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The development of self

Introduction

The origins of self are located in early childhood experience

The concept of self

Humans characteristically act with self-awareness, exercise self-control, exhibit conscience, guilt and make decisions based on some imagery of what they are, what they have been, and what they hope to be.

The wider social community enters the person through its language, which in turn furnishes the foundations for the self.

Body awareness and body display

Who’s that? Surveillance

Mead (1934) – to have a sense of self is to be able to objectify your activity as being separate from that of others - the child must be able to see himself from the perspective of others – the child’s knowledge of self is contingent on a separation of self from others

Self-awareness – Cooley’s Looking Glass self

Consider how aware of your sense of self you are when you stand down here!You may be thinking.......

What are they thinking of

me?

How do I look?

What kind of

impression am I

making?

Development of identity

Cooley’s Looking Glass Self

Identities are created through social interaction and social relationships

I know who I am by understanding how others

see me

Looking glass

‘As we see our face, figure, and dress in the glass, and are interested in them because they are ours, and pleased or otherwise with them according to what we should like them to be, so in our imagination we perceive in other’s mind some thought of our own appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends and so on, and are variously affected by it’ (Cooley, 1902, p.184).