D2.Soc.12.9-12: The Social Construction of Self and Groups
In plain English: D2.Soc.12.9-12 is the C3 Framework sociology indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to explain the social construction of self and groups. Students learn that a sense of self forms as people imagine how others see and judge them, and that group categories and boundaries are made, named and changed by people and institutions, with real effects on lives.
Explain the social construction of self and groups.
C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Sociology · Social Relationships: Self, Groups, and Socialization · Official standard
D2.Soc.12.9-12 asks students to explain the social construction of self and groups. To say something is socially constructed is to say that its meaning is made and kept up by people in interaction and by institutions, rather than fixed by nature alone. The self, a person's sense of who they are, forms as people imagine how others see and judge them. Groups exist partly because people draw boundaries, give them names and symbols, and treat members and outsiders differently; official categories, such as those on a census form, are one way groups are defined. Socially constructed does not mean unreal: these selves and groups shape how people feel and are treated.
The lesson uses Charles Horton Cooley's 1902 account of the looking-glass self, W. E. B. Du Bois's 1903 description of the "veil" and double consciousness, the U.S. Census Bureau's own statement on how its race categories are defined, and an invented study with invented data. Students plan studies on paper only.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Explain what it means for the self and for groups to be socially constructed, and why constructed does not mean unreal
Explain Cooley's looking-glass self and apply its three elements to a new situation
Explain how Du Bois describes a group boundary shaping a person's sense of self
Explain, using the Census Bureau's own words, how official group categories are defined and reported
Compute and interpret changes in shares from an invented study, and state what the study cannot show
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
The primary agents of socialization D2.Soc.11.9-12
Major components of culture, such as norms and symbols D2.Soc.6.9-12
"Think of a common situation in which a teenager might change how they act because of how they think someone sees them, such as a first day at a new school or a team tryout. What might the teenager imagine the other person is thinking?"
Students write for two minutes about the general situation, then volunteers share. Point out that in each case the teenager acts on an imagined view of themselves in someone else's mind. Today's questions: how do selves and groups get built by people, and why do they matter?
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Key terms (definitions written for this page)
Term
Meaning
Example
Social construction
Meaning made and kept up by people and institutions, not fixed by nature alone
What counts as an adult differs between societies and over time
Self
A person's sense of who they are
"I'm the funny one in my family"
Self-identification
A person names their own group membership
Choosing which boxes to mark on a form
Boundary
A line that separates members of a group from outsiders
Who may sit at a team's lunch table
Category
A named group, often defined by an institution
Age groups such as "senior citizen" on a bus fare chart
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) was an instructor in sociology at the University of Michigan when this book appeared. Source warning: Cooley builds his account from observation and reflection, including watching his own children, not from a survey or experiment; his examples speak of "a man" and "his" in the style of his time.
1The reference to other persons involved in the sense of self may be distinct and particular, as when a boy is ashamed to have his mother catch him at something she has forbidden, or it may be vague and general, as when one is ashamed to do something which only his conscience, expressing his sense of social responsibility, detects and disapproves; but it is always there. There is no sense of “I,” as in pride or shame, without its correlative sense of you, or he, or they. [...]
2In a very large and interesting class of cases the social reference takes the form of a somewhat definite imagination of how one’s self—that is any idea he appropriates—appears in a particular mind, and the kind of self-feeling one has is determined by the attitude toward this attributed to that other mind. A social self of this sort might be called the reflected or looking-glass self: “Each to each a looking-glass Reflects the other that doth pass.”
3As we see our face, figure, and dress in the glass, and are interested in them because they are ours, and pleased or otherwise with them according as they do or do not answer to what we should like them to be; so in imagination we perceive in another’s mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so on, and are variously affected by it.
4A self-idea of this sort seems to have three principal elements: the imagination of our appearance to the other person; the imagination of his judgment of that appearance, and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification. The comparison with a looking-glass hardly suggests the second element, the imagined judgment, which is quite essential. The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another’s mind. This is evident from the fact that the character and weight of that other, in whose mind we see ourselves, makes all the difference with our feeling. We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so on. We always imagine, and in imagining share, the judgments of the other mind. A man will boast to one person of an action—say some sharp transaction in trade—which he would be ashamed to own to another.
5It should be evident that the ideas that are associated with self-feeling and form the intellectual content of the self cannot be covered by any simple description, as by saying that the body has such a part in it, friends such a part, plans so much, etc., but will vary indefinitely with particular temperaments and environments. The tendency of the self, like every aspect of personality, is expressive of far-reaching hereditary and social factors, and is not to be understood or predicted except in connection with the general life. Although special, it is in no way separate—speciality and separateness are not only different but contradictory, since the former implies connection with a whole. The object of self-feeling is affected by the general course of history, by the particular development of nations, classes, and professions, and other conditions of this sort.
Charles Horton Cooley, Source 1: Cooley on the looking-glass self (1902) (1902). Public domain (published 1902). Source text.
The self needs others: Source 1, paragraph 1
What does Cooley mean when he says the sense of "I" is always tied to a sense of others?
Result: "There is no sense of 'I,' as in pride or shame, without its correlative sense of you, or he, or they." Even private feelings about ourselves, such as shame when only our conscience is watching, carry an imagined audience. The self is social from the start.
Applying the three elements: Source 1, paragraph 4
Invented: a new student gives a speech and notices classmates whispering. Trace Cooley's three elements.
Result: (1) She imagines how she looks to them (nervous, her voice shaking). (2) She imagines their judgment (that she is awkward). (3) She feels self-feeling, here embarrassment. If she imagined that the whispers were admiring, the same scene would bring pride, so what she imagines about them, not the whispering itself, shapes her feeling.
Then read Source 2. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) wrote The Souls of Black Folk, a 1903 collection of essays on Black life in the United States. Du Bois opens this chapter by describing the unspoken question he felt others asking him: how it felt to be treated as a problem. The passage describes his own experience and his reading of the experience of Black Americans as a group.
1And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys’ and girls’ heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. [...]
2After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
3The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.
W. E. B. Du Bois, Source 2: Du Bois on the veil and double consciousness (1903) (1903). Public domain (published 1903). Source text.
Reading the Census Bureau's statement: Source 3, paragraph 1
Who decides which race a person is recorded as on the census, according to the Bureau?
Result: "An individual’s response to the race question is based upon self-identification. The Census Bureau does not tell individuals which boxes to mark or what heritage to write in." The person names their own group: the category is defined by the institution, and membership is reported by the person.
1An individual’s response to the race question is based upon self-identification. The Census Bureau does not tell individuals which boxes to mark or what heritage to write in. For the first time in Census 2000, individuals were presented with the option to self-identify with more than one race and this continued with the 2010 Census. People who identify with more than one race may choose to provide multiple races in response to the race question. For example, if a respondent identifies as "Asian" and "White," they may respond to the question on race by checking the appropriate boxes that describe their racial identities and/or writing in these identities on the spaces provided.
2The data on race were derived from answers to the question on race that was asked of individuals in the United States. The Census Bureau collects racial data in accordance with guidelines provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and these data are based on self-identification.
3The racial categories included in the census questionnaire generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. In addition, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include racial and national origin or sociocultural groups. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian” and “White.” People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race.
U.S. Census Bureau, Source 3: U.S. Census Bureau, About the Topic of Race (2026). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
Close the segment: Cooley describes one person's self in another's mind; Du Bois describes a self shaped by how a whole society sees a group; the Census Bureau describes how an institution defines group categories. Which is easiest to change, and why?
Guided Practice15 minutes
Use Diagram 1 with Source 2, paragraph 2. Pairs answer:
The mirror. In double consciousness, whose eyes does a person look through to see the self?
The judgment. What judgment does Du Bois say that world holds? Which of Cooley's elements does it match?
The feeling. What self-feeling does Du Bois describe, and how is it different from one person's embarrassment?
The goal. In paragraph 3, what does Du Bois want instead?
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students read Source 4, an invented study with invented data, and use all four sources for the quiz and homework.
1Invented study with invented data, written for this page. At the start of the school year, the invented Ridgeway High School divided its 120 ninth graders into four "houses" by drawing names at random. Each house got a color, a name (Oak, River, Stone and Wind), a lunch table area, and points for attendance, sports and service projects. Nothing else about the students decided which house they joined.
2A teacher asked the ninth graders three questions in September and again in December. "I feel I belong to my house": 30 of 120 agreed in September, 78 in December. "For a group project, I would pick a partner from my own house": 34 in September, 71 in December. "I use my house name when I describe myself": 12 in September, 54 in December.
3By December, students had nicknames for the other houses, and some said that "River kids are all show-offs" or that "Stone never tries," although the houses had been drawn at random.
4Sample warning: these are 120 students in one invented school, answering about themselves, with no comparison group of students who were not put into houses. The numbers cannot show how much of the change came from the houses rather than from simply getting to know classmates over a semester.
SVHS (invented scenario), Source 4: The houses at Ridgeway (invented study with invented data) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Task: list four ways Ridgeway built its houses as groups (for example, a name), and for each, one effect it had on students' sense of self or on how they treated others. Then write one sentence on what the study cannot show.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: "Explain in two sentences: if a group is socially constructed, why can belonging to it still change a person's life?"
Teacher notes. (1) Du Bois uses "Negro," the respectful term of his time, now dated; today's usage is Black or African American. His list of peoples ("the Teuton and Mongolian") reflects racial classifications of 1903 that scholars no longer use. Discuss the terms as historical language; students use them only when quoting the source. (2) Du Bois describes the contempt he and other Black Americans faced; keep discussion at the level of the source and of groups, and never ask students to speak for a group they belong to. (3) Source 3 is from the Census Bureau's page as revised April 2, 2026. A note at the top of that page says that on March 28, 2024, the Office of Management and Budget issued updated federal standards for race and ethnicity data (the 2024 revision of Statistical Policy Directive No. 15), that the Bureau is working to put them into use, and that the page's text still refers to the 1997 standards. The Bureau's page on the update ("Updates to Race/Ethnicity Standards for Our Nation," census.gov) lists the key revisions: one combined race/ethnicity question, seven minimum categories that include Hispanic or Latino and a new Middle Eastern or North African category, and a March 2029 deadline for federal agencies. Federal standards are revised from time to time, so future census forms and data may differ from Source 3. The lesson describes the standards and takes no position on them. (4) The Warm-Up asks about teenagers in general; never ask students to describe their own experiences or identities.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give Diagram 1 as a fill-in organizer with the three element labels and blank boxes for a scenario
Pre-mark the sentence in Source 2, paragraph 2 that defines double consciousness, and have students restate it in one sentence
Provide a frame: "This group was made when ___ named it, ___ marked its boundary, and ___ treated members differently."
For Advanced Students
Compare Cooley's looking-glass self with Du Bois's double consciousness: what changes when the "other" whose judgment we imagine is a whole society rather than one person?
Explain why the Census Bureau's statement that its categories reflect "a social definition" does not make the data meaningless for studying people's lives
Design a comparison group for the Ridgeway study and explain what it would let researchers conclude
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong answers explain the mechanism (imagined judgment, naming, boundaries, official categories), support it with a quotation or a figure, and avoid two errors: saying that constructed groups are "fake" or unimportant, and making claims about individuals from group patterns. Watch for language that ranks groups, and redirect to neutral description.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Three Elements Stations: Six Invented Scenes
15 minGroups of 3-4, rotating
Six stations each hold one invented scene. At each, groups write Cooley's three elements for the main person: how they imagine they appear, the judgment they imagine, and the self-feeling that follows. Groups also note whose judgment matters most, since Cooley says "the character and weight of that other" changes the feeling.
The 6 Invented Scenes
Invented: a ninth grader wears a new jacket to school and keeps checking whether anyone notices.
Invented: a violinist plays well at a recital but feels proud only after her teacher nods.
Invented: a boy tells his friends about a risky stunt but hides it from his coach.
Invented: a student stops raising her hand after one classmate rolls his eyes at her answer.
Invented: a new employee at a cafe copies the way senior staff greet customers.
Invented: a runner who finishes last is cheered by her team and decides to race again.
Debrief Questions
In which scene did the imagined judgment differ most from what the other person may really have thought?
Which scene shows the same act bringing pride before one audience and shame before another?
Which scenes show the self changing after the feeling?
Teacher Note
The scenes are invented. Accept any reading supported by the scene's wording. Scene 3 parallels Cooley's man who boasts to one person and hides an act from another.
2
How a Group Is Made: Ridgeway and the Census
15 minPairs
Pairs compare two very different cases of group-making: the invented Ridgeway houses (Source 4) and the Census Bureau's race categories (Source 3). They fill a chart with rows for who defines the category, who decides membership, how the boundary is marked, and what effects membership has.
Chart Rows
Who creates and names the category?
Who decides who belongs: the person, others, or an institution?
How is the boundary marked (names, colors, forms, places)?
What effects does belonging have on people's sense of self and on how they are treated?
Debrief
Ask pairs to name one way the two cases are alike and one important way they differ. Stress that the houses were drawn at random in a few minutes, while the census categories carry long histories and affect how people are counted.
Modification for Advanced Students
Add a third case from history that students research on paper, such as how a school or a town has named its neighborhoods over time, and compare it with the other two.
3
Who Am I? Coding Ten Invented Self-Descriptions
15 minIndividual, then pairs
Students code ten invented self-descriptions written by an invented ninth grader as either social (naming a role or group) or personal (naming a trait or state), then plan on paper a study of how self-descriptions change with age.
The 10 Invented Statements
I am a sister.
I am a soccer player.
I am funny.
I am a River (house) member.
I am tired today.
I am a Spanish speaker.
I am a good friend.
I am a ninth grader.
I am curious.
I am a volunteer at the animal shelter.
Answer Key
Social (role or group): 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, which is 6 of 10, or 60%. Personal (trait or state): 3, 5, 7, 9, which is 4 of 10. Statement 7 can be argued as social, since being a friend is a role; accept a reasoned answer.
Planning on Paper
Plan, on paper only, how you would compare anonymous self-descriptions from ninth and twelfth graders: how many statements to ask for, how to code them, and how to keep names off every sheet. Do not collect any statements.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Cooley's Looking-Glass Self
Drawn for this page from Cooley's three elements in Source 1, paragraph 4. The return arrow is added for discussion and is not part of Cooley's text.
Diagram 2: Ridgeway House Survey, September and December (Invented Data)
Invented data from Source 4: the number of the 120 ninth graders who agreed with each statement. Drawn to scale (4 px per student). One invented school, self-reported answers and no comparison group.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
Homework: How Selves and Groups Are Made
Directions: Part 1 uses Sources 1, 3 and 4. Quote every source you use with its paragraph number. Part 2 asks you to explain and to plan on paper only: do not survey anyone, and use invented or historical examples rather than private details about real people.
Part 1: Reading and Computing (Problems 1-3)
Write an invented scene in which a teenager's feelings about the same act change depending on who is watching. Label Cooley's three elements (Source 1, paragraph 4) in your scene, and quote the sentence in which Cooley explains why "the character and weight of that other" matters.
Using Source 4, compute the percent of the 120 students who said they use their house name to describe themselves in September and in December, the change in percentage points, and how many times as many students said so in December. Explain what the change suggests about the self.
Using Source 3, explain in your own words two things the Census Bureau says about how race is reported and defined. Then explain why the phrase "a social definition of race" fits the idea of social construction.
Part 2: Explaining and Planning (Problems 4-6)
Plan, on paper only, a study comparing schools that use houses with schools that do not. Name the outcome you would measure, how you would choose comparable schools, and how you would keep students' answers anonymous.
Choose a group that is not a racial or ethnic group, such as "teenagers," a sports fan base or a school's graduates. Explain how the group is constructed through names, symbols and boundaries, and one real effect membership has.
Explain Du Bois's double consciousness (Source 2, paragraph 2) and what he hopes for in paragraph 3. Then explain how his idea extends Cooley's looking-glass self from one person's view to a whole society's view.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Mechanism
Explains how the self or group is made (imagined judgment, naming, boundaries, categories)
Mechanism named but not explained
No mechanism
Evidence
Quotations with source and paragraph numbers, or correct figures, support each claim
One claim unsupported
No evidence
Computation
Problem 2 correct with work shown
One error
Several errors
Accuracy and respect
Treats constructed groups as real in their effects; neutral, group-level language; plans on paper only
One overgeneralization
Calls groups fake or stereotypes members
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Sources 1, 2 and 3 are printed in Direct Instruction and Source 4 in Independent Practice. Source 1 is used in Questions 1-5, 15 and 16; Source 2 in Questions 6-9, 16, 19 and 20; Source 3 in Questions 10-12, 17 and 20; and Source 4 in Questions 13, 14, 18 and 20. Question 15 also uses an invented scene printed in the question. Questions 1-14 are multiple choice; 15-20 are short answer.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 1, what forms can the reference to other persons in the sense of self take?
Answer: A
Cooley writes that the reference "may be distinct and particular," as with a boy and his mother, "or it may be vague and general," as with conscience, "but it is always there." B is too narrow, C leaves out shame, and D contradicts "it is always there."
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 1, paragraph 3, what do we perceive in another's mind, according to Cooley?
Answer: D
"In imagination we perceive in another's mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so on." B overstates: Cooley describes imagination, not exact knowledge. A and C are about the other person, not about us.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 1, paragraph 4, which element does Cooley say the comparison with a looking-glass "hardly suggests"?
Answer: D
"The comparison with a looking-glass hardly suggests the second element, the imagined judgment, which is quite essential." A mirror shows appearance (A), and pride and mortification (B and C) are the third element, the self-feeling.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 1, paragraph 4, in whose presence does Cooley say we are ashamed to seem cowardly?
Answer: C
"We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one." B goes with seeming evasive and A with seeming gross; D comes from his later example of boasting about a deal in trade.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 5, what affects the object of self-feeling?
Answer: B
"The object of self-feeling is affected by the general course of history, by the particular development of nations, classes, and professions." A and C are ruled out by his statement that the self "cannot be covered by any simple description, as by saying that the body has such a part in it, friends such a part." D is not in the source.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 2, paragraph 1, when does Du Bois say "the revelation first bursts upon one"?
Answer: A
"It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one." C misreads his mention of Europe, where he had not felt like a "problem"; B and D are not in the passage.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 2, paragraph 1, how did young Du Bois first respond to the veil?
Answer: D
"I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt." A is what he says he had no desire to do; B and C are not in the passage.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
How does Du Bois define double consciousness in Source 2, paragraph 2?
Answer: B
Double consciousness is "this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." A, C and D are not his meaning.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 2, paragraph 3, what does Du Bois say the Black American of his time wishes?
Answer: C
"He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows." He wishes "neither of the older selves to be lost," which rules out A; B contradicts "He would not Africanize America"; D contradicts his wish "to merge his double self." ("Negro" is Du Bois's term; today's usage is Black or African American.)
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 1, what option did the census first offer in Census 2000?
Answer: D
"For the first time in Census 2000, individuals were presented with the option to self-identify with more than one race." C contradicts the Bureau's statement that it "does not tell individuals which boxes to mark"; A and B are not in the passage.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 3, what kinds of groups does the Census Bureau say its race categories include?
Answer: B
The Bureau writes that "the categories of the race item include racial and national origin or sociocultural groups." A contradicts its statement that the categories are "not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically"; C and D are not in the passage.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 3, what is true of people who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish?
Answer: B
"People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race." D contradicts this, since the passage treats origin and race as different questions; A and C are not in the passage. (Source 3 describes the 1997 standards. Under the 2024 federal standards, Hispanic or Latino is one of seven minimum categories in a single combined race/ethnicity question.)
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, by how many percentage points did the share of students who felt they belonged to their house rise from September to December?
Answer: A
30 / 120 = 25% and 78 / 120 = 65%, so the share rose by 65 - 25 = 40 points. B subtracts the counts (78 - 30), C is the December share alone, and D is the percent increase ((78 - 30) / 30 = 160%), not a change in points.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, what percent of the 120 students would pick a partner from their own house in December?
Answer: C
71 / 120 = 0.592, about 59.2%. A is the September share (34 / 120), B divides the change in count by 120 ((71 - 34) / 120), and D reads the count as a percent.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Invented: a student posts a drawing in the school's art show and later hears a respected art teacher praise it. Use Cooley's three elements (Source 1, paragraph 4) to explain how this could shape the student's self, and explain why the teacher's opinion might count more than a stranger's.
Model answer: (1) The student imagines how the drawing, and so she herself, appears to the teacher. (2) She imagines the teacher's judgment, which the praise makes favorable. (3) She feels pride, and may begin to see herself as "an artist." The teacher counts more because, as Cooley says, "the character and weight of that other, in whose mind we see ourselves, makes all the difference with our feeling": a respected expert's judgment carries more weight than a passing stranger's. Rubric: 1 point for the three elements applied; 1 point for the effect on the self; 1 point for the weight of the other, quoted.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Compare Cooley's looking-glass self (Source 1) with Du Bois's double consciousness (Source 2). What is similar, and what is different when the "other" is a whole society that holds a group in contempt?
Model answer: Both describe a self formed by imagining how others see us: Cooley's "imagination of our appearance to the other person" is close to Du Bois's double consciousness. The difference is scale and choice. Cooley's others are particular people whose views vary, so a person can seek a kinder mirror. Du Bois's other is "a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity" because of the group he belongs to, so the judgment follows him everywhere and splits the self into "two warring ideals." Rubric: 1 point for the similarity with evidence; 1 point for the difference with evidence; 1 point for explaining why group-level judgment matters.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Using Source 3, explain how the Census Bureau's race categories show that groups are socially constructed. Then explain why a socially constructed category can still have real effects on people's lives.
Model answer: The Bureau says its categories "generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically," Membership rests on "self-identification," and people choose which boxes to mark. So the categories are made and revised by people and institutions rather than read off from biology. They still have real effects because the counts describe how many people live in each group and are used to compare their circumstances, and because the groups they name have shared histories and experiences. Rubric: 1 point for evidence that the categories are social definitions; 1 point for evidence of change or self-identification; 1 point for a real effect.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain how Ridgeway built its houses into groups (Source 4), and how the houses affected students' sense of self and how they treated others. Then explain why the study cannot show that the houses caused all the change.
Model answer: The school built the groups by random assignment, a name, a color, a lunch area and competing points, even though "Nothing else about the students decided which house they joined." By December, more students used their house name to describe themselves (12 to 54), more preferred partners from their own house (34 to 71), and some gave other houses stereotypes such as "Stone never tries," though the houses were random. The study has no comparison group, so some of the change could come from simply knowing classmates better after a semester, and the answers are self-reports from one invented school. Rubric: 1 point for how the group was built; 1 point for effects on self and on treatment of others, with figures; 1 point for the limit.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
In Source 2, paragraph 1, Du Bois describes a single moment at school. Explain how that moment shows a group boundary being socially constructed rather than natural, and what effect it had on his sense of self.
Model answer: Nothing in the game itself separated the children: they were trading "gorgeous visiting-cards" and "The exchange was merry." The boundary appeared when a classmate refused his card "with a glance," an act of social judgment. Du Bois then saw himself as "different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing," which shows that the difference lay in how he was treated, not in who he was. The effect was a new sense of self as "shut out from their world by a vast veil." Rubric: 1 point for showing the boundary came from an act of others; 1 point for evidence; 1 point for the effect on his self.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Evaluate this claim: "If groups are socially constructed, they are not real." Use evidence from at least two sources.
Model answer: The claim confuses where a group comes from with whether it matters. The Ridgeway houses (Source 4) were drawn at random, yet within a semester they changed whom students chose as partners and led to stereotypes such as "River kids are all show-offs." Du Bois (Source 2) shows that a boundary made by others' treatment shaped a person's whole self, "two souls, two thoughts." The Census Bureau (Source 3) defines its categories socially, yet people answer them and the counts describe millions of lives. A fair conclusion: socially constructed groups are real in their effects, even though people made them and can change them. Rubric: 1 point for a clear judgment; 1 point for each of two sources used as evidence (up to 2).
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does D2.Soc.12.9-12 mean?
D2.Soc.12.9-12 asks high school students to explain the social construction of self and groups. Students explain how a sense of self forms through imagining others' views, and how groups and their boundaries are made and changed by people and institutions.
What does "socially constructed" mean?
It means that something's meaning is created and kept up by people and institutions, not fixed by nature alone. Money, school grades and age categories are common examples. It does not mean the thing is unreal or unimportant.
What is the looking-glass self?
It is Charles Horton Cooley's 1902 idea that we form our sense of self by imagining how we appear to others, imagining their judgment, and feeling pride or shame in response.
What is double consciousness?
W. E. B. Du Bois used the term in 1903, in The Souls of Black Folk, to describe how the way a society views a group can divide the sense of self of people in that group. Source 2 on this page gives his own definition.
If race is socially constructed, why does the census ask about it?
The Census Bureau explains in its own words how its categories are defined and says that people identify themselves (Source 3 on this page). The categories describe groups that are real in people's lives and histories, so counting them describes the population. The federal standards behind the categories are revised from time to time; the most recent revision was issued in 2024.
How is D2.Soc.12.9-12 different from D2.Soc.11.9-12?
D2.Soc.11.9-12 is about the agents that socialize people and why they are influential. D2.Soc.12.9-12 asks how the self and groups themselves are built through interaction and institutions.
How should teachers handle discussions of race and identity in this lesson?
Keep discussion at the level of the sources and of groups, use current respectful terms while noting historical ones, never ask a student to speak for a group, and do not ask students to describe their own experiences or identities.
Is the self only shaped by others?
No. Cooley also says the self reflects "far-reaching hereditary and social factors" and varies with temperament. Sociology stresses the social part, but answers should not claim that people have no individual differences.
How can teachers assess D2.Soc.12.9-12?
Ask students to explain the mechanism by which a self or group is constructed, support it with evidence, and explain why a constructed group still has real effects. The rubric here scores mechanism, evidence, computation and respectful accuracy.
Do students collect data for this lesson?
No. Students plan studies on paper only and use invented data. They do not survey classmates or collect self-descriptions.
07
Related Standards
6 standards
These standards connect to D2.Soc.12.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
D2.Soc.11.9-12Prerequisite
Analyze the influence of the primary agents of socialization and why they matter
Explain how in-group and out-group membership shapes life chances and norms
Lesson coming soon
D2.Soc.16.9-12Extends to
Interpret the effects of inequality on groups and individuals
Lesson coming soon
Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.
