William Isaac Thomas

Born Aug. 13, 1863, in Russell County, Va.; died Dec. 5,1947, in Berkeley, Calif. American sociologist.

Thomas belonged to the school that applied psychological concepts to sociology. He was professor of sociology at the University of Chicago from 1900 to 1918, and editor of the American Journal of Sociology from 1895 to 1917.

The central concept of Thomas’ theory is the social situation, which he regarded as consisting of three interrelated elements: the objective conditions—that is, social norms and values; the attitudes of the individual and of the group; and the situation as perceived by the subject, or individual actor. In The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (vols. 1–5, 1918–20), which Thomas wrote jointly with F. Znaniecki, it is chiefly the second element that comes under consideration. Discrepancies between the individual’s perception of a situation and group values give birth to conflicts, to social disintegration, and to the many consequent ills of capitalist society.

In his analysis of the causes and motivating forces of social life and of individual human attitudes, Thomas was influenced by psychoanalytic theories. He developed the theory of four basic human wishes—namely, the desire for new experience, for security, for recognition, and for mastery. In the final analysis, according to Thomas, human wants are conditioned by temperament.

Thomas and Znaniecki worked out a personality classification system, based on the criterion of adaptability to the social environment, in which three types of personalities were distinguished: the philistine type, characterized by traditional attitudes; the bohemian type, characterized by unstable and disconnected attitudes and a high degree of adaptability; and the creative type. Thomas claimed that social and cultural advances are solely caused by creative individuals capable of discovery and innovation; in his view, personal psychological qualities, as determined by temperament, are the source of progress.

By making use of personal documents, or “biograms”—such as letters, diaries, and autobiographies—Thomas made a significant contribution to the methodology of sociological research. His works, which signaled the shift toward empirical sociological research in the United States, have been a notable influence in American sociology and social psychology.