Sunday, August 15, 2010

Dramaturgy and Impression Management to fight Obesity

Dramaturgy and Impression Management to fight Obesity


Dramaturgy refers to a micro-sociological approach that pioneered Canadian sociologist and writer Erving Goffman in which social life is analyzed into terms of drama or the stage. He said that social life is like a drama or a stage play where an individual presents himself to another based on cultural values, norms and expectations. It means that an individual must be aware of his or her social performance or behavior.

Birth ushers us onto the stage of everyday life, and that our socialization consists of learning to perform on that stage where the “self” lies at the center of our performance. We have ideas of how we want the other to think of us, and we use our role in everyday life to communicate those ideas. Impression management means that we effort to control the impression that other receive of us.
Dramaturgy and Impression management are two sociological categories that people perform in a given social context, most of the time aware of the importance of public image. In rare occasions, only people with a poor self-esteem do not perform social dramaturgy as they might not understand the meaning of having good public image (Impression management). And perhaps, it's their poor self-esteem one of the reasons why they overeat too much getting the possibility to have the eating disorder of bulimia. For these people, the sociological concept of “the looking-glass self” is not meaningful at all, as not only they do not imagine or care how they appear to those around them, but also they do not interpret other's reactions regarding their public image. In fact, they do not develop a self-concept.
In the past, people were not so concerned about being obese as social concurrence was not too much standard. However, currently, due to a rapid demographic development along with an immense technologic and industrial achievement needing better prepared white and pink collars employees, people are really highly concerned about being overweighting.
Regarding obesity as a social conflict with implicit psychological effects, the media, I think, plays a wrong role. Due to the high statistic amount of obese people, particularly in the United States, instead of promoting educational programs to teach people who suffer from being overweighed how to control and reduce their obesity, or avoid it, television commercial and advertisement only focuses on promoting cosmetic and lab products to lose weight and body size with an open profitable goal. Not only people must be learned how to control and reduce their obesity, but mainly how to avoid it by teaching them what obesity* is and what its main causes are.
In sum, obesity is already a social concern, as obese people might acquire psychological and pathological disorders. Thus, in this current world, obesity is a major social issue being focused not only by nutritionists and by physical health specialists, physicians and surgeons, but mostly by psychologists. The branches of psychology within which obese people might be cases of interest are clinical, developmental, environmental, health, personality, social and sport psychologies.

*Obesity is a condition in which the natural energy reserve, stored in the fatty tissues** is increased to a point where it is risk factor for certain heath conditions or increased mortality. Obesity develops from the interaction of individual biology and the environment (external factors).
**Adipose tissue is primary located beneath the skin, but is also found around internal organs. In the skin, it accumulates in the deepest level, the subcutaneous layer, providing insulation from heat and cold. Around organs, it provides protective padding. It also functions as a reserve of nutrients.
If humans do not burn the energy stored in the adipose tissues, this energy stored logically increases.
Some of possible causes of obesity are: overeating (bulimia), heredity, metabolic disorder, hypothyroidism due to a too little thyroid hormone production and sedentary behavior.
Excessive body weight has been shown to correlate with various diseases, particularly cardiovascular.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

A Day, A Happy New Year


One day, Europeans reencountered an Indian civilization in a land during their way to the unknown. Some years later, they brought the blacks from Africa. Afterward, an unimaginable civilization arose by the mix of whites and blacks, with the traits of native Indians living in the region. Yet, this mix of race did not occur without pain and sufferance. It was Cuba. Unfortunately, since 1959, this genuine civilization began its decline, and that lasts still. Meanwhile, Cubans, as they flee the country, have spread their talent all over the globe. Cuban Music is part of this spread talent.
In another, in a new year, already not so far, we will reencounter all each others in our Holy Land, once the Mephistophelian tyranny has disappeared.

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