Editing Impression management (section)

=== Social interaction ===
{{See also|Social death|Social stress}}
Goffman argued in his 1967 book, ''Interaction ritual'', that people participate in social interactions by performing a "line", or "pattern of verbal and nonverbal acts", which is created and maintained by both the performer and the audience.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior|last=Goffman|first=E.|publisher=Aldine|year=1967|location=Chicago}}</ref> By enacting a line effectively, the person gains positive social value, which is also called "face". The success of a social interaction will depend on whether the performer has the ability to maintain face.<ref name=":2" /> As a result, a person is required to display a kind of character by becoming "someone who can be relied upon to maintain himself as an interactant, poised for communication, and to act so that others do not endanger themselves by presenting themselves as interactants to him".<ref name=":1" /> Goffman analyses how a human being in "ordinary work situations presents himself and his activity to others, the ways in which he guides and controls the impression they form of him, and the kinds of things he may and may not do while sustaining his performance before them".<ref>Goffman, 1959, p.8</ref>

When Goffman turned to focus on people physically presented in a social interaction, the "social dimension of impression management certainly extends beyond the specific place and time of engagement in the organization". Impression management is "a social activity that has individual and community implications".<ref name=":2" /> We call it "pride" when a person displays a good showing from duty to himself, while we call it "honor" when he "does so because of duty to wider social units, and receives support from these duties in doing so".<ref name=":1" />

Another approach to moral standards that Goffman pursues is the notion of "rules of conduct", which "can be partially understood as obligations or moral constraints". These rules may be substantive (involving laws, morality, and ethics) or ceremonial (involving etiquette).<ref name=":2" /> Rules of conduct play an important role when a relationship "is asymmetrical and the expectations of one person toward another are hierarchical."<ref name=":2" />