Goffman's Propositions of Interaction and Performance

1. The more individuals in a setting make visual and verbal contact, the greater are their efforts to use gestures to orchestrate a performance (DJR: define situation, take a role/line, pull it off).¹
2. The more individuals can present a coherent front, the greater is their ability to orchestrate a performance.
3. The more individuals can control physical space, props, and equipment in a setting, the greater is their ability to present a coherent front.
4. The more individuals can control their expressive equipment in a setting, the greater is their ability to present a coherent front.
5. The more individuals can control signals of their propensity for types of ritual activity, the greater is their ability to present a coherent front.
6. The more individuals can control the signals of their status outside and inside the interaction, the greater is their ability to present a coherent front.
7. The greater the ability of individuals to control those signals pertaining to identifiable roles, the greater is their ability to present a coherent front.
8. The more individuals can accentuate those signals relevant to a situation, the greater is their ability to orchestrate a performance.
9. The more individuals can incorporate and exemplify general cultural values, the greater is their ability to orchestrate a performance.
10. The more individuals can maintain control of their expressive gestures, the greater is their ability to orchestrate a performance.
11. The more individuals can imbue a situation with their own mystique, the greater is their ability to orchestrate a performance.
12. The more individuals can signal their sincerity, the greater is their ability to orchestrate a performance.
13. The more individuals in a setting can orchestrate their performances and, at the same time, accept one another's performances, the more likely are they to develop a common definition of the situation.
14. The more individuals can develop a common definition of the situation, the greater will be the ease of their interaction.

Footnotes

1. Source: Turner, J. H. (1991). The structure of sociological theory. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, p. 452. Via http://wizard.ucr.edu/~kmcneill/psy575/kevin.htm