It is, instead, social interaction, thinking, definition of the situation that takes place in the present.

If people share common sense, then they share a definition of the situation.

'At every stage, the police and other social actors are making decisions about what action to take, based on their definition of the situation.

Identity and the definition of the situation in a mass-mediated context.

Defection results from individuals who feel that their strongly held perspectives are not included in the definition of the situation.

There is intersubjectivity between people if they agree on a given set of meanings or a definition of the situation.

Observers choose among the alternatives so as to minimize deflections associated with their definitions of the situation.

Someone who is telling a lie is engaged in an intersubjective act because they are working with two different definitions of the situation.

Wilson's definition of the situation won wide acclaim, and, indeed, has shaped America's role in world and military affairs ever since.

The identities assembled in the definition of the situation determine the sentiments that the individual tries to maintain behaviorally.

Thus, from an interactionist perspective, roles, like meanings and definitions of the situation, are negotiated in interaction processes.

The environment influences interaction, which leads to a reference group, which connects with perspective, and then concludes to a definition of the situation.

Interactionist concepts that have gained widespread usage include definition of the situation, emotion work, impression management, looking glass self, and total institution.

Further, Thomas introduced the important concept of the 'definition of the situation' later referred to as the Thomas theorem.

Action on the basis of such prescription, however, can subsequently lead to changing definitions of the situation which in turn will alter the directions of conduct.

The definition of the situation is a fundamental concept in symbolic interactionism advanced by the American sociologist W. I. Thomas.

Self-presentation, lying, practical jokes, and social emotions, for example, all entail not a shared definition of the situation, but partially shared divergences of meaning.

Therefore, as impartial observers, it is important that we take account of all definitions of the situation, and are prepared to understand events as the participants themselves experience them.

No real violence may be done, intentionally, to either party and as accidental injury may cause the definition of the situation to change quite radically, it must be avoided.

In effect this means a very broad definition of the situations where interpreting occurs, ranging from conference simultaneous interpreting to casual conversational interpreting which may be consecutive.

Reconstructing the participants' definition of the situation would allow the analyst to explain their reasons for action, and this would be far more realistic than an assumption that the actors acted rationally.

A major theme that Goffman treats throughout the work is the fundamental importance of having an agreed upon definition of the situation in a given interaction, in order to give the interaction coherency.

This means that social interaction requires mutual effort by the actors as they attempt to establish the definition of the situation for each other and negotiate appropriate behaviour for themselves and for the other.

Distinguished Lecture, Couch-Stone Symposium (Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction), "Identity and the Definition of the Situation in a Mass Mediated Context."

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.