The Presentation of Self Essay Example for Free

The Presentation of Self Essay Erving Goffman’s idea about the â€Å"presentation of self† reflects the observational character of humans that tend to try to please other people. In this way, human’s everyday interaction is said to being â€Å"dramatized† that is, humans are more likely to express themselves in a manner that is personally designed to capture an impression from other people. This impression can vary from person to person, one person might try to act demure, another old, another wise, depending on the personal preference of the individual. All in all, Goffman’s idea tries to open the possibility that people creates the image of themselves that they want other people to recognize. This is done through meticulously picking up clothes, cutting and trimming the hair, putting make up and other accessories in able to enhance the physical feature of the person. This also implies that physical presentation of a person greatly affects how the person is perceived or judge by others. In the case of a professor teaching in class, he portrays himself as much authoritative as he could possible get. This is one way in order for him to get some respect. He needs to portray an individual who could answer most of the questions in a class; this would make him look knowledgeable and more authoritative. The way he carries his clothes, wears his shoe and styles his hair would also reflect his personality and his position in class. If a professor is not neatly dressed, students would lose respect and would treat him with less importance. Thus, it is important that his appearance along with the way he carries himself and speak his ideas, all reflect decency and proper authority. Human emotions are rooted in biology in cases wherein people felt pain and express themselves. For instance, people when hungry are mostly irritated, sad and sometimes anxious. On the other hand, emotions can be guided by culture in cases of disgust, shame, appreciation of objects and other things that are dependent mainly on the person’s culture. With respect to Goffman, those that are culturally determined emotions are those which are generated through other people’s perspective or those that are culturally determined, while biological emotions are those which is experience by the person himself.