Browsing by Subject "facework"

This master’s thesis focuses on any potential differences in how people with a high number of narcissistic personality traits present themselves and their self-image by using conversation analytic methods and utilizing Goffman’s theory on facework. Narcissistic personality traits are considered in this thesis as potentially atypical in interactional practices. The concept of face is used in demonstrating the public self-image that people create in social interaction. Every interaction is a possibility to work against the threats to the face by conducting facework. The research suggests that persons with a high number of narcissistic personality traits seem to be particularly sensitive to the presentation of self in social interaction. According to studies, narcissism appears to differ in social interaction from ordinary facework in the utilization of recognition. Conversation analysis qualitatively analyzes social interaction. The focus is on rules, patterns, and sequential actions. Conversation analysis is considered a technical method, however focusing on a very detailed level to the intersubjective meaning of the actions in the specific interaction. The research question is, how are the differences in the facework of narcissistic and non-narcissistic personalities characterized in face-to-face interaction? The empirical research in this thesis is based on research project called Facing Narcissism which explores narcissistic personality features in face-to-face social interaction. The data was collected from conversations between persons with a high number of narcissistic personality traits and persons with a low number of narcissistic personality traits. The data was analyzed by using conversation analytical methods. According to the research, narcissistic personalities might not benefit from the facework provided by the respondent and might be unable to benefit from the reciprocal facework. The empirical study of the thesis shows possible atypical facework by reversing the valence of the story. The extracts analyzed in the empirical research present that the persons with a high number of narcissistic personality traits might present themselves in a favorable light throughout the story by using the reverse of the valence in the story and self-sufficient face-saving actions. The discussion shows that more research is needed on the relationship between personality traits and interactional processes.

This thesis examines what kinds of comments customer servants receive as well as discusses how they react to them. The comment types have been divided into positive, negative or uncomfortable ones and they are either work, persona or appearance-related. The focus in on the differences gender might cause. The theoretical approaches to this thesis are multifaceted: pivotal theories from the fields of sociology, linguistics and gender studies are used. Customer workers must balance emotional labor, performativity of gender and facework in their work life, and these phenomena shape their experiences as customer workers. The data for the study was collected by a questionnaire. The questionnaire asked questions about language use, workplace circumstances and policies and customer interaction. There were all in all 35 questions. Some were closed, some open and some multiple choice questions. The requirement for answering was to have worked in customer service. Most of the 458 respondents identified as women. The gathered data was analyzed mainly quantitatively. However, the open answers enabled the responses to be analyzed qualitatively as well, which gave more insights to the experiences of the customer workers. The results indicated that customer servants receive gendered comments and also respond to them according to gender norms. Female service workers receive more appearance-related comments than male service workers. The feminization of the customer service industry limits the ways to react, which results in submissive behavior. First and foremost, the customer worker needs to protect the customer’s face, because the customer has more power in the encounter. Besides gender, also the workplace affected the comments the workers receive. Workers in grocery stores receive more uncomfortable and negative comments than their colleagues in other workplaces. The workplace affects the way the workers react to the comments, too. However, the reasons for these differences between workplaces need further research. While gender and workplace have effects on the comments and the reactions, experience level impacts the feelings of the workers. The more experienced workers feel they are good at their jobs and they feel more respected by the customers than their less experienced colleagues.