Cooley, Charles Horton, 1864–1929, American sociologist, b. Ann Arbor, Mich., grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A., 1887; Ph.D., 1894); son of Thomas M. Cooley. He taught in the sociology department at the Univ. of Michigan after 1892, although his degree was in economics. Cooley's major contribution to the field of sociology was his idea of the "looking-glass self" (a concept that emphasizes the social determination of the self) and primary groups—e.g., the family, the play group, or the neighborhood. He wrote Human Nature and the Social Order (1902, rev. ed. 1922), Social Organization (1909), Social Process (1918), and Sociological Theory and Social Research (1930).

Cooley, Charles Horton

(born Aug. 17, 1864, Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S.—died May 8, 1929, Ann Arbor) U.S. sociologist. The son of an eminent Michigan jurist, Cooley taught sociology at the University of Michigan from 1894. He believed that the mind is social, that society is a mental construct, and that the moral unity of society derives from face-to-face relationships in primary groups such as the family and neighbourhood. In Human Nature and the Social Order (1902), he referred to this form of social reference as “the looking glass self.” Cooley's other works include Social Organization (1909) and Social Process (1918).

Cooley, Charles Horton (1864–1929) sociologist; born in Ann Arbor, Mich. He joined the University of Michigan faculty after earning a Ph.D. in political economy, and in a 35-year career there, he pioneered the teaching of the new discipline of sociology and the practice of social psychology. Like other early sociologists he took a philosophical approach to his subject; although the discipline later became empirically based, he made lasting theoretical contributions that laid the foundation for later work. In Human Nature and the Social Order (1902), he introduced the concept of "the looking-glass self," the self as defined by social interaction. He developed this view further in Social Organization (1909) and Social Process (1918), a Darwinian social analysis.