Socialized Self: Merton's self-fulfilling prophecy and Cooley's looking-glass self

(Robert Merton)

Robert Merton was an American sociologist who won the 1994 National Medal of Science for his founding of the sociology of science. He spent most of his career as a professor at Columbia University, where he developed the concepts of the "reference group," and "self-fulfilling prophecy." For the purposes of this post, I will only discuss the latter.

Socialized Self: George Herbert Mead's Self, Mind and Society

(George Herbert Mead)

George Herbert Mead was a social philosopher who discussed the connection between the self, the mind, and society. He believed that society has an effect on the self and mind, and the self and the mind have an effect on society. Mead is considered to be the father of symbolic interaction.

Must Know Max Weber's Concepts on Social Stratification

(Max Weber)

Max Weber was a German sociologist who was interested in the areas of economics and politics. He attended the University of Heidelberg, but after three terms, he left for military service. Two years later, he returned home and attended the University of Berlin, where he completed his studies (Ph. D) and became a lawyer. He also received a teaching position at this institution upon graduation.

Growing up, Weber was conflicted to find an identity as his father was a bureaucrat who enjoyed the earthly pleasures, and his mother was a Calvinist who lived an ascetic life. Because of having to deal with these dueling ideologies most of his life, Weber was able to fuse both religion and politics into his works.

When it came to stratification, Weber saw it as multidimensional and refused to boil it down to just economics, as he felt that economics, status, and power were all factors for stratification. He said that some people may rank high on one or two of these, but low on the others.