ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a weakness in the original version of Charles Cooley’s looking-glass self theory, namely, the lack of autonomy and agency in the self-understanding of the individual. This weakness is remedied by bringing in the concept of self-values to the existing looking-glass self argument. The proposed self-value approach regards self-conception as being shaped primarily by two diachronic factors: (1) the perceived social appraisals the individual receives at the current time, and (2) the personal values the individual has acquired thus far from previous life experiences in society. While both factors are social in nature, self-values, which are biographically constituted, provide the individual with anchorage for autonomy and agency in self-understanding.
