Social science research methods and applications

Social Science

What is the complete and correct citation for the article using APA style?

Cook, W.L. & Douglas, E.M. (1998). The looking-glass self in family context: A social relations analysis. Journal of Family Psychology, 12(3), 299-309.

Does this study explore macrotheory or microtheory? What is the social scientific paradigm that is emphasized in this article? Explain your answers.

The authors' concern with how individual perceptions of self are shaped in relatively intimate environments identifies this study as an exploration of microsociological thought. The largest organizations it deals with are families -- a far cry from the large-scale institutions that occupy macrosociological work. Likewise, the focus on the formation of identity is well outside the normal macrosociological framework.

The article is deeply rooted in symbolic interaction theory, to which its title both alludes (the "looking-glass self" is a classic concept in this theoretical paradigm) and explicitly refers. In fact, its main objective is to test a central tenet of symbolic interaction theory: the idea that self-image is constructed through the internalized (or imagined) evaluations of others. As such, the study can almost be considered a defense of symbolic interaction theory against challenges that have emerged in other research.

3. What is the research question?

While the authors segment their methodological framework into two independent hypotheses, their larger concerns lead them to describe "Hypothesis 2" (which can be expressed as "Do children have an accurate sense of how their parents perceive them?") as their "central theoretical issue" (304). If they answer this question in the affirmative, they believe that this wil in turn support the looking-glass model of identity formation.

A secondary hypothesis (perhaps confusingly described as "Hypothesis 1") asks the somewhat less critically central question of whether the way we see ourselves is aligned with the way we believe others see us.

4. Identify the independent and dependent variables, including how each is defined.

On the surface, this study merely seeks to test two separate correlations (between self-perception and metaperception and between metaperception and other-perception, respectively), and so can be considered to have all "independent" variables; causation (dependence) is not technically an issue.

However, given the larger SIT framework the authors are employing, self-image (self-perception) is viewed as dependent on perceptions of how the subject is perceived by others (metaperception), which are in turn dependent on the way others actually perceive the subject (other-perception).

5. Describe at least 2 findings from this study.