Failure and Socialization Essay by Master Researcher

This essay analyzes a game of soccer in which I was engaged with a group of people in the context of Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Thomas J. Scheff's "Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System." In examining my experience of losing the game of soccer, I realized that, even in non-idealized settings, socialization is often strengthened. For, the soccer game was lost, but even this mode of failed performance only served to reinforce socialization not only through the emotions of shame and pride, but also through the social roles enacted in accordance with failing to win the game.