Dramaturgy Everyday we play different roles in society. There are different sides that we show to each individual we encounter based on what their roles are in our lives. In this paper, I will discuss the sociological perspective known as dramaturgy. I will describe my front and back stages. My use of impression management will be discussed as well as why we use this form of management. Being social beings on the stage of life, we must play our parts accordingly. Dramaturgy is one social perspective that revolves around role playing. This theory says that we are like actors on a stage and we take on many roles when we interact with others. We constantly change our role (character) when we meet new people. There are two stages associated with dramaturgy and they are the front and back stages. The front stage is the stage where actions are visible to the audience and are part of the performance. Everyday my life is filled with front stages. My office where I work as a Correctional Records Technician serves as one of my front stages. It is there where I assist a multitude of public citizens on a daily basis. My home is another front stage. This is where I take on the role of head of household. The back stage is where performers are present but audience is not, and the performers can step out of character without fear of disrupting the performance. When I get into my car and turn the radio on and hear a song with a nice beat, I start singing and moving to the beat. My car serves as my back stage. My bedroom is also one of my back stages. This is the place I go to immediately when I get off of work. Before I can deal with anyone in my household, I need time to power down from the long day at work. Dealing with the public for 8 or 9 hours a day can take a toll on anybody. After I have time to myself, I am able to go right back into front stage with my family. In our lives, we have ideas about how we want others to view us. How we manage these impressions is called impression management. Impression management refers to work on maintaining the desired impression. I use impression management on my job every single day. When I work efficiently and effectively to meet deadlines, my supervisor gets the impression that I am a hard worker. She sees that I am dedicated to the agency as a whole. The image that I convey to my supervisor is one that could prove to be beneficial in the long run. We often hear that the first impression is generally the last impression. Therefore, we need to carefully manage our impression. Impression management can make or break you. As I previously stated, the impression that I made on my supervisor could be beneficial for me overtime as I have already been approached about a leadership role within the agency.
However, if I had been nonchalant and displayed less effort in meeting deadlines at work, negative outcomes would have followed. My supervisor would have gotten the impression that I was lazy and did not care about my job or the agency. In this instance, I could have been faced with a verbal/written warning or possible termination. With that being said, impression management is very important and it most definitely should be used. Being social beings on the stage of life, we must play our parts accordingly. Through a theory called dramaturgy, we have front and back stages, in which we perform our daily roles. Even though both stages are important, we spend most of our time in the front stage. Impression management is important because we choose what others see and how they see it. It can have either positive or negative effects. Impression management should be managed carefully, because one never knows who is watching. We are products in society and we have to sell ourselves on a daily basis to get from level to level. The impression we make determines whether or not we make an effective sale.