4.3 Theories of Self and Identity
When we are born, we have a genetic makeup and biological traits. However, who we are as human beings develops through social interaction. Many scholars, both in the fields of psychology and sociology, have described the process of self-development as a precursor to understanding how that self becomes socialized. Psychologists and psychoanalysts, such as Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Erik Erikson (1902–1994), and Jean Piaget (1896–1980), provided some of the initial understandings of the self within the social sciences. In this section, we will focus on how sociologists have understood the self.
Cooley and the Looking-Glass Self
Charles Cooley (1864–1929) argued our development of a self is similar to looking through a looking glass. According to looking-glass self theory, we base our image on what we think other people see (Cooley 1902). We imagine how we must appear to others, and then react to this speculation. We wear certain clothes, prepare our hair in a particular manner, wear makeup, use cologne, and the like, all based on the notion that our presentation of ourselves is going to affect how others perceive us. We expect a certain reaction, and, if we’re lucky, we get the one we desire and feel good about it. Yet we have no way of knowing what other people are thinking and if they are responding to our presentations. Regardless, Cooley believed that our sense of self is based upon this idea: we imagine how we look to others, draw conclusions based upon what we think other people are thinking about, and then develop our sense of self. In other words, people’s reactions to us are like partial mirrors in which we are reflected (figure 4.5).
Mead and the Stages of Self-Development
Later, George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) studied the self, a person’s distinct identity that is developed through social interaction. Mead argued that our selves have two components, an “I” and a “Me.” The “I” is our creative, novel response to a situation. The “Me” is the part of our self that accounts for the larger social world. Our self is an internal dialogue between these two components. In most situations, our “Me” prevails because of how we are socialized.
To engage in this process of self, an individual has to be able to view themself through the eyes of others. That’s not an ability that we are born with (Mead 1934). Through socialization, we learn to put ourselves in someone else’s position and look at the world through their perspective. This assists us in becoming self-aware, as we look at ourselves from the perspective of the “other.”
How do we go from being newborns to being humans with “selves”? Mead believed that there is a specific path of development that all people go through. During the preparatory stage, children are only capable of imitation: they cannot imagine how others see things. They copy the actions of people with whom they regularly interact, such as their caregivers. This is followed by the play stage, duri