- Conformity is an act that is concerned with social rules or expectations. It is included within the allowance approved by the society. Robert K. Merton Conformity And Deviance.
- Deviance is the opposite of conformity i.e, it is the non-conformity or opposing from the accepted path. Deviant in one society may be normal in other societies.
- According to Merton, ‘Anomie is a part of the system and a general feature of society.’
- He describes anomie as ‘A condition in which there is a difference between culturally defined objectives and structural means available to reach them.
- Deviance is thought of as a result of Anomie.
- Robert Merton takes inspiration from Durkheim‘s work which provided the intellectual foundation for his effort to develop a macro-level clarification of rates of rule-violating behavior in American society.
Application Of Structural Strain (conformity) AndRobert K. Merton Conformity And Deviance.
- Merton puts forward the example of the American vision.
- He mentions that American Society shows a great emphasis on material success but many individuals fail to realize this success because structural resources are not adequate.
- Only some people get the success and this generates a feeling of downgrading among others. Robert K. Merton Conformity And Deviance
- Every person doesn’t have equal access to the structural resources to attain success. This is known as structural strain leading to deviance.
- Deviance is majorly experienced by those lower-class people in society.
- Consequently, these lower-class individuals are more likely to perform criminal deeds.
Merton provides a systematic typology of individual adaptations to the environmental pressures (occurring mainly as a result of differences between the culture and social structure of society). This typological table is shown below: Robert K. Merton Conformity And Deviance
These adaptations define the types of social roles persons accept as a reaction to cultural and structural burdens. Each of them is explained below: Robert K. Merton Conformity And Deviance
- Retreatism is the denial of both cultural goals (–) and institutionalized means (–). Therefore, retreatism involves a complete escape from the pressures and demands of organized society.
- Innovation: It involves the approval of the cultural goal (+) but the refusal of authentic, existing means (–). It occurs when the people have adapted the cultural prominence to the goal without equally adopting the institutional rules.
- Conformity: It is a non-deviant adaptation where people continue to involve in authentic professional or educational roles despite environmental compressions toward deviant behavior.
- Rebellion: A rebel not only discards the aims and resources of the established society but keenly attempts to substitute new goals and means in their place.
- Ritualism: This adaptation signifies a changed form of departure from cultural standards than does innovation. A ritualist is an over conformist. Robert K. Merton Conformity And Deviance
Conclusion.
Merton asserts that anomie is a sociological concept that refers to a “property of a social system, not to the state of mind of this or that person within the system.”
Criticism.
- Albert Cohen contends that deviance is due to a particular subculture that members of a specific subgroup develop. Therefore, it is a collective entity rather than of an individual level as Merton has tried to demonstrate.
- Merton ignored several other attributes of the social structure causing anomie and refers only to goals and means.
- Lemert and Laurie Taylor say that those who exercise power also decide who will be deviant. Explanations of deviance don’t reveal the consent of society.
