Robert Merton

Question 1

Fun Facts

Answer 1

• was a middle range theorist who critiques grand theorists
• would be critical of weber, Marx and Durkheim
  created theories that aided the development of testable hypothesis, but kept it general enough to cover a wide range of social processes
• focused on concrete social processes rather than grandeur social-totality based ideas
• like parson, he was a structural-functionalist

Question 2

modes of individual adaptation

Answer 2

• proposed five ways and individual reacts when they cannot achieve culturally approved goals through socially accepted means
  the five ways people adapt
  1. conformity (accepts goals, accepts means)
  ex. a uni student studying to get a degree to eventually get a job
  2. innovation (accept goals, reject means)
  ex. a person who wants to be rich but cannot find a job begins selling drugs
  3. ritualism (rejects goals, accepts means)
  ex. a banker who works diligently and is successful gives up trying to get a promotion
  4. retreats (rejects goals, rejects means)
  ex. withdraws, addictions
  5. rebellion (rejects goals, rejects means)
  ex. revolutionaries

Question 3

Retreatism vs Rebellion

Answer 3

• a retreatist will with draw from society
• a rebellion will seek out change

Question 4

Types of social functions

Answer 4

1. manifest Functions
2. Latent Functions

Question 5

Manifest vs latent function

Answer 5

manifest - function which are intended and they represent the recognized consequence of social actions
ex. taking sociology in order to get credits
latent - functions which are unintended, represent the unrecognized consequences that often involve dormant and camouflaged effects of actions
ex. getting paired with someone for a group project and becoming good friends

Question 6

Reference group theory

Answer 6

• the process of individuals evaluating themselves with respects to…
  1. the group to which they belong to
  2. the group they want to belong to

membership group: the group to which they belong to
reference group - the group to which one wants to belong to

Question 7

Role sets and Role strain

Answer 7

• describes different aspects of social experience
• role sets: the array of relationships attached tap single status
• role strain: the conflicting expectations from the different roles or the tension that one experiences when trying to meet the competing demands of the single role

ex. student (single status) has a role set that includes relationships with teachers (who expect study), parents (who expect good grades), peers (who expect socialization), and coaches (who expect practice time). Each of these “role partners” (teachers, parents, peers) has different expectations for the student, which can conflict.

Question 8

Merton’s Strain Theory

Answer 8

• an expansions of Durkhiem concept of anime when then leads to deviance.
• this theory explains deviance and how people adapt to strain
  deviance occurs when there is a conflict between culture;; approved goal and the legitimate means available—this leads to strain

Question 9

Talcott Parson ‘sick role’ vs Mertons ‘dysfunctional role

Answer 9

Sick role:
a social mechanism when a sick individual is temproraily exempt from certain rights and obligation, and are not blamed for their ‘sickness’

Dysfunctional Role:
a role, social processes, institution or behaviours that have negative consequences and disrupt or harms social stability or adaptation