Date of Award

8-1969

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

First Advisor

George Helling

Second Advisor

George Barger

Third Advisor

Paul Kennedy

Abstract

Few, if any, persons pass through a day without observing and engaging in some form of pretense. Pretense is a basic aspect of interpersonal relations. In an office or factory the supervisor tells the worker to ’’look busy" even when he does not have work to do. The salesman tries to make the customer feel as if the item being presented is the best buy ever placed on the market. Two people meet and exchange “PIeased to meet you!" when neither actually cares at all about the presence of the other; in fact, each may have negative feelings about meeting the other. A conversational circle at a party laughs, but is actually repulsed by the dullness of the “joke" just told by the host."1- In short, ”. . . there is hardly a legitimate everyday vocation or relationship whose performers do not engage in concealed practices which are incompatible with fostered impressions."2

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