![]() Tags: goffman, theory, comedy, impression management, self-presentation, social interaction, 00 to 05 mins Year: 1990 Length: 5:56 Access: YouTube Summary: In this clip from the popular British comedy television series of the same name, Mr. Bean attempts to cheat off a fellow student during an exam. So as to appear inconspicuous, Mr. Bean engages in impression management, a process in which social actors---either consciously or not---seek to influence the perceptions of other people by controlling information exchanged and exhibited during the social interaction. Erving Goffman emphasized that the process of impression management (and the closely related concept of self-presentation) is specific to a situational context. In this case, Mr. Bean attempts to regulate the social interaction in such a way that his classmates and professor do not suspect him of cheating; he does so by drawing upon behavior that we, as a society, have collectively deemed "test-taking behavior," appropriate for the situational context of a classroom exam. Such behavior deployed by Mr. Bean includes pretending to have a sudden epiphany of a correct answer, and feigning intense concentration by wrinkling his brow and sticking out the tip of his tongue. However, as time passes and Mr. Bean gets more desperate, his attempts to cheat become more extreme; as such, his ability to manage his fellow student's and professor's impressions of the situation become more tenuous, bordering on failure. Goffman says that when a social actor's attempts to present a desired impression is inconsistent with an audience's perception---that is, when the impression management process breaks down---embarrassment occurs. Instructors can encourage students to think about the great lengths we all go, like Mr. Bean, to manage people's impressions of ourselves in our everyday lives. Can students think of embarrassing moments in their own lives and apply theories of impression management and self-presentation to make sense of these awkward social interactions? Submitted By: Stephanie K. Decker
2 Comments
Avery
1/28/2021 06:32:21 pm
A time when I tried to use impression management was taking a test during school, like Mr. Bean. I tried to play it off like I was focusing and really working hard, when I was actually struggling. My teacher noticed that I looked like I was answering all the problems without difficulty. So when I got my test back, and did not make too good, I became embarrassed, like it stated in the article, because my teacher thought I had studied and was confident in my skills.
Reply
Manuel Franco
7/30/2023 03:58:24 pm
I just want to say Thank You to everyone who supported me through the years. My name is Manuel Franco, New Berlin, Wisconsin. My story of how I won the Powerball lottery of $768.4M is a bit of a tale. I have been playing Powerball tickets for 6 years now since I turned 18. I bought my first ticket on my 18 birthday. I was feeling very lucky that day because I had contacted Dr. Odunga Michael to help me with the winning Powerball numbers. I really had that great great feeling that I looked at the camera wanting to wink at it. I only did a tiny part of it and trusted him. He gave me the numbers after I played a couple other tickets along with it for $10. I checked my ticket after the winnings came online and saw the numbers were correct including the Power play. I screamed for about 10 minutes because it felt like a dream. I had won $768.4M. You can check my winning testimony with the lottery officials just with my name search. Thank you Dr Odunga. Well, his email is odungaspelltemple@gmail.com and you can also call or Whats-app him at +2348167159012 so you guys can contact him
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Tags
All
.
Got any videos?
Are you finding useful videos for your classes? Do you have good videos you use in your own classes? Please consider submitting your videos here and helping us build our database!
|