3. Back in the 1800s, Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), a symbolic interactionist who taught at the University of Michigan, concluded that this unique aspect of “humanness” called the self is socially created. He said that our sense of self develops from interaction with others. Cooley (1902) coined the term looking-glass self to describe the process by which a sense of self develops. He summarized this idea in the following couplet: 1. We imagine how we appear to those around us. 2. We interpret others’ reactions. 3. We develop a self-concept. Another symbolic interactionist, George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), who taught at the University of Chicago, added that play is crucial to the development of a self. In play, children learn to take the role of the other, that is to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. As they develop this ability, at first children are able to take only the role of significant others, individuals who significantly influence their lives, such as parents or siblings. By assuming their roles during play, such as dressing up in their parents’clothing, children cultivate the

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