Final answer:
Erving Goffman's dramaturgy likens the world to a stage where we practice impression management, exhibiting different roles based on the audience present. The perceptions of others guide our behavior and self-concept, leading to the front and back regions of our lives and audience segregation, where we maintain different personas for distinct social groups to uphold our desired image.
Step-by-step explanation:
Erving Goffman's dramaturgy concept presents the idea that life is like a stage where individuals engage in impression management to present themselves in a particular light to others. This involves adjusting one's behavior and presentation in different settings, akin to actors performing distinct roles based on the audience. Goffman believed that each interaction is like a new scene with varying roles, which are influenced by the presence of different individuals such as coworkers, family, or a date.
In relation to impression management, other people are crucial because they serve as the audience to whom we perform and adjust our roles accordingly. Their perception and responses to our presentation help shape and reinforce our self-concept. Goffman also introduces the concepts of front and back regions, which are akin to the public and private stages of an actor's life, as well as audience segregation, the idea that we perform different roles to different groups and keep these audiences separate to maintain a consistent image.
Goffman's theories relate to the idea of multiple selves, suggesting that we possess different personas or versions of ourselves that we present in various social settings, much like an actor adjusting performances for different roles. Impression management is not solely about conscious effort; it is about our innate desire to influence how we are perceived by others and to gain desired reactions that affirm our self-concept and status within the social world.