Undeniably, knowing the self is significant in effective speech communication. Ideally, like pillars that fortify an edifice, the progression of our self that supports our emotion and belief, solidify and broaden our philosophy that matters when communicating with other people.
Sociologist, Charles Cooley used the term Looking Glass Self to describe the process of how socialization shapes how we view ourselves or self-image. According to his theory, our view of ourselves comes not only from our direct contemplation of our personal qualities, but also from our perceptions about how we are being perceived by others. Furthermore, Cooley believes that we are not actually being influenced by the opinions of others, but instead, we are being influenced by what we imagine the opinions of other people to be. Indeed, we might develop our self-identities based on both correct and incorrect perceptions of how others see us. As stated by Cooley (1902), in his work Human Nature and the Social Order, his “Looking Glass Self” involved three steps:
(1) How do I appear to others?; (2) What must others think of me?; and (3) Revise how we think about ourselves.
This steps can be applied in speech in some instances like when having a conflict with your teacher with your grade in a activity wherein he/she created many revisions, for example, with your grammar and you’ll think that you’re not good enough, but in your teacher’s perspective, he just wants you to challenge your abilities and do better in your future work. Indeed, for this example, you’ll be able to apply the concept of Looking Glass Self, through the help of communication for us to get not only the correct, but the positive context of a message.
Realistically, understanding the self prevails a big factor. To claim, knowing fully ourselves cooperate in the construction of the different discourse that we make while communicating with other people. Indeed, we must learn to accept and embrace who we are, our passion and reason, to give out and live on to an effective speech communication.
By: Liza Marie S. Magtanong | Teacher 1 | Bataan National High School – SHS
