The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman

Presentation of Self in Everyday LifeThe by Erving Goffman Author: Goffman Publisher: Penguin The central idea of this classical work of sociology is that people are constantly engaged in a process of “impression management” to project a favorable view of themselves. We achieve this purpose by having a collective “definition of the situation,” where all agree on an expected outcome defining how everyone should behave. The projected views and outcomes vary depending on the groups we interact with and the setting of the interaction.