Merton's Strain Theory
- Created by: sarah faulkes
- Created on: 02-02-14 17:20
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- Merton's Strain Theory
- Strain theory - People engage in deviant behavior when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.
- Two Elements:
- Structural factors - society's unequal opportunity structure.
- Cultural factors - strong emphasis on success goals and weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them.
- Deviance is the result of strain between two things:
- The goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve.
- What society allows them to achieve legitimately.
- The American Dream
- Americans are expected to achieve the American Dream through self - discipline, study, education and hard work in a career.
- Tells Americans that their society is a meritocratic one where anyone who makes the effort can get ahead.
- The reality is different as many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately. For example, poverty.
- Frustration leads to crime and deviance to achieve the American Dream. Merton calls this the strain to anomie.
- Deviant adaptations to strain
- Conformity - Accept the culturally approved goals and achieve them legitimately. This is mostly middle class.
- Innovation - Accept goals but choose illegitimate ways to gain them. This is lower class.
- Ritualism - Give up trying to gain goals but gain what they do legitimately. For example office workers.
- Retreatism - reject goals and legitimate means, become dropouts. For example tramps.
- Rebellion - reject existing goals but offer new ones
- Evaluation
- Too deterministic as the working class don't all deviate.
- Assumes there's a shared value consensus for wealth.
- Doesn't account for violent crimes.
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