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looking-glass self  

Definition

  • 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. [Source: Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations; Looking-Glass Self]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/looking-glass_self

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