W. I. Thomas
Encyclopedia
William Isaac Thomas was an American sociologist
. He is noted for his innovative work on the sociology of migration on which he co-operated with Florian Znaniecki
, and for his formulation of what became known as the Thomas theorem
, a fundamental principle of sociology: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences".
on 13 August 1863, to a farmer and Methodist
minister of Pennsylvania Dutch
descent. His family moved to Knoxville
, home of the University of Tennessee
, when he was a boy, because his father wanted to improve the educational opportinities of his seven children.
From 1880, Thomas studied literature and classics
at the University of Tennessee, where he obtained a B.A.
degree in 1884 and became Adjunct Professor in English and Modern Languages. While at Knoxville, Thomas also taught courses in Greek
, Latin
, French
, German
, and, interestingly, natural history
. At the same time, he developed an interest in ethnology
and social science after reading Herbert Spencer
's Principles of Sociology. In 1888, Thomas married the first of his two wives, Harriet Park.
During 1888/1889, he attended the German
universities of Berlin
and Göttingen to pursue studies of classic and modern languages. During his time in Germany, he also furthered his interest in ethnology and sociology under the influence of German scholars such as Wilhelm Wundt
.
Upon his return to the United States in 1889, Thomas taught as a professor of English and, after 1894, professor of sociology at Oberlin College
in Oberlin
, Ohio
.
In 1894, Thomas was invited to teach a class in sociology at the University of Chicago
. The next year, he relocated there permanently to pursue graduate studies in sociology and anthropology in the university's new department of sociology, where he finished a Ph.D.
thesis On a Difference in the Metabolism of the Sexes in 1896. After that, he returned to Europe to conduct field studies in various ethnic and cultural problems in preparation for the writing of a comparative work on European nationalities that he never completed.
For the next nearly 25 years, Thomas taught sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago, becoming instructor in 1895, assistant professor in 1896, associate professor in 1900, and professor in 1910. From 1895 until 1917, he also co-edited the American Journal of Sociology
.
1907 saw the publication of Thomas's first major work, Sex and Society. Despite a biological bias that would nowadays be considered sexist by many ("Anthropologists ... regard women as intermediate between the child and the man"), the book was progressive for its time, speculating, for example, that women's intellect might actually be superior to men's "due to their superior cunning" and "superior endurance".
to finance research on the life and culture of immigrants to the U.S. Managing the Helen Culver Fund for Race Psychology for ten years until 1918 enabled him to undertake several journeys to Europe in order to study the background of East European immigrant groups. Initially planning to study several nationalities, he narrowed his topic down to immigrants from Poland
, who formed the largest and most visible ethnic community in Chicago. For this purpose Thomas studied the Polish language
, interviewed members of Chicago's Polish community, and made field trips to Poland.
Initially Thomas employed methods of field observation that ethnographers had developed previously to study non-literate societies. According to an anecdote told by Thomas himself, it was an accident that inspired him to use personal written material as primary ethnographic sources and to develop the biographical approach to sociology that would make his lasting reputation in the field: While walking down a street near his home, Thomas was nearly hit by a garbage bag that had been thrown out of a window. The bag burst open on the sidewalk. Then, Thomas discovered a letter in it that had been written by a Polish immigrant.
He spent the next several years collecting oral and written reports from Chicago's Polish community as well as from Poles in their native land.
He utilized newspaper reports, archives of organizations, personal letters, and diaries, which he acquired by placing advertisements in Chicago's Polish-language press, offering, for example, 10 or 20 cents for each mailed letter collected from Poland.
, who at that time was editing the journal Wychodźca polski ("The Polish Emigrant") and directing an organization representing Polish emigrants in Warsaw
. Znaniecki assisted Thomas in his studies of organisations, which proved to be a valuable resource. When World War I
broke out the following year, Znaniecki himself left Poland, which had been partitioned
between three of the warring parties and now became a theatre of war, and traveled to Chicago, where he met with Thomas. Whether Thomas had formally invited Znaniecki or not remains unclear. In all events, Thomas immediately employed Znaniecki as his research assistant, and Znaniecki eventually became Thomas's co-author on their monumental work The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918–1920), which Lewis Coser called "the earliest major landmark of American sociological research". In it, Thomas and Znaniecki used a biographical approach to understanding culture in general that remains influential nowadays, as well as an approach to understanding ethnicity in particular that in many respects was ahead of its time and is currently being rediscovered in the context of transnational
studies in migration.
immigrant community, he adopted a pragmatic attitude to the problem rather than a moral one. Secondly, he led a "bohemian
" life, was often in company with artists, and made no secret of his attraction to a variety of women. His lifestyle did not conform with the contemporary image of a respectable professor and made him controversial among his colleagues.
In 1918 the FBI arrested Thomas under the Mann Act
, which prohibits "interstate transport of females for immoral purposes", while in the company of one Mrs. Granger, the wife of an army officer with the American forces in France. Some speculate that Thomas's arrest was arranged by the FBI, which at the time was monitoring the pacifist activities of his wife Harriet. Although Thomas was acquitted of the charges in court, his career was damaged irreversibly by the negative publicity, especially from the Chicago Tribune
. The university dismissed him without awaiting the outcome of his trial and without any protest from his colleagues. The University of Chicago Press, which already had published the first two volumes of The Polish Peasant, quit its contract with him, so that the work's remaining three volumes had to be published in Boston by Richard G. Badger. The Carnegie Corporation of New York
, which had previously commissioned Thomas to write a volume for its "Americanization" series, refused to publish it by the author's own name. Thus in 1921, Old World Traits Transplanted appeared by authors Robert E. Park
and Herbert A. Miller, who had contributed only minor parts to the book, and it was not until 1951 that the book's authorship was re-credited to Thomas by a committee of the Social Science Research Council and reissued with its author's actual name.
. He never obtained a tenured position again. From 1923 to 1928, he lectured at the New School for Social Research, a progressive but marginally significant academic institution at that time. Thorstein Veblen
, who had co-founded the school in 1919, had fallen from academic grace for similar reasons, and the school was therefore sympathetic to Thomas's plight. But in 1927, he was made honorary president of the American Sociological Association
, thanks to the support of a younger generation of scholars, and against opposition from the establishment.
Thomas continued his research thanks to the support of philanthropists and institutions. Most importantly, in The Unadjusted Girl (1923) he developed on the concept of the "definition of the situation
": "Preliminary to any self-determined act of behavior, there is always a stage of examination and deliberation which we may call the definition of the situation..." The individual's definition of the situation is always subject to "a rivalry between the spontaneous definition of the situation made by members of an organized society and the definition which his society has provided for him. The individual tends to a hedonistic selection of activity, pleasure first; and society to a utilitarian selection, safety first." Along with the ideas of George Herbert Mead
, Thomas's concept of the definition of the situation later proved to be an important part of the rebellion of symbolic interactionism
against structural functionalism
.
A 1928 book called The Child in America, co-authored with his research assistant, Dorothy Swaine Thomas, includes the sentence that has become a fundamental law of sociology and known as the Thomas theorem
: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Thomas&Thomas 1928: 572).
In 1935, after his divorce from Harriet Park, Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, 36 years his junior, were married. In 1936, Pitirim A. Sorokin, chairman of the department of sociology at Harvard University
, invited Thomas to become visiting lecturer (until 1937). After leaving Harvard, Thomas gradually withdrew into retirement, spending time in New York City
, New Haven, and Berkeley, California
, where he died on 5 December 1947.
1921 (with Robert E. Park
and Herbert A. Miller as main authors): Old world traits transplanted. New York, London: Harper. (= Americanization studies.) In the aftermath of the 1918 "scandal", the book could not be published under Thomas's name, so his collaborators Park and Miller featured on the cover until a posthumous 1951 re-issue.
1923: The unadjusted girl. With cases and standpoint for behavior analysis. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown 1923 (= Criminal science monograph 4.)
1928: (with Dorothy Swaine Thomas): The child in America: Behavior problems and programs. New York: Knopf.
1937: Primitive behavior: An introduction to the social sciences. New York, London: McGraw-Hill (= McGraw-Hill publications in sociology)
1951 (edited by Edmund H. Volkart): Social behavior and personality. Contributions of W.I. Thomas to theory and social research. New York: Social Science Research Council 1951.
1966: (edited by Morris Janowitz): W.I. Thomas on social organization and social personality. Selected papers. Edited and with an introduction by Morris Janowitz. Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press 1966 (= The heritage of sociology.)
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
. He is noted for his innovative work on the sociology of migration on which he co-operated with Florian Znaniecki
Florian Znaniecki
Florian Witold Znaniecki was a Polish sociologist. He taught and wrote in Poland and the United States. He was the 44th President of the American Sociological Association and the founder of academic sociology studies in Poland...
, and for his formulation of what became known as the Thomas theorem
Thomas theorem
The Thomas theorem is a theory of sociology which was formulated in 1928 by W. I. Thomas :In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. Actions are affected by subjective perceptions of situations...
, a fundamental principle of sociology: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences".
Biography
Thomas was born in Russell County, VirginiaRussell County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 30,308 people, 11,789 households, and 8,818 families residing in the county. The population density was 64 people per square mile . There were 13,191 housing units at an average density of 28 per square mile...
on 13 August 1863, to a farmer and Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
minister of Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
descent. His family moved to Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, home of the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
, when he was a boy, because his father wanted to improve the educational opportinities of his seven children.
From 1880, Thomas studied literature and classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
at the University of Tennessee, where he obtained a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1884 and became Adjunct Professor in English and Modern Languages. While at Knoxville, Thomas also taught courses in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and, interestingly, natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
. At the same time, he developed an interest in ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
and social science after reading Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
's Principles of Sociology. In 1888, Thomas married the first of his two wives, Harriet Park.
During 1888/1889, he attended the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
universities of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
and Göttingen to pursue studies of classic and modern languages. During his time in Germany, he also furthered his interest in ethnology and sociology under the influence of German scholars such as Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
.
Upon his return to the United States in 1889, Thomas taught as a professor of English and, after 1894, professor of sociology at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in Oberlin
Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, to the south and west of Cleveland. Oberlin is perhaps best known for being the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
.
In 1894, Thomas was invited to teach a class in sociology at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. The next year, he relocated there permanently to pursue graduate studies in sociology and anthropology in the university's new department of sociology, where he finished a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
thesis On a Difference in the Metabolism of the Sexes in 1896. After that, he returned to Europe to conduct field studies in various ethnic and cultural problems in preparation for the writing of a comparative work on European nationalities that he never completed.
For the next nearly 25 years, Thomas taught sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago, becoming instructor in 1895, assistant professor in 1896, associate professor in 1900, and professor in 1910. From 1895 until 1917, he also co-edited the American Journal of Sociology
American Journal of Sociology
The American Journal of Sociology was established in 1895 by Albion Small and is the oldest academic journal of sociology in the United States. The journal is attached to the University of Chicago's sociology department and it is published bimonthly by The University of Chicago Press. Its...
.
1907 saw the publication of Thomas's first major work, Sex and Society. Despite a biological bias that would nowadays be considered sexist by many ("Anthropologists ... regard women as intermediate between the child and the man"), the book was progressive for its time, speculating, for example, that women's intellect might actually be superior to men's "due to their superior cunning" and "superior endurance".
Thomas as a pioneer of the biographical approach in social research and migration studies
In 1908, Thomas received a substantial grant from Helen CulverHelen Culver
Born in 1832, Helen Culver was a successful real estate developer and philanthropist. She owned Hull House and rented it to Jane Addams, before later giving the property to Addams along with hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations, contributing substantially to founding the comprehensive...
to finance research on the life and culture of immigrants to the U.S. Managing the Helen Culver Fund for Race Psychology for ten years until 1918 enabled him to undertake several journeys to Europe in order to study the background of East European immigrant groups. Initially planning to study several nationalities, he narrowed his topic down to immigrants from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, who formed the largest and most visible ethnic community in Chicago. For this purpose Thomas studied the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, interviewed members of Chicago's Polish community, and made field trips to Poland.
Initially Thomas employed methods of field observation that ethnographers had developed previously to study non-literate societies. According to an anecdote told by Thomas himself, it was an accident that inspired him to use personal written material as primary ethnographic sources and to develop the biographical approach to sociology that would make his lasting reputation in the field: While walking down a street near his home, Thomas was nearly hit by a garbage bag that had been thrown out of a window. The bag burst open on the sidewalk. Then, Thomas discovered a letter in it that had been written by a Polish immigrant.
He spent the next several years collecting oral and written reports from Chicago's Polish community as well as from Poles in their native land.
He utilized newspaper reports, archives of organizations, personal letters, and diaries, which he acquired by placing advertisements in Chicago's Polish-language press, offering, for example, 10 or 20 cents for each mailed letter collected from Poland.
The Polish Peasant in Europe and America
In 1913 on one of his journeys to Poland, Thomas met the Polish sociologist Florian Witold ZnanieckiFlorian Znaniecki
Florian Witold Znaniecki was a Polish sociologist. He taught and wrote in Poland and the United States. He was the 44th President of the American Sociological Association and the founder of academic sociology studies in Poland...
, who at that time was editing the journal Wychodźca polski ("The Polish Emigrant") and directing an organization representing Polish emigrants in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. Znaniecki assisted Thomas in his studies of organisations, which proved to be a valuable resource. When World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out the following year, Znaniecki himself left Poland, which had been partitioned
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
between three of the warring parties and now became a theatre of war, and traveled to Chicago, where he met with Thomas. Whether Thomas had formally invited Znaniecki or not remains unclear. In all events, Thomas immediately employed Znaniecki as his research assistant, and Znaniecki eventually became Thomas's co-author on their monumental work The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918–1920), which Lewis Coser called "the earliest major landmark of American sociological research". In it, Thomas and Znaniecki used a biographical approach to understanding culture in general that remains influential nowadays, as well as an approach to understanding ethnicity in particular that in many respects was ahead of its time and is currently being rediscovered in the context of transnational
Transnationalism
Transnationalism is a social movement and scholarly research agenda grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states....
studies in migration.
The "Scandal of 1918"
In spite of, or because of, the prominence gained through The Polish Peasant, Thomas's reputation, both academic and non-academic, proved precarious. For a number of reasons, he was subject to critical attention from the conservative Chicago establishment. First, he was known for left-wing political opinions on the etiology of crime. Studying the problem of delinquency in Chicago's PolishPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
immigrant community, he adopted a pragmatic attitude to the problem rather than a moral one. Secondly, he led a "bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
" life, was often in company with artists, and made no secret of his attraction to a variety of women. His lifestyle did not conform with the contemporary image of a respectable professor and made him controversial among his colleagues.
In 1918 the FBI arrested Thomas under the Mann Act
Mann Act
The White-Slave Traffic Act, better known as the Mann Act, is a United States law, passed June 25, 1910 . It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann, and in its original form prohibited white slavery and the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”...
, which prohibits "interstate transport of females for immoral purposes", while in the company of one Mrs. Granger, the wife of an army officer with the American forces in France. Some speculate that Thomas's arrest was arranged by the FBI, which at the time was monitoring the pacifist activities of his wife Harriet. Although Thomas was acquitted of the charges in court, his career was damaged irreversibly by the negative publicity, especially from the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. The university dismissed him without awaiting the outcome of his trial and without any protest from his colleagues. The University of Chicago Press, which already had published the first two volumes of The Polish Peasant, quit its contract with him, so that the work's remaining three volumes had to be published in Boston by Richard G. Badger. The Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American foundations...
, which had previously commissioned Thomas to write a volume for its "Americanization" series, refused to publish it by the author's own name. Thus in 1921, Old World Traits Transplanted appeared by authors Robert E. Park
Robert E. Park
Robert Ezra Park was an American urban sociologist, one of the main founders of the original Chicago School of sociology.-Life:...
and Herbert A. Miller, who had contributed only minor parts to the book, and it was not until 1951 that the book's authorship was re-credited to Thomas by a committee of the Social Science Research Council and reissued with its author's actual name.
Later years
After the scandal, Thomas relocated to New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He never obtained a tenured position again. From 1923 to 1928, he lectured at the New School for Social Research, a progressive but marginally significant academic institution at that time. Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Torsten Bunde Veblen was an American economist and sociologist, and a leader of the so-called institutional economics movement...
, who had co-founded the school in 1919, had fallen from academic grace for similar reasons, and the school was therefore sympathetic to Thomas's plight. But in 1927, he was made honorary president of the American Sociological Association
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
, thanks to the support of a younger generation of scholars, and against opposition from the establishment.
Thomas continued his research thanks to the support of philanthropists and institutions. Most importantly, in The Unadjusted Girl (1923) he developed on the concept of the "definition of the situation
Definition of the situation
The definition of the situation is a fundamental concept in symbolic interactionism advanced by the American sociologist W. I. Thomas. It is a kind of collective agreement between people on the characteristics of a situation, and from there, how to appropriately react and fit into it.Establishing...
": "Preliminary to any self-determined act of behavior, there is always a stage of examination and deliberation which we may call the definition of the situation..." The individual's definition of the situation is always subject to "a rivalry between the spontaneous definition of the situation made by members of an organized society and the definition which his society has provided for him. The individual tends to a hedonistic selection of activity, pleasure first; and society to a utilitarian selection, safety first." Along with the ideas of George Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general.-...
, Thomas's concept of the definition of the situation later proved to be an important part of the rebellion of symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic Interaction, also known as interactionism, is a sociological theory that places emphasis on micro-scale social interaction to provide subjective meaning in human behavior, the social process and pragmatism.-History:...
against structural functionalism
Structural functionalism
Structural functionalism is a broad perspective in sociology and anthropology which sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions...
.
A 1928 book called The Child in America, co-authored with his research assistant, Dorothy Swaine Thomas, includes the sentence that has become a fundamental law of sociology and known as the Thomas theorem
Thomas theorem
The Thomas theorem is a theory of sociology which was formulated in 1928 by W. I. Thomas :In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. Actions are affected by subjective perceptions of situations...
: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Thomas&Thomas 1928: 572).
In 1935, after his divorce from Harriet Park, Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, 36 years his junior, were married. In 1936, Pitirim A. Sorokin, chairman of the department of sociology at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, invited Thomas to become visiting lecturer (until 1937). After leaving Harvard, Thomas gradually withdrew into retirement, spending time in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New Haven, and Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, where he died on 5 December 1947.
Quote
- "It is not important whether or not the interpretation is correct-- if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." - Thomas theoremThomas theoremThe Thomas theorem is a theory of sociology which was formulated in 1928 by W. I. Thomas :In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. Actions are affected by subjective perceptions of situations...
- "If people view somebody as great, then he is" - another, more specific version of the Thomas theorem
Works
- 1903 (as editor): Minnesota stories: A collection of twenty stories of college life. Collected and arranged by Charles F[lint] McClumpha and W.I. Thomas. Minneapolis, Minn.: Wilson.
- 1903: The relation of the medicine-man to the origin of the professional occupations. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
- 1907: Sex and society: Studies in the social psychology of sex. Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press / Unwin.
- 1909: (as editor): Source book for social origins. Ethnological materials, psychological standpoint, classified and annotated bibliographies for the interpretation of savage society. Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press / Unwin 1909.
- 1917: (with Herbert S. Jennings, John B. Watson, and Adolf Meyer): Suggestions of modern science concerning education. New York, N.Y.: Macmillan (includes Thomas's essay "The persistence of primary-group norms in present-day society: Their influence in our educational system").
- 1918-1920 (with Florian W. ZnanieckiFlorian ZnanieckiFlorian Witold Znaniecki was a Polish sociologist. He taught and wrote in Poland and the United States. He was the 44th President of the American Sociological Association and the founder of academic sociology studies in Poland...
): The Polish peasant in Europe and America. Monograph of an immigrant group.- 1918:
- 1918: Volume 2: Primary-group organization. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
- 1919: Volume 3: Life record of an immigrant. Boston, Mass.: Badger.
- 1920: Volume 4: Disorganization and reorganization in Poland. Boston, Mass.: Badger.
- 1920: Volume 5: Organization and disorganization in America. Boston, Mass.: Badger.
Robert E. Park
Robert Ezra Park was an American urban sociologist, one of the main founders of the original Chicago School of sociology.-Life:...
and Herbert A. Miller as main authors): Old world traits transplanted. New York, London: Harper. (= Americanization studies.) In the aftermath of the 1918 "scandal", the book could not be published under Thomas's name, so his collaborators Park and Miller featured on the cover until a posthumous 1951 re-issue.
Further reading
- Lewis A. CoserLewis A. CoserLewis Coser was an American sociologist. The 66th president of the American Sociological Association in 1975....
: Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich.
External links
- Review materials for studying William Isaac Thomas
- :de:Thomas-Theorem German Website on "Thomas-Theorem" with examples for application & relevancy
- http://ia700204.us.archive.org/1/items/polishpeasantine01thomuoft/polishpeasantine01thomuoft.pdf