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    Robert Merton

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    Dray Cyzzer Catipon
    Strain theory, developed by Robert K. Merton in 1938, proposes that societal pressures to achieve socially accepted goals like financial success can lead to strain when individuals lack legitimate means to achieve them. This strain may cause some individuals to engage in deviant behavior like drug dealing or prostitution in order to gain financial security. Merton outlined five responses to such strain: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. The theory suggests societal factors can encourage deviance by creating contradictions between the goals a society promotes and the means individuals have to achieve them.

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    Robert Merton

    Uploaded by

    Dray Cyzzer Catipon
    181 views2 pages
    Strain theory, developed by Robert K. Merton in 1938, proposes that societal pressures to achieve socially accepted goals like financial success can lead to strain when individuals lack legitimate means to achieve them. This strain may cause some individuals to engage in deviant behavior like drug dealing or prostitution in order to gain financial security. Merton outlined five responses to such strain: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. The theory suggests societal factors can encourage deviance by creating contradictions between the goals a society promotes and the means individuals have to achieve them.

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    Strain theory, developed by Robert K. Merton in 1938, proposes that societal pressures to achieve socially accepted goals like financial success can lead to strain when individuals lack legitimate means to achieve them. This strain may cause some individuals to engage in deviant behavior like drug dealing or prostitution in order to gain financial security. Merton outlined five responses to such strain: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. The theory suggests societal factors can encourage deviance by creating contradictions between the goals a society promotes and the means individuals have to achieve them.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    181 views2 pages

    Robert Merton

    Uploaded by

    Dray Cyzzer Catipon
    Strain theory, developed by Robert K. Merton in 1938, proposes that societal pressures to achieve socially accepted goals like financial success can lead to strain when individuals lack legitimate means to achieve them. This strain may cause some individuals to engage in deviant behavior like drug dealing or prostitution in order to gain financial security. Merton outlined five responses to such strain: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. The theory suggests societal factors can encourage deviance by creating contradictions between the goals a society promotes and the means individuals have to achieve them.

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    Strain theory is a sociology and criminology theory developed in 1938 by Robert K. Merton.

    [1]
    The theory states that society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such
    as the American dream), though they lack the means. This leads to strain which may lead
    individuals to commit crimes, like selling drugs or becoming involved in prostitution as a means
    to gain financial security.[1]

    Strain could be:

    Structural: this refers to the processes at the societal level which filter down and affect how the
    individual perceives his or her needs, i.e. if particular social structures are inherently inadequate or
    there is inadequate regulation, this may change the individual's perceptions as to means and
    opportunities; or
    Individual: this refers to the frictions and pains experienced by an individual as he or she looks for
    ways to satisfy his or her needs, i.e. if the goals of a society become significant to an individual,
    actually achieving them may become more important than the means adopted.
    Merton's theory Edit
    Robert King Merton was an American sociologist who argued that society can encourage deviance
    to a large degree. Merton believed that socially accepted goals put pressure on people to conform.
    His theory was developed largely due to the social and economic circumstances occurring in the
    United States during the early 1900s.[2] Robert Merton's Strain Theory stems from a fundamental
    question that he posed on why the rates of deviance were so different among different societies.
    He thought that there could be deviance where there is a difference between what defines success
    and the proper means to achieve said goals. He found that the United States is a prime example of
    high levels of deviance because of the high social value of achieving success, primarily monetary,
    but there are contradictions to the means for acquiring such success. Employees who have a
    college education are respected but the robber barons who stole for their money were also
    admired, which demonstrates that success is viewed as more important than the actual means to
    achieve success.

    In addition, he saw how minority groups had a harder time acquiring a good education, and if they
    could, they had a harder time acquiring a respectable living; yet the same high standard for
    success is enforced on everyone regardless if they had the means to satisfy such standards. These
    contradictions led him to develop the strain theory because of society’s high reverence towards
    achieving “success.”[3] Individuals are forced to work within the system or become members of
    deviant subcultures in order to achieve socially prescribed goals. Merton's belief became the
    theory known as Strain Theory. Merton added that when individuals are faced with a gap between
    their goals (usually monetary) and their current status, strain occurs. When individuals are faced
    with strain, Merton outlined five different ways that they respond:[1]

    Conformity: pursuing cultural goals through socially approved means. ("Hopeful poor")
    Innovation: using socially unapproved or unconventional means to obtain culturally approved
    goals. Example: dealing drugs or stealing to achieve financial security. ("surviving poor")
    Ritualism: using the same socially approved means to achieve less elusive goals (more modest and
    humble). ("passive poor")
    Retreatism: to reject both the cultural goals and the means to obtain it, then find a way to escape it.
    ("retreating poor")
    Rebellion: to reject cultural goals and the prescribed means to achieve them, then work towards
    replace both of them. ("resisting poor")

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