The Art of Impression Management

This is not a research paper.

It is a summary of what I had presented in the tutorial.

I got an A for this summary.

The Arts of Impression Management
By Erving Goffman
Presented by Nur Rashidah Amren
On 10 February 2009

Impression management is a dramaturgical concept which highlights the way in which persons in the company of others strive to present an image of themselves in particular ways. (Scott and Marshall, 2005).

I started by explaining the three sources of embarrassment namely the unmeant gestures, inopportune intrusions as well as faux pas. Unmeant gestures involve unthinking actions and unexpected consequences. For example, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) wrote an article about National Kidney Foundation (NKF)’s over generous spending. NKF then sued SPH for allegedly defaming it but ended up getting all its ‘bad’ activities spilled out (Han, 2005). The last nine words reflect the unmeant gesture. As for inopportune intrusion, I gave an illustration on how a quiet and gentle man who is well known for his kind acts are caught off hand shouting at his maid when his friends make a surprise visit to his house. In this case, his friends’ uninformed visit is the inopportune intrusion. The man is not given time to put on the right mask. Faux pas involves unthinking, yet intentional action (as compared to unmeant gestures) and consequences that destroy one’s own image. During the World AIDS Day, Hady Mirza shared a joke titled Two Things before his third song of the night. In his joke, he gave off an implied message which said that if you are contracted with HIV or AIDS, ‘you will die lah’ (Ang and Lim, 2008). That incident caused huge uproar from the Singaporeans and his image was greatly tarnished.

After that, I moved on by defining scenes as situations in ‘which an individual acts in such a way as to destroy or seriously threaten the polite appearances of consensus. In other words, a new scene is created by such disruptions. For example, two students start fighting in a classroom. Students and tutor can no longer resume their roles as students or tutor respectively since they need to stop the fight.

There are three types of scenes. First is when teammates do not cooperate with one another and shoe their disputes openly. This can be seen in Malaysia Parliament where the Malaysian Members of Parliament (MP) fought publicly. It sends signals to the audience that Barisan Nasional (BN) is breaking down (Fuller, 2008). Another type of scene is when audience cannot play the game of polite interaction as can be seen in recent incident where George W. Bush got a big shoe thrown at him by a reporter (Tawfeeq, 2008). After what Bush has done, he might no longer command any respect from the reporter and hence the shoe throwing incident. Lastly, it is when the interaction between two people goes out of hand that others are forced to become witnesses or to take side. Recently, Yio Chu Kang MP Seng Han Thong was set ablaze by 70 years old Ong during a Community Centre (CC) ceremony. Such interaction has gone into dangerous state and Aw Chui Seng, an audience had to interfere to break that interaction. As the result, Aw Chui Seng got injured while trying to save MP Seng (Teo, 2009).

To prevent the occurrence of disruptions, both participants and non-participants need to engage themselves into various defensive and protective measures. Defensive attributes and practices include dramaturgical loyalty, discipline and circumspection.

Performers may be too emotionally attached to the audience and hence, reveal the in-group secrets or shortcomings to the audience. This is problematic and in the reading, it gives example of prostitution where the prostitutes are moved from one place to another in order to avoid getting their prostitutes falling in love with their clients. The solution to such problem is to develop high in-group solidarity and change audience periodically.

Another problem facing the performers is the need to be intellectually and emotionally involved

in the activity yet still distance himself from the activity so as to be able to avoid committing unmeant gestures. The problem requires presence of mind, self-control and management of one’s face and voice to be solved. They are all about suppressing ‘true’ emotions. For example, imagine that during one segment of your concert where you need the audience to clap their hand, the audience remains unresponsive. You will feel disappointed because you may think that the audience is bored and not fully entertained by you performance. However, the show must go on and you know that you should not reveal your disappointment to the audience. Hence, you will need dramaturgical discipline.

Dramaturgical circumspection involves preparing in advance the likely contingencies and to exploit opportunities. To do so, (1) discretion in choosing members, (2) selection of the kind of audience that will give minimum trouble, (3) limiting the size of both teams, (4) adapting his performance to the information conditions under which it must be stages, (5) adjusting his presentation according to the character of the props, (6) rehearsing routines so as to familiarize oneself with the performance so as to be able to predict the kind of contingencies that may arise, are essential.

Defensive practices can be redundant since accidents can still happen despite various precautious measures taken. In order to make sure that everything goes smoothly, tact from the audience is needed as well as tact with regards to tact. Going back to Hady Mirza’s faux pas, tact from the audience could be seen when the audience managed a faint laugh or weak clap after the insensitive jokes. However, if Hady Mirza remained unaware to the hints given by the audience, such tact would not make the situation better. This explains the need for tact with regards to tact. Hence, if the performer is to misrepresent the facts, he must do so in accordance with the etiquette for misrepresentations.

A question raised in class is that if there are ‘selves’ to be performed in various situations, what then is the ‘sacred’ self? In my perspective, there is no sacred self because even if you are alone, whatever that is going on in your mind is social. There is an internalized ‘Others’ in us. Even at home, when you are supposedly to be in the most unguarded and relax situation, you are still actually playing a role as a daughter, sister and student (when you are studying alone in your room). Thus, the idea about backstage is a mental construct because a backstage or a front stage can be everywhere and you do put on mask anywhere you go.

References:
Marshall, G. And Scott, J. 2005. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
Teo, Xuanwei. 2009. “MP Seng Han Thong 'progressing well'.” Today, January 24. Retrieved February 16, 2009 (http://www.todayonline.com/articles/298570.asp#)
Ang, Benson and Lim, Germaine. 2008. “Hady learns the hard way”. The New Paper, December 7. Retrieved 16, 2009 (http://www.divaasia.com/article/1060)
Tawfeeq, Mohammed. 2008. “Bush shoe thrower trial delayed”. CNN, December 30. Retrieved 16,2009 (http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/iraq.shoe.thrower/index.html)
Fuller, Thomas. 2008. “Malaysia leader ends parliament, setting stage for bitter contest”. The New York Times, February 14. Retrieved February 16, 2009 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/world/asia/14malay.html)
Han, Bernice. 2005. “Singapore found short on charity”. The Standard, December 22. Retrieved 16, 2009 (http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=8397&sid=5999052&con_type=1&d_str=20051222)