Behavioral Sciences: Social Interaction (9.2)

Self-presentation

• The process of displaying ourselves to society both physically (actions) and visually (clothing; grooming)

Basic model of emotional expression

• Charles Darwin — consistent with evolution

• Emotional expression involves: facial expressions, behaviors, postures, vocal changes, and physiological changes

• Primates and animals exhibit rudimentary muscle actions similar to those used by humans

Appraisal model

• Accepts that there are biologically predetermined expressions once an emotion is experienced, but there is a cognitive antecedent to emotional expression

Social construction model

• No biological basis for emotions

• Based on experiences and social context only

• Suggests certain emotions can only exist within social encounters and that emotions are expressed differently (different roles) across cultures

• Must be familiar with social norms for a certain emotion

Display rules

• Cultural expectations of emotions

• Govern which emotions can be expressed and to what degree

• Managed in different ways:

  • Simulating emotions one doesn’t feel

  • Qualifying, amplifying, deamplifying feelings

  • Masking an emotion with another emotion

  • Neutralizing any emotional expression whatsoever

Cultural syndrome

• Shared set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors among members of the same culture that are organized around a central theme

• Influence ways emotions are expressed → rules for expression and suppression

• Ex: happiness is positive

  • But in the US individualistic cultural syndrome — happiness is infinite, attainable, and internally expressed

  • In collectivist Japan — rational emotion; tied to collective experiences

Effect of gender on emotional expression

• Women expected to express anger in public less often than men

• Men expected to repress sadness

• Women better at detecting subtle differences in emotional expression

Impression management

• Attempts to influence how others perceive us

• Regulate/control info presented about ourselves

3 selves

• Authentic

  • Who person actually is

• Ideal

  • Who they’d like to be under optimal circumstances

• Tactical

  • Who they market themselves to be

Self-disclosure

• Info given about yourself → identity

Managing appearances

• Using appearance to create a positive image

Ingratiation

• Using flattery/conformation to win someone over

Aligning actions

• Making excuses for questionable behavior

Alter-casting

• Imposing an identity onto another

Dramaturgical approach

• Erving Goffman

• Metaphor of theatrical performance to describe how we create different images of ourselves to manage the impressions of others

  • Impression management = acting in a play

Front-stage self

• Persona presented to audience

  • Person adapts the self to various situations = actor adapts to role, setting, script of play

Back-stage self

• Persona adopted when not in social situations

  • Actor free to act out of character

The Me and the I

• George Herbert Mead theory

Me

• Self developed through social interaction

• Development comes from generalized other

  • Based on perception of societal expectations

I

• Individual’s own impulses

• Not totally independent of Me

• The Me shapes the I

Communication

• Conveying info in various ways

• Social interaction

• Effective when destined message is received

Verbal communication

• Transmission of info via words

• Often depends on nonverbal cues

Nonverbal communication

• Communicating without words

• Facial expressions, tone of voice, body position and movement, touches

• Dictated by cultures

  • Ex: in US, being suspicious of someone who doesn’t make eye contact

Animal signs and communication

• Behavior of one animal that affects the behavior of another

• Communicate through body language, rudimentary facial expressions, visual displays, scents, and vocalizations

• Facial expressions more highly conserved between species than body language

  • Ex: baring teeth and lunging forward = aggression/attacking (universally)

Visual displays of communication

• Sex discrimination (bird colony)

• Bioluminescence

• Dancing (bees)

Scents in communication

• Intraspecifically (same species) and interspecifically (different species)

• Pheromones

• Territory marking

• Defense (skunks)

Vocalizations in communication

• Prairie dogs have different “words” for specific predators

• Bird calls are species specific

Human-animal communication

• Humans use both verbal and nonverbal with domesticated animals

  • Dog owners using commands

  • Tone of voice can be indications to pets

  • Pet’s body language and expressions convey info to owner