Sociology › Section E · Socialization › Topic E.1
Theories of self-development
Nobody is born knowing who they are. This topic sets out how sociologists, above all Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, explain the way a sense of self grows out of everyday contact with other people.
In this topic
- Where does a self come from?
- Looking inward and looking outward
- Psychological stage theories, briefly
- Cooley's looking-glass self
- Mead: the self is a social process
- Mead's stages of role-taking
- The I and the me
- Moral development: Kohlberg and Gilligan
- Worked example: one child, Mead's stages
- Worked example: a mirror that misleads
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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