Summary Of Robert Merton's Anomie Theory

The reason why I am in college today is because I want to get a career as well as being successful in life. I believe that success is something that almost anybody can achieve in their life. Reaching success may be easy or difficult for some people, but I believe it’s based on the person. A sociologist named Robert Merton made a theory that involves success. Richard T. Schaefer the author of “Sociology Matters” mentioned Merton stating (2014). “He noted different ways in which people attempt to achieve success. In his view, some may deviate from the socially agreed upon goal of accumulating material goods or the socially accepted means of achieving that goal” (p.13). A person can achieve success in different ways and I feel that a person achieves success with the way that they feel most comfortable with. In addition, a person would want to achieve success in their own way based on the goal and the circumstances. In this essay I will be talking about some of Merton’s accomplishments in life as …show more content…
One of the forms in which I believe represents a lot of people is conformity. Schaefer notes (2014) “Conformity to social norms, the most common adaptation in Merton 's typology, is the opposite of deviance. It involves acceptance of both the overall societal goal ("become affluent") and the approved means ("work hard") (p.110). People that have conformity or conformists in other words are people like myself are the people that want to work hard in life in order to achieve their goals. For example, if a person wants to have money then that person is going to work hard for it in a good way by getting a job. I strongly believe that the majority of people that are still in school are conformists, since they want to continue their education and work hard in order to be successful in their