Charles Horton Cooley and his sociological contributions

Charles Cooley

Lasting value of Cooley's works

Cooley left two important legacies in the field of social psychology, which pertains to his study of the self in the context of the changing human society. One important legacy he left behind was reflected in his work on the concept of the looking-glass self, wherein he was able to look deeper into the inquiry of human identity. Through this work, Cooley was able to establish two important facets that he posited are the important influencers in one's identity, specifically self-concept: the private and public selves.

The second important legacy that Cooley left behind was reflected in his study on primary groups, wherein he established not only the importance of this factor in the society, but also the increasing complexity in social structure happening in modern society. Through the primary groups, Cooley made possible further inquiries into the spheres of influence that affects and ultimately, modifies human society as it was changing during Cooley's time. The concept of primary groups paved the way for further inquiries on how the modern individual relates to the modern society, and vice versa.

Putting into context these two legacies of Charles Cooley, it can be said that his research on human identity (specifically self-concept) and complex social organizations are reflective of the modern society that Cooley found himself in. As human society progressed towards the 20th century, Cooley and similar social researchers like him felt the need to redefine human society as they perceived it to be. Hence, his studies on the looking-glass self and primary groups are his contributions to this general inquiry into the emerging modern human society in the 20th century.

Influence of Cooley's work on his discipline

Cooley significantly influenced the discipline of social psychology in terms of the timeliness of his researches with the social concerns of his time. As explicated earlier, there was a growing need for new research that attempts to look into the complex changes happening not only within the modern society, but within the modern individual as well.

His study of the modern individual reflected the need to re-establish what human existence and purpose is as human society approached the 20th century. Through his explication on how self-concept is affected by the public and private selves, Cooley reinforced the belief in individualism, which became the main principle behind the success of the modern capitalist society. In the self-concept, Cooley's society was able to appreciate the role that society significantly plays in creating the modern individual. Inasmuch as the individual contributes to social change, society, too, contributes to the increased individualism, rationalism and modernism of the individual of the 20th century.

His researches, then, become inevitably linked to the role that society plays in influencing the modern individual. In terms of social organizations, Cooley identified a major, albeit complex, social organization that existed in the modern society, called the primary group. As modernism promoted the idea of individualism, it became more vital for researchers to identify the spheres of influence that prevail in the minds and hearts of modern individuals. Thus, Cooley's determination of the primary group set the trend and generated the finding that, in the period of high level of individualism, there exists a social organization that still plays a major role in socially influencing the highly-individualized and -rationalized individual.

Testing one or two key propositions of Cooley