
The looking-glass self can cause feelings of insufficient self-worth and mental health issues. According to Susan Harter's The Perceived Directionality of the Link Between Approval and Self-Worth: The Liabilities of a Looking Glass Self-Orientation Among Young Adolescents, self-worth in adolescents is based mainly on their peer's approval of them.
How does the Looking-Glass Self affect self-esteem?
The looking-glass self can affect self-esteem in either a negative or postive way, depending on a person's perception of how others view them.
Who developed the theory of the Looking-Glass Self?
American sociologist Charles Cooley developed the theory of the looking-glass self. Cooley's looking-glass self theory states that a person develops their self-image based on the responses of others as well as their perception of how others see and judge them.
What is the meaning of the Looking Glass Self?
The looking-glass self describes the process wherein individuals base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction as a type of “mirror,” people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behavior.
How does self-evaluation affect self-esteem?
Third, people have an emotional reaction to that imagined judgment, such as pride or embarrassment. This self-evaluation influences the person’s sense of self-worth or self-esteem. In short, the looking-glass self theory suggests that we come to know ourselves by reflecting on how others see us.

How does the looking-glass self relate to the ME concept?
Mead's Conceptualization of Looking-Glass Self Mead argued that the self involves two phases: the “Me” and the “I.” The Me is based on how someone sees others as seeing themself, while the I is one's personal reaction to a situation.
Why would a person going through looking-glass self be embarrassed?
According to this theory, people first imagine how they appear to others. Second, they imagine how others judge them based on that appearance. Third, people have an emotional reaction to that imagined judgment, such as pride or embarrassment.
What are the 3 elements of looking-glass self?
Cooley distinguished three “principal elements” of the looking-glass self: “the imagination of our appearance to the other person; the imagination of his [sic] judgment of that appearance; and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification.” Much of the time, Cooley thought, our experience of self is an ...
What is an example of looking-glass self?
The looking-glass self definition states that a person's thoughts and feelings about themselves are formed based on the responses of others and their perception of how they appear to others. For example, a person may believe that they are very attractive because another person complimented their shirt or hair.
What are the consequences of having a distorted looking glass?
Distorted looking glass is just as real as any because every looking glass is part of our imagination. So, consequences of distorted looking glass are the same as of accurate looking glass.
Which of the following best characterizes the looking-glass self?
Which of the following best describes the looking-glass self? It is the way you truly feel about yourself.
What does a looking glass mean?
mirrorLooking glass is a somewhat old-fashioned, literary way to say "mirror." The word glass on its own can mean "mirror" too, coming from a root meaning "to shine." After Lewis Carroll's book "Through the Looking-Glass," was published in 1871, looking glass came to also mean "the opposite of what is normal or expected," ...
What does the concept of the looking-glass self help explain quizlet?
"The Looking Glass self"- a reflective process based on our interpretations of the reactions of others. This theory explains self-development because we experience feelings such as pride or shame based on this imaged judgment & respond based on our interpretation.
How do you use looking-glass self in a sentence?
The study identified the looking glass self as a metaperception because it involves perception of perceptions.
Who gave the concept of looking-glass self?
Charles CooleyCharles Cooley- Looking glass self.
When Cooley used the concept looking-glass self he meant to say that?
When Cooley used the concept "looking-glass self," he meant to say that: people see themselves as they think others see them.
Which statement describes Charles Horton Cooley's concept of the looking-glass self?
The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept created by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902. It states that a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others.
Charles Cooley's Looking-Glass Self
The term looking-glass self, first introduced by Charles Cooley (1902), refers to the dependence of one’s social self or social identity on one’s appearance to others.
Symbolic Interactionism and The Looking-Glass Self
The concept of the looking-glass self is associated with a school of sociology known as symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on the meanings attached to individual human interactions as well as symbols.
Examples
A number of researchers have examined the looking-glass self in the context of virtual environments. Martey and Consalvo (2011), for example, studied the avatar appearances and subsequent behavior of 211 individuals in a roleplaying video game where players could create virtually any type of avatar as a means of expressing self-identity.
Critical Evaluation
Research has consistently supported Cooley’s idea that people act based upon the perceptions they have of how others perceive them, rather than their actual responses.
What is the looking glass self?
The looking-glass self describes the process wherein individuals base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction as a type of “mirror,” people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behavior. According to Self, Symbols, & Society.
How is the looking glass self complicated?
The process of the looking-glass self is further complicated by the context of each interaction and the nature of the people involved. Not all feedback carries the same weight, for instance. People may take the responses from those whom they trust more seriously than those of strangers. Signals may be misinterpreted. People also usually take their own value systems into consideration when thinking through any changes to their behavior or views of self.
What is cyber self?
He or she may present a professional self on LinkedIn, a casual self on Twitter, or an artistic self on Pinterest . The cyber self also continues to exist in social spaces even when people are not interacting with those environments in real time.
Is perception reality?
Perception Is Reality: The Looking-Glass Self. Behavior and self esteem are dictated by a person's predictions of how they’ll be perceived by others. When it comes to understanding ourselves, social interaction plays a more important role than many of us realize. According to sociologist Charles Horton Cooley, individuals develop their concept ...
What is the looking glass self?
The looking-glass self is the process by which people evaluate themselves based on how others see them. According to this theory, people first imagine how they appear to others. Second, they imagine how others judge them based on that appearance.
Why is the looking glass self theory controversial?
The looking-glass self theory is controversial for two reasons. First, this view supposes that people have a good idea of how significant others see them. Psychological research reveals that people’s beliefs about how others see them are not very accurate. Indeed, our reflected appraisals of how we think others see us are much more closely related ...
Who proposed the looking glass self?
The looking-glass self was first proposed by Charles Horton Cooley. According to Cooley, self-perceptions are based on reflected appraisals of how others see us (i.e., our impression of others’ impressions of us), which are in turn based on how others actually see us.
How does reflected appraisal affect behavior?
Some evidence indicates that people’s reflected appraisals of how others see them influence their self-views and their behavior , particularly in close relationships. Research on romantic relationships suggests that our reflected appraisals of how our partners see us may be particularly important in this context. This is especially true for people who have doubts about how their partner feels about them. People with negative impressions of how their partner sees them tend to cause strain and dissatisfaction in their relationships.

Charles Cooley's Looking-Glass Self
- The term looking-glass self, first introduced by Charles Cooley (1902), refers to the dependence of one’s social self or social identity on one’s appearance to others. The ideas and feelings that people have about themselves — their self-concept or self image— are developed in response to their perception and internalization of how others perceive ...
Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Another prominent and influential account of the self in sociology comes from Erving Goffman’s “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (1959). Although Goffman never explicitly mentions the looking-glass self, Goffman, like Cooley, focused on embarrassment as a social emotion (Scheff, 2005). Here, Goffman uses the imagery of theatre to draw comparison to the nuances of social i…
Mead’s Conceptualization of Looking-Glass Self
- George Herberrt Mead's conception of socialization elaborated on Cooley’s foundation. Mead argued that the self involves two phases: the “Me” and the “I.” The Me is based on how someone sees others as seeing themself, while the I is one’s personal reaction to a situation. Someone forms their social self through an ongoing interaction between the Me and the I (McIntyre, 1998)…
Symbolic Interactionism and The Looking-Glass Self.
- The concept of the looking-glass self is associated with a school of sociology known as symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on the meanings attached to individual human interactions as well as symbols. In the context of symbolic interactionism, humans define themselves in the context of their social interactions from the tim…
Critical Evaluation
- Research has consistently supported Cooley’s idea that people act based upon the perceptions they have of how others perceive them, rather than their actual responses. Felson (1981, 1985) studied a series of football players and primary-school students and found that the relationship between the perceived responses of others and the actual responses of others was reciprocal. …