When the society do not do well enough individuals are faced with a gap between ‘what ought to be’ and ‘what is.’ Based on strain theory, Dr. Merton defined five types of deviance:
• Conformity: When the person or group accepts cultural goals and the means of attaining them.
• Innovation: This involves accepting the goals of a culture but the rejecting the traditional and/or legitimate means of attaining those goals.
• Ritualism: the person or group reject cultural goals but accept the traditional and/or legitimate means to obtain cultural goals.
• Retreatism: When a person or group rejects both the cultural goals and the traditional means of achieving those goals
• Rebellion: Is when the person or group rejects both the cultural goals and …show more content…
They argued that the sole purpose of the society was to motivate its citizens to excel in the work place by stirring up some form of discontent with existing state of affairs. They believed that people who were more dissatisfied with what they earned, what they had, or where they lived, would be motivated to work harder to improve their circumstances.
Another mentionable research that has been done to expound on the strain theory as developed by Merton is the General Strain Theory (GST) by Robert Agnew (1992). His research focused on the individual level and their immediate social environment. He identified the major causes of strain as; Prevention or blockage of achieving positively valued goals. Agnew defined types of strains that fell under this as the disconnection between one’s expectations and actual achievements. Failure to achieve a goal may likely cause dissatisfaction anger and disappointment.
Removal of Stimuli. Agnew asserted that a removal of positively valued stimuli would be a source of strain. For example if one had something he/she valued so much stolen, the desire to have it back could lead an individual to delinquent …show more content…
Politics have shaped the world and in many nations has created sharp deviation from the norms and in some cases violent extremism and rebellions. While he did not study democratic transitions, Durkheim’s theory can be applied to explain anomie during this situation. As much as democratization is desirable, the process of achieving it is never smooth (Fukuyama 1992). The process of democratization because it polarizes brings out the historical wounds of ethnic conflicts, and provokes civil strife. In addition, the nation’s economic wellbeing deteriorates, to different degrees, during the transition (Duch, 1995). There is a temporary disequilibrium during transition from a communist authoritarian system to a democracy, when new values and norms come into contact with and/or disrupt older social patterns, weakening formal as well as informal social control. Transitional societies, therefore, are associated with growing cultural heterogeneity, or the state of anomie (Ruohui,
• Conformity: When the person or group accepts cultural goals and the means of attaining them.
• Innovation: This involves accepting the goals of a culture but the rejecting the traditional and/or legitimate means of attaining those goals.
• Ritualism: the person or group reject cultural goals but accept the traditional and/or legitimate means to obtain cultural goals.
• Retreatism: When a person or group rejects both the cultural goals and the traditional means of achieving those goals
• Rebellion: Is when the person or group rejects both the cultural goals and …show more content…
They argued that the sole purpose of the society was to motivate its citizens to excel in the work place by stirring up some form of discontent with existing state of affairs. They believed that people who were more dissatisfied with what they earned, what they had, or where they lived, would be motivated to work harder to improve their circumstances.
Another mentionable research that has been done to expound on the strain theory as developed by Merton is the General Strain Theory (GST) by Robert Agnew (1992). His research focused on the individual level and their immediate social environment. He identified the major causes of strain as; Prevention or blockage of achieving positively valued goals. Agnew defined types of strains that fell under this as the disconnection between one’s expectations and actual achievements. Failure to achieve a goal may likely cause dissatisfaction anger and disappointment.
Removal of Stimuli. Agnew asserted that a removal of positively valued stimuli would be a source of strain. For example if one had something he/she valued so much stolen, the desire to have it back could lead an individual to delinquent …show more content…
Politics have shaped the world and in many nations has created sharp deviation from the norms and in some cases violent extremism and rebellions. While he did not study democratic transitions, Durkheim’s theory can be applied to explain anomie during this situation. As much as democratization is desirable, the process of achieving it is never smooth (Fukuyama 1992). The process of democratization because it polarizes brings out the historical wounds of ethnic conflicts, and provokes civil strife. In addition, the nation’s economic wellbeing deteriorates, to different degrees, during the transition (Duch, 1995). There is a temporary disequilibrium during transition from a communist authoritarian system to a democracy, when new values and norms come into contact with and/or disrupt older social patterns, weakening formal as well as informal social control. Transitional societies, therefore, are associated with growing cultural heterogeneity, or the state of anomie (Ruohui,