SYG 2000: Lecture 12. Chapter 4: Dramaturgy and Social Construction

I. Stereotypes: Mark synder (1993) shows that stereotypes are self-fulfilling

A. experiment: fem snapshots given to college men; told meet after tel conversation

1. attractive fem: said expected meet poised, humorous, outgoing woman

a. affects behavior: men warm/friendly/humorous in conversation; so were fems

2. unattractive fem: men said expected meet awkward, serious, unsociable woman

a. behavior: cold, reserved, humorless; so woman became cold, reserved, humorless

3. oth result phys attractive:make>$; adv firms with >attractive people have >revenue

a. reason: people > willing to associate w/ those find attractive

II. Personal Space: Hall (1969) (Hall & Hall 2003) observe 4 distance zones:

1. Intimate distance:18”for lovemaking, comforting protecing, wrestling,intimate touch

2. Personal distance: 18”-4’: for friends/acquaintances; ordinary conversations

3. Social distance:4’-12’:impersonal or formal relationships—e.g. job interviews

4. Public dist: >12 ft: marks >formal relationships/sep dignitaries/speakers from public

III. Touching: freq/meaning differ across cultures; >status do more;>teach touch student

A. sex dif in meaning: experiement:nurses touch patients twice; 1^st at intro then 1 min.

1. fem: touching soothing;lowered anxiety/blood pressure bef surgery/>hr afterward

2. men: upsetting;blood pressure/anxiety increase;reason? Harder admit depend/fear?

IV. Eye contact: 1 way protect personal bubble control eye movements; sign attraction

V. Dramatury: Irving Goffman (1922-1982): socialization: learning perform on stage

A. impression management: efforts to manage impressions that others receive of us

B. front stage: wherever you deliver your lines v. back stage: retreat, let down hair

C. role performance: particular emphasis or interpretation that we give a role/our style

D. role conflict: eg family/friendship/student/work roles come crashing together

E. role strain: same role’s inherent conflict/eg stud ans dif ques v make class look bad

F. role exit: after, role may be central to identity/who am I when not role?-nun,wife,etc

G. 3 sign-vehicles:1.social setting:place where action unfolds/where curtain goes up

2. our appearance: how look when play roles/includes props(eg teach chalk, body)

3. manner: attitudes shown as play roles/eg anger/indifference

H. studied nonobservance: face-saving technique--we ignore embarrassing incident

VI. Ethnomethodology: study of how people “do things”/how make sense everyday life

A. Harold Garfinkel’s exploration of “background assumptions:” ideas how life works

VII. Social Construction of Reality: society,social groups belong have particular view life

AThomas Theorem:if people define situations as real,they are real in their consequences

1. definition of reality: it it not reality microbes impress on us, but society does this