A major sociological（社会学的）theory known as symbolic interactionism（符号互动论）offers some important clarification of how men and women are taught to fill different roles insociety.The key concept in symbolic interactionism is that communication makes a big difference in behavior ：people act on the basisof messages they receive from others，and how they understand those messages. This canbe seen in a concept developed by sociologist Charles Horton Cooley known as the looking-glass self.By the looking-glass self，Cooley meant the self-image that each of us develops according to the messageswe receive from others；we think and behave according to our understanding of those messages.If, for example，a young girl is repeatedly told that she is pretty, she will come to believe that （1）she is in fact pretty，and（2）being pretty is an important thing in her life.Similarly，if she is told that she is not good（or notexpected to be good）at certain things（such as math） she will come to believe that she is not good at suchthings and would better off working at things she can be successful at.The likely product is a young womanwho devotes a great deal of attention to her appearance，regards being pretty as a key to success in life，and who is intimidated by anything involving numbers.Since we know that young girls are given messages like these，and that young boys are given different messages，we can see a good part of how roles are taught.There is little or no evidence of differences in what younggirls and young girls and boys can do，but the older children become，the greater the differences in the areasin which boys and girls are likely to stand out.
Symbolic interactionism helps to explain______.