Sociological Issues of Criminology - Essay Example

The important looking-glass self is a social psychological idea, formed by Charles Cooley in 1902, indicating that a person's self stems out of societies within personal interactions and the view of others. The phrase refers to people determining their self-concepts according to their perception of how others see them. Since people conform to how they believe, others consider them to be, it's hard, or arguably impossible, to act differently from how someone thinks he or she is continually perceived. Cooley clarified it in the script that culture is an interweaving and collaborating mental selves. The phrase "looking glasses self" was initially used by Cooley in his masterpiece, Human Nature and the Social Order, which he wrote in 1902. His work explained how the simple presence of other people can make someone experience tension and discomfort. Feelings of insecurity and self-doubt may arise when one does not know exactly what others are thinking of them (Brown, 38-41).

I remember at BET 2009 awards when Taylor Swift a country music singer encountered an embarrassing moment on stage. The incident ensued when Taylor Swift went on stage to pick her award for a best music video with her popular song “You belong to me“. At the very instant, she was on stage giving her victory speech, Kanye West a fellow musician went direct on stage, snatched the microphone from her, and said that she was not better than Beyonce who had the best music video of all time (Canfield, 44-46).

By Charles Cooley’s theory, Taylor Swift was struck by tension and self-doubt because of the views of Kanye West. This is because the award had an inside impact on her that told her that the community perceives her as the best. The sudden sentiments by Kanye West showed a direct opposite perception that made Taylor Swift self-conscious.

The Self Mead understood the basis of humanity to be the self, that piece of an individual’s personality composed of an individual's self-awareness and self-image. For Mead, the self-idea was a very social phenomenon, which cannot be separated from society. The connection between the two was explained in a series of steps--the emergence of the self through social experience, founded on the exchange of symbolic interaction and relations, plus appearing within a context in which people take the role of the other, or consider their point of view during social interaction. A fourth discussion of Mead's theory was that people become self-reflective in this process of taking the role of the other.

The Looking-Glass Self The process of taking the function of others can be more clearly seen using Charles Horton Cooley's concept of the looking-glass self--or a self-image on how we think others see us.

The identity and I me a significant dualism is suggested and developed by Mead's idea that the self constantly thinks about itself. For Mead, the two components comprise (1) the self as the topic by which we start social action--the I, plus (2) the self as a thing, or objective part, worried with how we see ourselves from the viewpoint of others--the Me.

Stages of development Mead reduces the significance of biology in character development. The key was a societal experience, not maturation. Mead described infants as responding to others only in conditions of simulation or mimicking behavior devoid of indulgence. As the use of symbols emerges, the child eventually enters a play stage in which role-taking occurs. Originally, the roles are modeled after important others, especially parents (Terry, Deborah, Hogg, and White, 21-25).