Week 11: Post #3

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading, that we have no already discussed, that you found useful or interesting, and discuss it.

I found the idea of the “looking-glass self” as an interesting concept within this chapter.  As our textbook says, Charles Horton Cooley’s metaphor describes the looking-glass self as a product of our own sense of self based on the approval and disapproval of those around us.  It is formed by the ones closest to us and shapes the way we see ourselves according to how we fit in and how we are viewed with others.  The book also explains that this view of self is a cycle that is regular and happens without any initiation of the person themselves.  “Someone we care about responds to us.  Our perception of this response affects our sense of who we are, and we behave in ways consistent with that self.  This behavior then draws forth additional responses, and the cycle repeats itself,” (p. 144).  When considering myself with this idea, I can completely relate to this kind of cycle.  I like to have the approval of my friends and family, even if I am attempting to get it unknowingly.