Social Interaction and Everyday Life
The Social Construction of Reality
Everyday life is ordered through shared meanings. Thomas's theorem states that situations defined as real are real in their consequences. Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel) studies the methods people use to produce order, often revealed by breaching experiments that disrupt expectations. The social construction of reality (Berger and Luckmann) describes how repeated interactions become habitual, then institutionalized, then taken for granted.
Dramaturgy and Impression Management
Goffman's dramaturgical model treats interaction as performance: a front stage where we manage impressions before an audience, a back stage where we relax, and props and personal front supporting the role. Impression management is the work of controlling how others perceive us; face-work preserves dignity in interaction, and embarrassment signals a disrupted definition of the situation.
Nonverbal and Spatial Dimensions
Nonverbal communication includes body language, paralanguage (tone, pitch), and personal space. Proxemics (Hall) distinguishes intimate, personal, social, and public distances. Eye contact, gestures, and touching carry culturally variable meanings. Status cues communicate rank, and altercasting assigns an identity to another person.
Traps
Questions often confuse front stage with back stage, or ethnomethodology with dramaturgy. Ethnomethodology asks how order is accomplished; dramaturgy asks how self is presented. Remember that norms of personal space vary by culture and relationship.
Rule of Thumb
When a scenario involves managing another's perception, choose dramaturgy; when it involves a norm being deliberately broken to reveal its workings, choose ethnomethodology.