Chpt. 4 Sect. 2

Question 1

What are the assumptions of Charles Horton Cooley’s “looking-glass self” theory?

Answer 1

• children gain an impression of how people perceive them as the children interact with others
• children “see” themselves when they interact with other people
• individuals use the perceptions that they believe others have of them to develop judgements and feelings about themselves

Question 2

What are the assumptions of George H. Mead’s “taking the role of the other” theory?

Answer 2

• children pretend to be other people in their play and learn what these other people expect of them
• younger children take the role of significant others or the people who have the most contact with them
• older children (when they play sports and other games) take on the roles of other people and internalize the expectations of the generalized other

Question 3

What are the assumptions of Erving Goffman’s “dramaturgy” theory?

Answer 3

• identity is developed through performing roles that are negotiated between the actor and the audience
• identity is a constant (re)development as people interact with others and as roles change through life stages

Question 4

Who said this?

“By interacting with other people we gain an impression of how they perceive us”

Answer 4

Charles Horton Cooley

Question 5

Describe the looking-glass self theory.

Answer 5

• we first imagine how we appear to others and then imagine how they think of us and whether they are evaluating us positively or negatively. We then use these perceptions to develop judgements and feelings about ourselves
• errors can occur in this complex process
• this process is especially critical during childhood and adolescence

Question 6

What is the generalized other?

Answer 6

Older children take on the roles of other people and learn society’s expectations as a whole

Question 7

What are Mead’s thoughts on the “taking the role of the other” theory?

Answer 7

-main emphasis was on children’s playing, which he saw as the central to their understanding of how people should interact

Question 8

What are the stages of Mead’s process?

Answer 8

1. Preparatory stage
2. Play stage
3. Game stage
4. Generalized other stage

Question 9

What happens in the preparatory stage?

Answer 9

Infants can only imitate behavior without really understanding its purposes

Question 10

What happens in the play stage?

Answer 10

• most of their play is by themselves or with only one/two other children and much of it involves pretending to be other people
• they begin taking the role of the other

Question 11

What happens in the game stage?

Answer 11

• children start playing in team sports and games
• many players in these games perform many kinds of roles & they must all learn to anticipate the actions of other members of their team
• they learn what is expected of the roles all team members are supposed to play and by extension begin to understand the roles society wants us to play

Question 12

What two parts did Mead believe the self has?

Answer 12

1. I (creative, spontaneous part)

2. Me (passive part stemming from the internalized expectations of the larger society)

Question 13

Describe I vs me

Answer 13

• they complement each other and enhance the individual’s contributions to society
• these are not only important for the individual but for the society to which the individual belongs

Question 14

Describe dramaturgy (relates identity development with theater)

Answer 14

• includes the dramaturgical perspective
• front stages and back stages in which people perform their roles in everyday life
• impression management (front stage)
• sign vehicles

Question 15

What is the dramaturgical perspective?

Answer 15

A microsociological analytic tool that has proved to be a useful approach to understanding the context of social interaction

Question 16

What is impression management?

Answer 16

What Goffman claimed people do through their front stage performances to manipulate how others perceive them

Question 17

What happens through the dramaturgical perspective?

Answer 17

• Goffman proposed that people are basically born on a stage of everyday life
• and thereafter are committed to a lifetime socialization process in which they play their assigned roles in interaction with others who are also playing assigned roles
• learning how to act and react from one another

Question 18

Describe front stages

Answer 18

-people perform on front stages where they are engaged in public display (mall, restaurant, school) and can engage in impression management

Question 19

Describe back stages

Answer 19

• people less often go to more private settings
• people can be themselves
• they can practice roles, rehearse lines, etc. for their front stage performances

Question 20

What are sign vehicles and what do people use them for?

Answer 20

1. Social settings
2. Appearance
3. Manner of interacting

People use them to convey whatever messages we want to send others about who we want them to believe we are

Question 21

Describe social settings

Answer 21

-how we choose, decorate or arrange our personal spaces (homes, cars) what Goffman called props says a lot about our social statuses and values among other things

Question 22

Describe appearance

Answer 22

• impressions we leave on people do convey a lot about us
• Goffman tasks us to consider what impressions (sometimes driven by stereotypes) we may have of people because of the clothes they wear, their gender, race, physical stature, hair (or lack thereof)

Question 23

Describe manner of interacting (the messages about ourselves that we convey through non-verbal gestures during our performances)

Answer 23

-can include gestures, facial expressions, body language, and even how we determine the amount of personal space we occupy