ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews Cooley’s idea of the looking glass self, and Goffman’s elaboration. It can be formulated as a conjecture that links two concepts: shared awareness and the social emotions. In short, Cooley assumed that we live in the minds of others, and named pride and shame as the emotions that resulted. Goffman added embarrassment and humiliation. His work, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, is dense with these four emotions. Goffman’s development of the second concept, shared awareness (the degree of attunement) is also described. The conjunction of shared awareness and emotion in Goffman’s work may be the feature that attracts readers’ sympathy. Two basic hypotheses are formulated, along with the techniques that might be used to test or apply them.
