ABSTRACT
Mainstream social psychology construes the self in three ways: as a set of meanings an individual attaches to him/herself (i.e., the self-concept); as an agentic cognitive schema (i.e., the self as knower); or as an internal conversation of verbal gestures (as in Mead’s [1934] formulation). These ways of looking at the self treat it as a psychological entity or process. Dramaturgy takes a radically different view. In dramaturgy, the self is not seen as lodged in people’s heads. Nor is it an object that precedes situations and is simply “presented” by its possessor. It is, rather, an imputation of character that is generated collaboratively in scenes of face-to-face interaction.
