Cooley

1
Cooleys

• Human Nature
• The Social Order
• Pt 2

2
The Various Phases of the I

• Self and self-seeking are healthy and respectable
  traits of human nature. The question is, What
  are those things that we call egotism and
  selfish?
• It is not self assertion that is stigmatized, but
  the assertion of a kind of phase of self that is
  obnoxious.
• The most common form of selfishness is the
  failure to subordinate sensual impulses to social
  feeling. This results from the apathy of the
  imaginative impulse that effects this
  subordination.
• A person who lacks tact in face-to-face
  intercourse gives the impression of an
  egotistical person.
• A person who has tack can see far enough into the
  mind of the person that they are conversing with.

3

• Selfishness
• Selfishness is an impulse of the self.
• Selfishness is narrowness , littleness, defect,
  or an inadequacy of imagination.
• On the other hand, a selfish person is one who
  falls below these standards. That is they are
  over preoccupied with their self.
• Egotism is not something additional to ordinary
  human nature, but a lack of it.
• Egotism is a matter of character rather than
  form.
• Extreme instability always results in
  selfishness. The weak lack the sympathy that
  enables people to penetrate the lives of others
  and the self control necessary to make sympathy
  effective.
• The other type of egotism related to the person
  who has stability of mind and conduct, but who
  withholds sympathy.

4

• There are two types of motives self-motive and
  other-motives.
• A productive mind must have self-feeling and
  gloat over it. It is only in this way that we
  learn to define arrange and express it.
• By having self consciousness we are aware of the
  special tendencies that we assert in production
  or learn how to express them.
• There are different kinds of egotism, which are
  divided according to the greater or lesser
  stability of the egotist character.
• They may be divided into those of the unstable
  and those of the rigid type.
• There are many phases of the aggressive self
• 1) In response to imagined approval we have
  pride, vanity, or self-respect.

5

• 2) In response to imagined censure we have
  resentment. The more humble self is also treated
  in a similar way.
• Pride and vanity are apply to the forms of
  self-approval. They may be used to indicate a
  more or less stable attitude of the social self
  towards the world.
• It may be said that pride is the form that the
  social self-takes in a more rigid self-sufficient
  mind.
• Self reverence means reverence for a higher or
  ideal self. It refers simply to the best the
  individual can make out of life.
• The highest self is a social self. This is
  because it is a product of constructive
  imagination working with the material that the
  social experience supplies.

6
The Looking Glass Self

• The Looking Glass Self has three principal
  elements
• 1. The imagination of our appearance to others.
• 2. The imagination of judgment of our appearance
  by the other person.
• 3. Some sort of self feeling such as pride
  or mortification
• The concept of the Looking Glass Self
  demonstrates a self-relation, on how one views
  himself not as a solitary phenomenon, but rather
  includes the views of others
• Once those views are internalized, the individual
  looking at oneself thru the paradigm of The
  Other, have some sort of feeling of the
  predicted reactions the other person will
  most-likely make.

7
George Herbert Meads Generalized Other

• Generalized Other
• The Generalized Other or General Awareness, can
  only occur when one understands both the play and
  game stages.
• Through the Play Stage one learns the imitation
  of roles
• Game stage a person gains the ability to take
  the role of The Other and the person
  understands the interactions between that role.
• The Generalize Other Is like a role, its a
  perspective in which the person must
  imaginatively adopt to the understand how to
  conduct himself within the game
• To obtain the Generalized Other One must have a
  completely understanding of his role and the
  roles of all the individuals within the role set.

8
Discussion Question

• When Comparing Cooleys Looking Glass Self to
  Meads Generalized Other, what would one
  conclude about the application of both these
  theories on the individual?

9
The Social Consciousness

• Cooley illustrates his concepts of The Mind
• What is the The Mind?
• Cooley Argues that The Mind is the theater of
  conflict for an infinite number of impulses
• Impulses in which the mind is ever striving to
  produce some sort of unication or harmony
• The Unity of our Social Mind consist in
  organization of these impulses
• Our Thoughts are Always, in some form,
  Imaginary Conversions that presents itself to
  us as an imagined voice that help one relay
  judgment.
• Social Consciousness
• Which can be defined as the awareness of society
  and societal expectations,
• It is inseparable from self consciousness
  because we can hardly think of ourselves
  excepting with references to a social group of
  some sort, nor of a group excepting with
  reference to ourselves.

10

• One if the functions of Social Consciousness is
  Judgment.
• The question of right and wrong , as it present
  itself to any particular mind, is a question of
  the complete practicable organization of the
  impulses with which that mind finds itself
  compelled to deal with.
• For the individual determining his/hers own
  conduct, conscience is the only moral guide.
• To violate one own consciousness is too commit
  moral suicide
• Conscience is not a variable, because what is
  right or The Right cannot be measured using an
  conclusive universal formula
• The Ethical self
• The Ethical Self is not less or part of a self,
  but rather its more of a self, because it is a
  fuller, more highly organized expression of
  personality

11

• It is important for many purposes to emphasize
  the fact that the ethical self is always a public
  self but it is equally true and important that
  it is also a private self
• Ethical thinking and feeling, like all our higher
  life, has both its individual and social aspects
  with an emphasis on neither.
• However we can conclude that our heritage and
  life experiences are the prime make-up of the
  ethical self.

12
Discussion Question

• What role does Social Consciousness play in the
  development of The Self, and how does Cooleys
  concepts of the mind aid the process?