Looking-Glass Self

The looking-glass self is a concept introduced by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902. Cooley was working to develop a theory of self as essentially social, and he used the image of a mirror to capture the idea of people imagining what they look like to others, then incorporating what they imagine into their own selfconcept. This concept of self as a product of interaction with environment, and reflection based upon that interaction, has come to occupy a pivotal role in both psychology and sociology. Group interaction studies, a strain of sociology known as symbolic interactionism, and studies of both empathy and prejudice have all relied heavily on its core idea that people develop a selfconcept based on their emotional reactions to what they believe others ...