William Isaac Thomas (August 13, 1863 – December 5, 1947) was an American sociologist, understood today as a key figure behind the theory of symbolic interactionism.

Collaborating with Polish sociologist Florian Znaniecki, Thomas developed and influenced the use of empirical methodologies in sociological research and contributed theories to the sociology of migration. Thomas went on to formulate a fundamental principle of sociology, known as the Thomas theorem, whereby he would contend that "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." This microsociological concept served as a theoretical foundation for the field of symbolic interactionism which was developed by Thomas's younger peers—primarily at the University of Chicago.

Biography

Personal life

William Isaac Thomas was born on a farm in the Elk Garden section of Russell County, Virginia, on 13 August 1863. His mother was Sarah Price Thomas and his father was Thaddeus Peter Thomas, a Methodist minister of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. Thomas' father, wanting to broaden the educational opportunities for his children, moved the family to Knoxville, home of the University of Tennessee, when Thomas was a boy.

In 1888, Thomas married his first of two wives, Harriet Park, and in 1935, after the two divorced, Thomas married Dorothy Swaine Thomas, 36 years his junior. Dorothy worked as his research assistant and co-author and would become the first woman president of the American Sociological Association in 1952 (William had been president in 1927).

After leaving Harvard as a lecturer, Thomas gradually withdrew into retirement. Thomas spent his time in New York City, New Haven. He died at the age of 84 years old in Berkeley, California, on 5 December 1947.

In 1894, Thomas was invited to teach a class in sociology at the University of Chicago, whose preeminent sociology department is seen as the founding location of the discipline in the United States.

In 1927, Thomas was elected president of the American Sociological Society (now known as the American Sociological Association). He belonged to a group often referred to as the earlier psychological school of sociologists along with Franklin Henry Giddings, E.A. Ross, Charles Cooley, and Ellsworth Faris. Thomas never published any material on the subject, but did use it as lecture material.

In 1928, Thomas co-authored The Child in America alongside research assistant Dorothy Swaine Thomas. This work explores how communal expectations of adjustment or maladjustment of children informs behavior problems in children and how the definition of these children's situations affects how they conceive their own maturation and behavior. This work marks the first use of the Thomas theorem verbatim.

In 1936, Pitirim A. Sorokin, chairman of the sociology department at Harvard University, invited Thomas to become a visiting lecturer. Thomas accepted the invitation and remained in Harvard until 1937.<blockquote>The sociopsychological aspects of culture history, or otherwise stated, social psychology as examined in relation to races, nationalities, classes, interest groups, etc., in different cultural situations and historical epochs; and second, personality development in normal, criminal and psychopathic individuals in relation to cultural situations and particular trains of experience as seen through their life-histories, which may be in the form of autobiographies, case studies, continuous and organized inter-views, etc. (I do not say `psychoanalysis' because of the meaning which this term has acquired).</blockquote>Furthermore, explaining about sociologists who have influenced him, Thomas writes: 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. Furthermore, Thomas and Znaniecki's work developed an approach to understanding ethnicity in particular, which in many respects was ahead of its time and is currently being rediscovered in the context of transnational studies in migration. Studies akin to this work led to conclusions which may be seen as common knowledge today such as urbanization leads to the dissolution of shared fate and leads to the creation of new identities. Analysis which may be less ubiquitous lies in Thomas and Znaniecki's investigation of social organization. Thomas and Znaniecki note that as immigrant groups (such as the Poles they studied) are isolated from the environment they were socialized in and there is no form of enforcement of social rules, these social rules start to dictate a population's moral behaviors less and less. Thomas notes that this process primarily affects social institutions before it secondarily affects the conceptions and behaviors of social actors. The Unadjusted Girl (1923), Thomas explores female delinquency and promiscuity by exploring how women are socialized in distinct backgrounds to conceive of sex, responsibility and ladyhood based on personal interpretations of their situations and how this affects their behaviors and outcomes. "If people view somebody as great, then he is." Along with the ideas of George Herbert Mead, this concept later proved to be an important part of social constructionism, and of the rebellion of symbolic interactionism against structural functionalism.

Thomas' 1928 book, The Child in America, co-authored with Dorothy Swaine Thomas, includes a notion, drawing from his initial idea of the definition of the situation, that would become a fundamental law of sociology, known as the Thomas theorem: “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”

The Child in America specifically investigated the misbehavior of children can be attributed to communal expectations of behavior and how these children define their own situations is indicative of their own conceptions maturation and acceptable behavior.

  • One of the reasons was his left-wing political opinions on the etiology of crime. Studying the problem of delinquency in Chicago's Polish immigrant community, he adopted a pragmatic attitude to the problem rather than a moral one.
  • Second, some of his research on topics, such as sexual behavior, were considered controversial. Yet, Thomas continued to be outspoken about his research and related topics. Thus, he was required by the university to issue clarifying statements and apologies to the press on at least one occasion.
  • Third, he led an individualistic and lifestyle for his era which prompted his peers to further question his morals.

Works

  • 1903 (as editor): Minnesota stories: A collection of twenty stories of college life. Collected and arranged by Charles Flint 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. Znaniecki): The Polish peasant in Europe and America. Monograph of an immigrant group. complete 5 vol online free
  • 1918: Volume 1: Primary-group organization. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
  • 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.
  • 1921 (with Robert E. Park and Herbert A. Miller as main authors): Old world traits transplanted. New York, London: Harper. <small>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. </small>
  • 1923: The unadjusted girl. With cases and standpoint for behavior analysis. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown 1923
  • 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
  • 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

References

Further reading

  • Lewis A. Coser: Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich.
  • Review materials for studying William Isaac Thomas
  • [http://www.asanet.org/about-asa/asa-story/asa-history/past-asa-officers/past-asa-presidents/william-i-thomas]
  • Guide to the William I. Thomas Papers 1908-1974 at the University of Chicago Special Collection Research Center