Looking-Glass Self-Perception, Term Paper Example

Abstract

Nowadays, there are multiple theories and concepts providing diverse perspectives on human self-perception and building one’s identity. One of the theories referring to this subject is Charles Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Theory. The aim of this paper is to explain this theory and outline whether it remains relevant nowadays, whether it is effective for all age groups and how it is related to a college student.

Key words: Looking Glass Theory, Charles Cooley, self-perception, identity.

Looking-Glass Self-Perception

Through the history of human civilisation, people were interested in finding answers to various questions. However, no at which stage of development humanity was one of the crucial questions remained the questions about human identity, how it is created under the influence of which factors. In this regard, each discipline and epoch had its own answer to these questions. Nowadays, scholars have multiple theories and concepts providing diverse perspectives on this matter. One of the theories referring to this subject is Charles Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Theory. The aim of this paper is to define this theory and explain whether it remains relevant nowadays, whether it is effective and relevant for all age groups and how it is related to me as a college student.

The essence of the theory

The essence of Cooley’s theory is that it unites the psychological self-perception approach and places it into the sociological theory of socialising ((Anderson, 2012).). In this regard, he argues that personal self is not created by an individual on his own; it also does not originate from within an individual, but is created as result of one’s interactions with the social environment (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). Thus, the inner self-perception is mental processing of the external perception various individuals from the social environment have about the individual and impose in that individual. Cooley argues:

“There is no sense of “I”…without its correlative sense of you, or he, or they… In a very large and interesting class of cases the social reference takes the form of a somewhat definite imagination of how one’s self…appears in a particular mind, and

the kind of self-feeling one has is determined by the attitude… to that other mind. A social self of this sort might be called the reflected or looking-glass self” (Cooley, 1983, 126).

In this regard, he suggested that there is no such thing as an independent self-perception since human being are in constant interactions, and the influence of the society on one’s self-perception stops only when an individual is completely isolated from the society. The process of building self-perception according to this theory has three aspects. First of all, there is person’s image of how one appears to the others. This aspect is based on the traces of previous interactions and a created image before its evaluation by the target external perception (Anderson, 2012). The second aspect is individual’s reaction and imagination of person’s judgment and perception of that individual. This is the point of exact social interaction, where the greatest impact to one’s self-perception is conducted (Franks and Gecas, 1992). Finally, the third aspect is the after-thought, impression or feeling of an individual after this social interaction and mental processing of the perception (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009).

These stages of one’s self-perception can be shown on an example. For instance when a student in high school has low self-esteem and it does not really matter how he looks, his initial self-perception is very low, and he considers that he looks not very well even in fashionable clothes. In terms of the second aspect, when having a nice conversation with a popular girl at school, that individual receives a more positive self-perception through a positive and reassuring social interaction with another person. Finally, on the stage of mental processing of the situation and one’s reflection in another person’s looking glass of perception, the individual receives a new version of himself, a good-looking and confident person. The consequent feeling of this self-perception is a complete satisfaction with one’s appearance and more confident personal identity.

Thus, the totality of social interactions creates numerous versions of oneself. The final self-perception is based on processing all of them and creating the inner image based on the most dominant and most common perceptions (Anderson, 2012). It was also outlined that the importance of one’s opinion in building self-perception of another person largely depends on the relationship people have and how important one’s opinion is to that person. Thus, the most influential are the reflections of significant others (Johnson, 2008).

Relevance to all age groups

In terms of temporal intensity of this effect and whether it is effective and relevant to all age groups, it should be outlined that the theory argues that the process of self-identification is on-going through one’s entire lifetime. In other words, people remain involved in social interactions and these interactions create different reflections which still can change one’s self-perception irrespective of one’s age (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). On the other hand, since building self-perception is related to socialisation, then it also differs depending on one’s stage of development. In other words, since human social skills develop together with maturation, small children would be at the stage of developing social skills, interactions with other individual and they would rely more on their parents as the primary source of self-reflection (Franks and Gecas, 1992). The opinion and perception of other children would be less significant.

On the other hand, with gradual growing up and strengthening the social involvement of individual, the status of significant others shifts from parents and family to other people and social groups. In this regard, for teenagers, the opinion of their classmates or people belonging to their group of interests is more important than the perception of their parents (Johnson, 2008). With further stages of individual’s growing up and intensification of social interactions at work, leisure and personal life, the number of people reflecting an individual increases and the process of self-perception becomes more intense (Franks and Gecas, 1992). Finally, the older the person gets, the stronger and more solid the framework of one’s self-perception is which is based on the life-long experience.

Thus, it can be argued that the impact of new people on one’s self-perception diminishes with time. However, the importance of significant others prevails (Anderson, 2012). In any case, the impact of looking-glass effect prevails across various age-groups, people still can change their self-perception based on the opinions of the surrounding environment. The only different for different age groups is that the intensity and significant others change (Johnson, 2008).

Is the theory relevant nowadays?

Taking into account all mentioned above, it can be stated that this theory is definitely relevant nowadays. Although it was criticised for not taking into account group theory and the role of self-perception in terms belonging to a group and being an outsider, the principles of building one’s self-perception through reflections in others’ opinions remain relevant nowadays. The main rationale for this is that human being remains a social animal, and social interactions prevail in our contemporary globalised life (Johnson, 2008). The necessity to understand oneself and to perceive it through other did not change and probably has even intensified with the development of technologies.

Although it can be argued that with the development of social networks face-to-face interactions have diminished, and thus it became difficult to gain one’s perception in another person, it is not so in fact. The means of human social interactions changed but not the actual psychological and social process of self-identification. In this regard, people still want to be approved and accepted by their target community and to see the desired self-reflection in the people whose opinion matters to them (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). Thus, the principle expressed in this theory remains relevant.

It is also worth mentioning that with the intensification of one’s life and digitalisation of informational space, the effect of self-reflection through the actual face-to-face personal social interactions has increased (Franks and Gecas, 1992). To a certain extent, people became more vulnerable to personal interactions since technology provided a certain safety of social interactions via technologies. For instance, for IT people face-to-face meeting would have a greater impact on their self-perception than for someone who is involved in PR campaigns and it accustomed to work and meet people on daily basis (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). In this regard, the theory is relevant and could be further used to explore how the described effect is magnified in some instances due to technological development and career.

Personal Relevance

From the personal perspective of a college student, this theory helps to understand where the duality of self-perception comes from. In this regard, for a college student, one self-perception is divided between two groups of significant others. The first group consists of academics and tutors, whose opinions are essential for one’s realisation of potential, skills, talents and shaping of one’s future career. In this regard, strong criticism or complete failure may result in one’s low self-esteem and inability to receive the required amount of knowledge for building the future career. This group influences one’s self-perception in terms of potential and future development (Johnson, 2008).

Another influential group are my coevals – the other students I study with. Their opinion is essential in my self-perception in terms of present social interactions and personal life. In this regard, being perceived as interesting and fun, being liked by other are essential features a college student is looking in his reflection in opinions of the others. Since the two groups address different aspects of oneself, the opinions and consequent versions of self-perception clash (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). In this regard, the solution is often in deciding the opinion of which group is more important. This decision   largely depends on one’s personality and priorities. Thus, there are still various individual aspects of this theory particularly in the case of college students.

Overall, it can be concluded that Cooley theory of looking glass theory is systematic in its explanation of how self-perception is developed based on the reflection of one’s appearance through perceptions of other people. The theory is relevant nowadays and can be applied for further research of self-perception in terms of new technological environment and career preferences. The theory is also relevant across different age groups. However, the intensity and significant others vary across various ages. Finally, the relevance of this theory helps me to understand the environmental conditionality of the duality of self-perception as a college student.

References

Anderson, J. (2012). Through the Looking Glass of Theory. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 34(3), 483-488.

Ashford, J. and LeCroy C. (2009). Human Behavior in the Social Environment: A Multidimensional Perspective. Belmont, CA: Cengage.

Cooley, C.H. (2010). Looking-Glass Self. In O’Brien J. (Ed.), The Production of Reality:

Essays and Readings on Social Interactions (pp.126-130). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Franks, D. and Gecas V. (1992). Autonomy and Conformity in Cooley’s Self-Theory: The Looking-Glass Self and Beyond. Symbolic Interactions, 15(1), 49-68.

Johnson, D. P. (2008). Contemporary Sociological Theory: An Integrated Multi-Level Approach. New York, NY: Springer.