare what the person intentionally expresses about themselves against other expressions that the person unintentionally “gives off”: facial expressions, mannerisms, gestures, nervousness, quality of clothing, application of make-up, use of language and so on. In face-to-face encounters in “real time,” they might not have access to information from the person’s background. At the same time, the others are interested in checking up on the person’s sincerity, trustworthiness and general suitability as someone worth spending time with. Goffman describes the way that people try to control the impression they make on others in social encounters. (Image courtesy of Derrick Tyson/Flickr). It affects the trajectory of the social interaction the way the switch would affect the path of the train” (Alan Fridlund, 1994).
“The face is like a switch on a railroad track. The theories that became the basis for his dramaturgical approach in The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life (1959) developed from his detailed observations of the elaborate “interaction rituals” in everyday social interaction. However, he found that the complex interpersonal relationships in the hotel he stayed at to be a much richer site for social study. The Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman went to the Shetland Islands in the 1950s to do fieldwork on the social structure of the island community for his PhD dissertation. It is rife with unacknowledged rituals, tacit understandings, covert symbolic exchanges, impression management techniques, and calculated strategic maneuverings.
Understand the sociological concept of “reality as a social construct.”.Describe the social dimensions of emotional life.