Week 5: Presentation of Self

Hi guys!

Not entirely sure if I'm doing this correctly, just bear with me. So last week's lecture was on presentation of the self. This week's reading is 'The Nature of Defence and Demeanor' by Erving Goffman, focusing on (you guessed it!) the self. Yourself, myself... You! The reading and the lecture both reflected a strong definition of 'the self', basically stating it as being socially constructed, and shaped through different social processes.

I actually found this week's topic to be quite interesting, exploring the self and the social processes associated with that. Not only that, both the lecture and Goffman describe 'the self' as being much more than just a simple concept... it makes you realise just how complex 'the self' can be! And I think that's what opened my eyes while going through the reading and the lecture. It's a lot more than just about you, it's got to do with your demeanor. But not only that - it's also about how others percieve you! Now I've highlighted that because I think that's what Goffman is trying to get at. It's all about the perspective of others and their perception of you. Though you would like to think that everybody sees you the way you do, they really don't. It kind of opens your eyes.. I mean the way others percieve you might not actually be how you are, but it all depends on how well they know you, how you hold yourself and how you act. Now this is something interesting I thought was brought up to do with 'the self' - upholding your image. Do we tend to do things we may not particularly want to do, just to maintain or improve our image? The thing I liked most was that Goffman actually got me really thinking about 'the self', and others perceptions.