Review on Wood, Goffman, and Gergen's reading Essay

Review on Wood, Goffman, and Gergen's reading - Essay Example If one identifies his/herself with a tribe, the behavior or actions will reflect who or what an individual is (Fine & Manning 13). Information about the identity of someone helps one to define the situation, it also enables people to know what to expect of them in advance, and what an individual expects of others in advance. Identity enables people to know how best to act in order to get the best response from them. In order to know an individual well, an identity enables individual to see what the individual says about himself is true. It provides evidence of whoever the provider claims to be (Fine & Manning 18). To a communication scholar, identity enables the scholar resonates on why individuals judge themselves after their actions. One judges himself according to what others perceive him or her to be. One’s identity gets acquired through communicating with other people. Since we became not born with the understanding of whoever we are, we develop this understanding by communicating with other people. Goffman believes that individuals act purposive in order to bring out their desired state. This they achieve by continually changing their actions in order to make their current opinion relate to their desired perceptual state. Goffman believe that what man does gets guided with respect to the perceived culmination of the activity. According to Goffman, embarrassment does not come from poor performance, but rather from the answers of others as perceived by one’s self (Fine & Manning 28). He suggests that individuals have an obligation to maintain their own and others claims to relevant identities. Embarrassment emerges if individual, expressive facts become threatened by his assumptions about his own identity. Goffman suggests that human beings are performers who knowingly give and unwittingly give off different impressions. He claims that almost everyone is skilled in the arts of