In a student who assumes teachers view them as capable and feels confident demonstrates:

• A. Symbolic interactionism in action
• B. Confirmation of looking-glass self
• C. Social capital theory
• D. Cognitive dissonance

Answer: (B)

The main concept here is the looking-glass self: how our sense of self is shaped by imagining how others perceive us and by internalizing those imagined judgments into our own feelings. When the student assumes that teachers view them as capable, they anticipate a positive evaluation, and that imagined reflection translates into a feeling of competence and confidence. This is precisely the self-feeling step of the looking-glass process, where perception of others’ appraisal becomes part of how they see themselves. It isn’t about resolving cognitive dissonance or about building social capital from networks; it’s about a self-concept formed through imagined confirmation from others. While symbolic interactionism provides the broader lens for how social interaction shapes meaning, the specific mechanism illustrated here is the confirmation of the looking-glass self.