article summary - The Looking Glass Self

The Looking Glass Self Name: Institution: Introduction Previous study has shown that the autism condition that leads to impaired linguistic and cognitive abilities of the patients is highly related to engagement at the inter-subjective levels when the patients are in their infancy stage. The study is the scholarly work of one researcher Hobson. The current study tests the hypothesis by Hobson, where it examines the level of self awareness, this time on the Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) patients. Ideally for us to reflect on ourselves, we partially rely on how the people around as think of us. It for this reason that the idea of personal reflection leans on the ‘looking glass self’ theory. It is through this reflection that people form and develop their identity, with the help of how their social networks. Self understanding can be divided from the perspectives of self-as-objects and the self-as-subject (Jackson, Skirrow & Hare, 2011). The object ‘me’ view ties to the person’s physical and social attributes, while the subject ‘I’ view ties to the self experimental attributes such as experiences, continuity and reflection of self. As such, the ‘I’ is the subjective part of any person, responsible for the way they interpret the experiences they have in their lives and the kind of development that they derive from these instances. The ‘me’ on the other hand is the objective part that is responsible for the person calls theirs, such as their social, material and spiritual characteristics. The research therefore will try to determine where the AS patients draw the line between the two aspects of self reflection and thus awareness/understanding. Method For the study, there were two set f participants that were involved, all of whom were white and British. The first group was composed of the patients with the AS condition and the second group was comprised of a control group without the condition. For the group with the condition, they were ten in total. For the control group, who did not have the condition, they were also ten in number. The AS group was selected with the consent of the ethics committee at the NHS, while the control group were selected after an advert was run in the local daily (Jackson et al, 2011). The test involved an interview where the participants were taken through a set of questions, to try and determine their level of self understanding. To maintain the level of consistency in the...