Definition of the Situation: The Thomas Theorem

The Thomas Theorem, created by W.I.Thomas and his wife Dorothy (The Child in America, 1928), is a simple and interesting way to introduce students to the social constructionist / Interactionist approach in Sociology, for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, the Theorem – “It is not important whether or not the interpretation is correct, if we define situations as real, they are real in their consequences“ – is relatively easy to both grasp and demonstrate, using a wide range of possible examples.

One simple way would be to ask your students about their current definition of the situation (an education class) and how this definition is both created and, perhaps more-importantly, maintained.

Secondly, once grasped it lays the foundations for understanding a further range of Interactionist concepts, (self-fulfilling prophecies, labelling theory) and applications, such as social stereotyping or the fear of crime (the conviction, for example, that crime rates are both high and rising when, statistically, they may be historically low and falling).

And if you want to follow this up with a more-general introduction to social constructionism, we may well have made a film about that too.