Dramaturgy Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Dramaturgy distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

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Quick Reference

Impression Management

The conscious or unconscious process by which individuals attempt to influence the perceptions of others by regulating and controlling information in social interaction. It involves strategic self-presentation to shape how one is perceived.

Front Stage

The social setting where individuals perform for an audience, adhering to established norms, scripts, and role expectations. Behavior on the front stage is carefully managed to maintain the desired impression.

Back Stage

The private area where performers can relax, drop their public personas, rehearse, and prepare for front stage performances. The audience is not intended to see back stage behavior.

Face-Work

The actions taken by a person to make their behavior consistent with the image (or 'face') they are presenting. It includes strategies for avoiding embarrassment and helping others maintain their own face in social encounters.

Stigma

An attribute that is deeply discrediting and reduces an individual from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one. Goffman identified three types: bodily stigma, character stigma, and tribal stigma related to group membership.

Total Institution

A place of residence and work where a large number of similarly situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, lead an enclosed, formally administered life. Examples include prisons, mental hospitals, and military barracks.

Performance Team

A set of individuals who cooperate in staging a single routine or performance. Team members must maintain loyalty, discipline, and circumspection to sustain the collective impression being presented to the audience.

Frame Analysis

A theoretical framework examining how individuals organize their experiences and make sense of social events by applying interpretive schemas or 'frames.' Frames structure perception and guide action in ambiguous situations.

Role Distance

The degree to which an individual separates themselves from the role they are performing, signaling that they are not fully defined by or committed to that role. It demonstrates awareness of the performance aspect of social roles.

Idealization

The tendency of performers to offer their audiences an impression that is idealized in several ways, concealing aspects of the performance that are inconsistent with the idealized version. Performers accentuate certain facts and conceal others.

Key Terms at a Glance

Audience Segregation:Keeping different audiences separate so they do not witness contradictory performances by the same individual.

Back Stage:Private spaces where performers relax, drop their public personas, and prepare for front stage performances.

Civil Inattention:The practice of briefly acknowledging someone's presence and then withdrawing attention to respect their privacy in public.

Definition of the Situation:W.I. Thomas's principle that people's interpretations of a situation shape their actions and the situation's real consequences.

Discrepant Roles:Roles involving access to disruptive information that could undermine an ongoing performance.

Dramaturgy:A sociological perspective using theatrical metaphor to analyze how individuals present themselves in social interaction.

Erving Goffman:Canadian-American sociologist (1922-1982) who developed the dramaturgical perspective and microsociological analysis.

Face:The positive social value a person claims for themselves through the line others assume they have taken during interaction.

Face-Work:Actions taken to maintain consistency between one's behavior and the social image one is presenting.

Footing:The alignment or stance a participant takes in relation to others during an interaction, which can shift during conversation.

Frame Analysis:The study of how people use interpretive schemas to organize experience and make sense of social events.

Front Stage:Social settings where individuals perform for audiences while adhering to expected norms and role requirements.

Idealization:Presenting a polished version of oneself by emphasizing desirable qualities and concealing inconsistencies.

Impression Management:The process of controlling how others perceive you through strategic regulation of information and behavior.

Interaction Order:Goffman's concept that face-to-face interactions constitute a distinct domain of sociological study with their own rules.

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