 Goffman was the 73rd president of the American Sociological Association . His best @-@ known contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction . This took the form of dramaturgical analysis , beginning with his 1959 book , The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life . Goffman 's other major works include Asylums ( 1961 ) , Stigma ( 1963 ) , Interaction Ritual ( 1967 ) , Frame Analysis ( 1974 ) , and Forms of Talk ( 1981 ) . His major areas of study included the sociology of everyday life , social interaction , the social construction of self , social organization ( framing ) of experience , and particular elements of social life such as total institutions and <unk> . 
