Sense Of Self Analysis

Social class, ethnicity and gender are some of the main influences that govern an individual’s perception of sense of self. The term sense of self means the kind of person an individual is. According to Oxford dictionaries (2014), the general term for self is an individual’s importance of being that distinguishes them from others and they are considered as the object of reflexive action. This means that sense of self is a perception of how and what an individual identifies themselves as and this may refer to different forms such as behaviour. For example an individual who sees them-self as an introvert believes that the behaviour is naturally within. This essay shall describe when and why social class remains important for people’s sense of self. Furthermore there shall be brief explanations of how ethnicity and gender also remain important for people’s sense of self. To illustrate when and why social class remains important to a person’s sense of self, this essay shall look at different concepts, theories and perspectives which include theories like, The Looking Glass Self theory by Charles Cooley (1902), theory of ‘I and Me’ by George Mead (1934) and concepts of identities. To begin the discussion, there shall be a brief explanation on relative theories and concepts using …show more content…
To clarify the idea, Cooley’s looking glass theory (1902) points out that a person’s self is derives from how they think other people see them which an individual learns through interaction (Lie and Brym, 2012). Moreover Cooley (1902) believes that the looking glass is in three stages; the first stage being the imagination of others’ views on an individual. This can be based on how people think others see them. The second stage is how an individual projects how they think people judge them and the third stage is how an individual reacts to what they think people perceives