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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper tackles the age old question of 'Who Am I?' primarily from the perspective of Erving Goffman and his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Examples, quotes and citations included. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MBsocpsy2.rtf
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so much freedom of choice and action. Total freedom and total choice can only lead to anarchy, therefore it can be said that no one is totally free to decide
whom they want to become. However, it is possible for a person to arrive at a close approximation of their idealized
self if one is willing to put for the work necessary to realize goals and dreams. In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman states that
interaction between people in a community or society is very much like a performance of an actor on stage(Goffman, 17). The role of the actor, then is to create
impressions that contribute to ones perceived persona of him/herself. Goffman uses the example of the doctor who is forced to give a placebo to a patient, fully aware of its
impotence, as a result of the desire of the patient for more extensive treatment (Goffman, 18). In other words, according to Goffman, a person develops their own identity, either consciously
or subconsciously, through an exchange of information that continues to add to the development of a persons identity and therefore, behavior. Quite often it is apparent that a person is
putting up a front or in other words "that part of the individuals performance which regularly functions in a general fashion to define the situation for those who observe the
performance" (Goffman, 22). The actor, in order to present a compelling front, is forced to both fill the duties of the social role and communicate the activities and characteristics of
the role to other people in a consistent manner. So, for instance, consider that a man has found himself walking along the side of the road, no money, in the
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