Charles Horton Cooley had developed a theory of self-concept in 1902. This theory explains, how an individual develop a self-concept in a society. Self-concept is a sense which determine our personality and position in a society. According Horton Cooley we see ourselves from the eyes of other. Our self-concept is developed by learning to think of our own personality as others think of it, he called this concept looking the glass self. C.H Cooley explained three principles for the formation of the looking glass self.
1) Our imagination of how we appear to others
2) our imagination of how we will be judged on basis of our appearance
3) we think about it, internalize or reject the judgments.
For example; if students thinks that their teacher is not capable of delivering lecture. Teacher may internalize the views of his student and might consider another line of work. May be he think about the remarks of other students he taught before and the remarks of his colleagues about his teaching, and realize that other students and colleagues have always complimented him for his teaching style. He may come to the conclusion that may be this semester students are not eager to learn and he may continue his teaching career.
As this example suggest that, our self-concept is not only based on the judgments and views of other rather it is based on how we interpret those judgments and views of others. We use our past experiences to interpret others responses.
Author; Khushdil Khan Kasi
