The Looking Glass Self

Charles Cooley "The Looking Glass Self" Charles Cooley The Looking Glass Self The Process Movies Videos Works Cited *Early member of the Chicago School of Sociology

*Conceptualized how individuals gain a sense of "self"

*"Each to each a looking - glass, reflects the other that doth pass"

*"The Looking Glass Self" (1909)

*Believed that we act like mirrors to each other, reflecting back to one another an image of ourselves **We imagine that others find us friendly, funny or hard working.

**The idea we have of ourselves is important in regards to significant others such as parents, bosses, friends, partners, etc. Alternative Sociological Perspectives https://www.boundless.com/sociology/understanding-socialization/theories-socialization/cooley/

http://www.calldrmatt.com/LookingGlassSelf.htm The Real World: An Intro. to Sociology
Ferris & Stein

The Looking Glass Self
Matt Moody, PhD

Theories of Socialization The notion that the self develops through our perception of what others' evaluations and appraisals of us. 1. We imagine how we look to others! 2. We imagine other people's judgement of us! **We try to picture others' reactions and to interpret what they must be feeling.

**"What is their opinion of me?"

**"Do they think I'm smart... lazy... boring... too tall... too quiet?" 3. We experience some kind of feeling about ourselves based on our perception of other people's judgements! ** If we imagine that someone thinks of us as competent, we may feel a sense of pride and vice versa.

** We respond to judgements that we believe others make about us without really knowing for sure what they believe.

**According to Cooley, these perceptions, not reality, ,determine the feelings we have about ourselves. Christyn-Jo Carranza
Introductory Sociology
Spring 2013
Ms. A Chavarin
STC/ WHS Psychoanalysis
Freud's theory of the unconscious mind as composed of an interrelated system (id, ego, and superego) that underlies human behavior; personality develops through psychosexual stages. Mind, Self, and Society
Mead's theory of the self that develops through three stages (preporatory, play, and game); in role taking the particular or generalized other, we learn to see ourselves as others do. Dramaturgy
Goffman's theory of the presentation of self; we are like actors on a stage whose performance strategies aid in impression management Mean Girls The Devil Wears Prada Hyperlinks The End