Charles Horton Cooley as a sociologist sought to understand humans the behaviour of human beings and what influences their behaviour. Through his studies, Cooley established that through the study of everyday social interactions among individuals, one could gain a better understanding of human behaviour and what makes them behave in a particular manner (Krawczyk, 2019). According to Cooley, to understand human behaviour, it is crucial to understand the meanings humans attribute to certain situations circumstances since behaviour is believed to go along way with circumstances. He found that people are shaped by the societies within which they live. He further explained this idea through his study of primary groups. According to Cooley, a primary group is the first group one is introduced to; this could be a family, neighbours or playmates (Krawczyk, 2019). The group influences the individual’s learning of ideas, ideals and beliefs.
The study of the primary group is further explained through Cooley’s interactionist perspective, which pursues to describe the society in the lens of daily interaction between people. Through Cooley’s theory of the looking glass self, we get to learn who we are through our interaction with others (Krawczyk, 2019). From this theory, we get to understand that our self is inspired by our self-reflection as well as from what others think of us. It is through human interactions that one begins to develop an idea of who they are, which makes the self a result of our social interactions.
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The idea of looking through the glass self can be understood through two main approaches related to how we form our self-image. One approach is based on our imagination of how others see us. For instance, if I wear what I consider my lucky outfit so that nothing bad can happen to me. As I walk into the classroom and my classmates stare at me, I will assume it is because I look great in my lucky outfit and smile at them, and I get a smile in return. The other approach is based on our imagination of the judgements others make about us. For instance, if I walk around carrying Gucci handbag, I will assume others will think that I am rich, and this might make people love me even more. If I want to throw a party and others think I am rich, I will assume they might want to attend my party because am rich.
References
Krawczyk, M. J., Wołoszyn, M., Gronek, P., Kułakowski, K., & Mucha, J. (2019). The Heider balance and the looking-glass self: modelling dynamics of social relations. Scientific reports , 9 (1), 1-8.
