Cooley's Theory: "The Looking Glass Self"

You might have come across numerous people in life who will be of the view that the judgments of other people regarding them do not matter to them. Whatever people may say, their public image does affect their personalities. The reason is that people interact with each other every day and when they will come across something day in and day out; they will eventually accept it as reality. This reminds me of the Hitler’s saying which states that if you lie again and again, a time will come when people will start to believe in that lie.


Let’s compare two students: one is just an average student while other is really an extra ordinary genius. If the achievements of the average student are recognized by teachers and his peers, he will automatically develop self confident and eventually he may end up doing something extravagant for the world community. On the other hand, if the achievements of the genius students are constantly rejected, he may become dejected from life and may think of him as worthless and may end up as nothing but crap. You will come across such examples in your everyday life and its nothing but a proof that public image does matter to people.

To summarize this concept, I will mention three points.
1) One thinks how other people of him.
2) One makes judgments based on the judgments that other are people make of him
3) One develops a self image based on their judgements.