ROLE, IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT, AND IDENTITY FORMATION

 WHAT IS “ROLE”?
In all of the many social groups that we as individuals belong to, we have a status and a role to fulfill. Status is our relative social
position within a group, while a role is the part our society expects us to play in a given status. For example, a man may have the status of
father in his family. Because of this status, he is expected to fulfill a role for his children that in most societies requires him to nurture,
educate, guide, and protect them. Of course, mothers usually have complementary roles.

Social group membership gives us a set of statuses and role tags that allow people to know what to expect from each other--they
make us more predictable.

 WHAT IS “IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT”?

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

Impression management is the goal-directed activity of controlling or regulating information in order to influence the impressions
formed by an audience. Through impression management, people try to shape an audience's impressions of a person (e.g., self, friends,
enemies), object (e.g., a business organization, a gift, a consumer product), event (e.g., a transgression, a task performance), or idea (e.g.,
pro-life versus pro-choice policies, capitalism versus socialism). When people are trying to control impressions of themselves, as opposed
to other people or entities, the activity is called self-presentation.

Impression management can be used for beneficial ends. Although people act in ways that advance their own self-interests, they
also seem to regulate information in order to support and protect the identities of others, to make others feel good, to help others cope, and
to inspire them to seek new challenges.

An example of such beneficial impression management is the father who helps his child interpret a failure in a way that preserves
the child's self-confidence and promotes effective coping, even if the father is privately unsure about the real causes of the failure.

Impression management activities can involve altruistic goals and pro-social conduct. The most common impression
management strategies include ingratiation, intimidation, supplication, self-promotion and exemplification.

SELF – PROMOTION
Self-promotion is a proactive process in which the self-promoter has to actively say things to show the competence or at least
undertake actions so that the competence is displayed to the target. Self-promotion is most often used when the chance of their claims being
challenged or discredited is low.

The occurrence of self-promotion increases when individuals have the opportunity to openly impress someone with a higher
status about their competence.

INGRATIATION
Ingratiation the respondents are concerned about influencing the targets liking for him/her. Opinion conformity is also
encouraged in situations where there are power differences. In an organizational setting the more difference there is in the power between
two people the more likely it is that the lower one will imitate behaviors and values of the higher one. Opinion conformity is an effective
strategy to increase the attractiveness of an individual in the eyes of the more important target.

Employees attempt to make themselves likeable or more attractive to their colleagues by appreciating their accomplishments and
achievements. But if this is done in excess, it may also result in disliking instead of creating a liking for self. Obvious ingratiation are
detectable so it is always advisable to act with modesty and make self-demeaning statements on the unimportant issues while acting in a
self-enhancing manner on the core matters

EXEMPLIFICATION
Exemplifiers are those respondents who arrive at work early to look dedicated. They also avoid to take holidays. These
individuals are willing to suffer to help others but in reality also attempt to make others feel guilty because they are not acting in a same
morally and integer manner. The target can reduce their feelings of guilt by at least supporting the cause of the exemplifier. This tactic can
actually also involve strategic self-sacrifice.

Furthermore the exemplifier often wants other people to know how hard he/she has been working, because they need to advertise
their behavior.

INTIMIDATION
Intimidation is an impression management strategy designed to increase the credibility of one’s threats and in turn enhance the
probability that the target will comply with the actors’ demands for agreement. Using Intimidation; the respondents’ tries to convince his
target that he is dangerous and generally flow from high level to low level and usually a form of downward influence

SUPPLICATION
Supplication is used by individuals who are not able to use any of the strategies presented previously, as it involves exploiting
ones weaknesses. The individual emphasizes his own dependence and weakness to obtain help from a more powerful other. By advertising
their lack of ability, they attempt to activate a powerful social rule the norm of social responsibility that says you should help those who are
in need

One heavy cost attached to using supplication is the costs of one’s self-esteem in admitting one’s incompetence.

 WHAT IS “IDENTITY”?
The development of an individual's distinct personality, which is regarded as a persisting entity in a particular stage of life by
which a person is recognized or known. Social identity groups are usually defined by some physical, social, and mental characteristics of
individuals.

Examples of social identities are race/ethnicity, gender, social class/socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, (dis)abilities, and
religion/religious beliefs. Some instructors may believe that social identities are not relevant to their courses. However, as classrooms and
other university learning communities (e.g., research labs) become increasingly diverse, issues related to individuals social identities may
 surface (e.g., racial and gender composition of study groups). Instructors, regardless of department/college in which they teach, should be
aware of and acknowledge how their social identities as well as those of their students impact the teaching and learning experience.

Students who identify with one or more minoritized/marginalized social groups may experience learning environments in ways
that can impact their learning process and overall experiences in classrooms and other educational spaces. For example, studies on
stereotype threat provide evidence of the link between the salience of a student’s membership in a minoritized/marginalized social group
and their academic performance. And, while college students from all backgrounds report experiencing imposter syndrome, its impact on
maladaptive psychological adjustment (e.g., depression) is exacerbated for individuals who identify with an ethnic or racial minoritized
group.

An individual's social identity indicates who they are in terms of the groups to which they belong. Social identity groups are
usually defined by some physical, social, and mental characteristics of individuals.

 DID YOU KNOW?

Erving Goffman, first articulated his idea of impression management. The idea behind this is that individuals may sort improvise
on the performance of their role so that they appear "presentable" in the situation. Presentable here does not only refer to physical
appearance, but to likability as a person. Just like in stage performance, actors may find some improvisation useful in creating an effect that
the audience might find new and intriguing.

Role manipulation through impression management has bearing on the formation of a person's self-identity. In short, there are a
variety of social implications within impression management. Unfortunately, not all of the social implications are positive. According to
Newman (2009), some of the repercussions are negative and can even be damaging to the person responsible for the implementation of
impression management tactics. "Impression management can lead to the creation of damaged identities, which must be repaired in order to
sustain social interactions". Damaged identities and suffering social interactions can take a toll on a person, which enviably forces that
person to retreat to impression management once again. It may seem increasingly ironic that the tactic that aided in the damaging and
exiling of a person can be the very same approach that puts that person back in good social standing. Impression management is a concept
to be taken very seriously. It has the power and influence to create a favorable public opinion of a particular person, it can break a person in
regards to social standings, and it can repair a damaged persona. Additionally, impression management has the ability to dictate a person's
position in society.

Lastly, a person's ability to successfully perform role manipulation depends on certain factors. Here, a person's gender, age, or
even social class can "make or break" the role in role manipulation. There are certain impression management acts that are mitigated by the
actor's gender or age. Some deviant behaviors are well-suited in this context of role manipulation. Sometimes, people are victimized by
certain situations where the perpetrators camouflage their deviant act through their gender, posture, or age. We seldom hear comments like:
the crime cannot be perpetuated by a woman; or by an old person, or a person known to be member of an affluent family.