What are the different factors that might affect an individuals self presentation

The different factors that might affect an individuals self presentation can vary from gender, self esteem, roles, age and ideal self.

Self presentation is the way you present yourself to other people and so this can depend on who you are with. This can also link with Cooley’s looking glass theory where he argued that our self-image is shaped by how we think other people perceive us. According to Yeung et al, there are three stages in the formation of what Cooley called the ‘looking-glass self’ –
1. We imagine how we appear to others
2. We imagine how others judge us on the basis of that appearance
3. We develop a self-image through those imagined judgements.
This can be based on our self-esteem depending if we have high or low self-esteem. If we have high self-esteem then we are going to feel good about ourselves and have a different judgement of how others see us compared to those who have low self-esteem. The way we think others see us can sometimes be either correct or incorrect. We can find this out by getting feedback from friends/family. High and low self-esteem can vary depending on who you are with, feedback and sometimes the clothes you’re wearing or hairstyle. For example, if you have new clothes or a new hairstyle then this can make you feel good and have high self-esteem or if you have a bad hairstyle then this will most likely give you low self-esteem.

If you look up to someone (ideal self) are associated with them quite often then this can drop your self-esteem and you may change the way you present yourself, such as changing your appearance and behaving differently to your normal behaviour and this can be cynical. You may look down at someone and this can build your self-esteem and you may not change the way you present yourself because you feel comfortable and confident. You may change the way you’re presenting yourself to others depending on the group you are associating with such as, age, class and gender. For example, if you’re in a group of people who are older than you, then you may present yourself as more mature and change your speech to suit the group. If you’re in a group with an opposite sex you may change your appearance to attract that gender. You could also be in a group who have a higher class to you so you might present yourself differently through your clothes, hair and speech to hope you reach there standard. This shows everything we do from the way we dress to the way we style our hair is for a reason and we are trying to portray our selves to look and be like someone and somebody.

Majority of people will present themselves differently depending on the part they have to play (role) and this can change throughout the day. The different roles we take on during the course of the day can vary from student, friend, daughter, passenger, colleague, customer etc.… This changes because the people who we are with will have different morals and images of us rather than someone else. For example, there will be a contrast between you with your friend and you with your grandparents. You will respect and be polite to your elders and they have more power and importance whereas with your friend you’re both equal so the conversation is with the same power and can be less formal and polite. All these roles show you have different appearances to certain people and some may be cynical and some sincere.
Burton and Dimbleby state: ‘surely this is true for most of us for most of the time. We believe that we are presenting ourselves, our attitudes, ideas and actions. We are playing an unconscious role; we believe we are being ourselves. We believe in the impression that is being fostered by our own performance.’ However on occasion, we also need to ‘play the game’, to put on a show merely to fulfil the demands of a situation. This is what Goffman calls ‘cynical’ performance., where the persona you employ is disconnected from the self and simply ‘exhibited’. The ‘cynical’ self in performance represents us rather than presents us, for it is largely dealing with the audience’s rather than our own needs. This is very like a theatrical performance. This makes it difficult to know what our true performance is and what we are really trying to present to others.

Overall, there are many different factors that can affect an individuals self presentation. I think the people we are with and who we are trying to present to mainly cause this. This makes it tough to know if we are being sincere or cynical and showing our true performance. 803