Charles Horton Cooley facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles Horton Cooley
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Cooley from 1902 Michiganensian
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| Born | August 17, 1864 |
| Died | May 7, 1929 (aged 65) Ann Arbor, Michigan, US
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| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
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Notable work
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Elsie Cooley
(m. 1890) |
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| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Michigan |
| Thesis | The Theory of Transportation (1894) |
| Influences | |
| Influenced | Harry Stack Sullivan |
Charles Horton Cooley (born August 17, 1864 – died May 7, 1929) was an American sociologist. A sociologist studies how people interact in groups and how society works. Charles was the son of Thomas M. Cooley, a Michigan Supreme Court Judge.
He studied and later taught economics and sociology at the University of Michigan. He was also a founding member of the American Sociological Association in 1905. Later, he became its eighth president in 1918. Cooley is famous for his idea of the looking-glass self. This idea suggests that our sense of who we are comes from how we think others see us. Cooley passed away in 1929.
Contents
Biography
Charles Horton Cooley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 17, 1864. His parents were Mary Elizabeth Horton and Thomas M. Cooley. His father, Thomas, was a Supreme Court Judge for Michigan. He also helped start the University of Michigan Law School in 1859. Charles's mother, Mary, was interested in public affairs. She often traveled with her husband for his work.
Charles's father was a successful political figure. He taught his six children how important education was. However, Charles had a difficult childhood. He felt distant from his father. This feeling caused him to have various illnesses during his teenage years. Some of these illnesses seemed to be linked to his feelings. He also developed a speech problem. Charles often felt lonely and isolated as a child. This led him to enjoy reading and writing. He was also a big daydreamer. His daydreams later influenced his ideas about sociology.
Education and Learning
At age sixteen, Cooley started attending the University of Michigan. He graduated in 1887. After that, he spent a year studying mechanical engineering. In 1890, Cooley returned to the University of Michigan. He pursued a master's degree in political science and sociology.
In the fall of 1892, he began teaching economics and sociology at UMich. Cooley earned his PhD in philosophy in 1894. At that time, the University of Michigan did not have a sociology department. So, he completed his PhD studies through Columbia University. There, he worked with American sociologist and economist Franklin Henry Giddings. Cooley wrote his doctoral paper, The Theory of Transportation, on economics.
Cooley's father was well-known across the country. Because of this, Charles worried about failing. He wasn't sure what to study. He thought about science, math, social science, psychology, or sociology. He wanted to write and think deeply. After reading the works of philosopher Herbert Spencer, Cooley became interested in social problems. He later shared his thoughts on Spencer's work in 1920. Cooley felt that Spencer brought good ideas but lacked understanding of people.
Cooley decided to study sociology because it helped him understand social differences. He taught the very first sociology class at the University of Michigan in 1899. He also played a big part in developing symbolic interactionism. This is an idea about how people create meaning through their interactions. He worked closely with another University of Michigan staff member, psychologist John Dewey, on this.
Family Life
Cooley married Elsie Jones in 1890. Elsie's father was a medicine professor at the University of Michigan. Elsie was very different from Charles. She was outgoing and energetic. She managed their home life well, so Charles could focus on his research.
The couple had three children: one boy and two girls. They lived a quiet life near the university campus. Cooley used his children as a kind of "home laboratory." He observed them to study how a person's self develops. He watched how they imitated others and how their reactions changed with age. Cooley also enjoyed hobbies like botany (studying plants) and bird-watching in his free time.
Cooley's Ideas
How Cooley Studied Society
Cooley didn't like how sociologists often disagreed on how to study society. He preferred a hands-on, observational way of learning. He had worked with statistics before. But he liked using case studies more. He often observed his own children for his studies.
He also encouraged sociologists to use "sympathetic introspection." This means trying to understand someone's thoughts and feelings by putting yourself in their shoes. Cooley believed that to truly understand why someone acts a certain way, you need to look closely at their situation. This approach made him different from many other sociologists. They often preferred more traditional, scientific methods.
From Transportation to People
Cooley's first big work was The Theory of Transportation (1894). This was his doctoral paper on economics. In it, he wrote about how industries grew in the 1800s. He noted that towns and cities often grew where different transportation routes met.
Soon, Cooley started looking at how individuals and society affect each other. In his book Human Nature and the Social Order (1902), he talked about how people's actions in society shape their sense of self. He further developed this idea, called the "looking-glass self," in his next book, Social Organization (1909). In this book, he shared a full view of society and its main processes.
Understanding Social Groups
The first part of Social Organization (1909) talked about the importance of primary groups. These are the first groups we belong to, like family, childhood playgroups, and close community members. Cooley said these groups are where we learn our morals, feelings, and ideals. Primary groups are formed through close connections and shared values.
Cooley believed that people have two main influences in life. One is from their genes (heredity), which is like the basic human nature we are born with. The other is from society, which is shown in the primary groups found in all cultures. The impact of primary groups is so strong that people carry these shared beliefs into larger groups. They even create new small, close groups within bigger organizations.
In Social Organization, Cooley asked what makes up a society. He focused on the link between an individual and the larger society. He saw society and the individual as one, because they need each other. Society strongly affects how individuals behave, and individuals also affect society. He also thought that as a society becomes more industrialized, its people become more individualistic. Cooley saw society as a constant experiment. It's always trying to expand social experiences and bring different parts together.
The "Looking-Glass Self"
The "looking-glass self" is Cooley's most famous idea. It is well-known among psychologists and sociologists today. It builds on William James's idea of self. It adds the ability to think about one's own behavior. How other people see us helps build, change, and keep our self-image. So, there's a constant back-and-forth between how we see ourselves and how others see us. Through these interactions, people develop an idea of who they are.
Cooley said that when we feel shame or pride, it's because of what we think others think of us. He also noted that we don't always guess others' impressions correctly. For example, if a student answers a question wrong in class, they might later doubt their own intelligence. The idea of the looking-glass self applies throughout a person's life. Meeting new people often makes us think about ourselves based on the impression we believe we are giving. In other words, our self-identity can be shaped by society.
In his 1902 book, Human Nature and the Social Order, Cooley explained this idea: "... we imagine how we appear to another person. We then imagine how that person judges our appearance. Finally, we feel a sense of pride, happiness, guilt, or shame based on that imagined judgment."
So, the three steps of the looking-glass self are:
- You imagine how you look to the other person.
- You imagine what the other person thinks of you.
- You feel pride, happiness, guilt, or shame because of this.
This idea helped to connect the human mind with the outside social world. Cooley wanted to break down the idea that individuals and society are completely separate.
Social Change and Progress
Cooley's book Social Process (1918) focused on how social groups change. It also looked at the importance of competition in society. Social Process was a collection of essays that shared Cooley's social ideas. It was more about philosophy than just sociology.
He saw modern problems as a clash between values from primary groups (like love and loyalty) and values from larger institutions (like progress or Protestantism). As societies try to solve problems, they try to balance these two types of values. Cooley also talked about heroes and hero worship. He believed heroes help people learn social rules. Heroes represent and strengthen social values by being good examples. Social Process was Cooley's last major work. It was greatly influenced by Charles Darwin's ideas of natural selection and adapting to group life.
Cooley's Works
- 1891: The Social Significance of Street Railways
- 1894: The Theory of Transportation
- 1902: Human Nature and the Social Order
- 1909: Social Organization: a Study of the Larger Mind
- 1918: Social Process
- 1927: Life and the Student
See also
- Cartesian doubt
