Merton's Strain Theory: the Five Adaptations

Two questions, five answers

Merton, writing in 1938 from a functionalist position, asked why deviance appears in a society that broadly agrees about what counts as success. His answer starts from a strain. A society can value success very highly while leaving many people without a legitimate route to it, and that gap is what he calls anomie. Everyone then answers two questions, whether they think about them or not. Do I accept the goals? Do I accept the approved means? Two yes-or-no questions give four combinations, which is worth holding on to, because the list you have to learn has five. Working out where the fifth comes from is how you stop memorising this and start understanding it.

Words for the theory

Six terms. The first two are the theory in miniature.

Goals and means

Every adaptation is an answer to these two questions. Read the list this way and it stops being five things to remember.

Adaptation to what it accepts

Blocked routes

Someone still wants the success their society teaches them to want, but finds the approved routes to it closed off, and turns to routes that are not approved. Which adaptation is this?

• Innovation, because the goals are kept and the means are replaced
• Rebellion, because the person has rejected the way things are done
• Ritualism, because the person is responding to blocked opportunity
• Retreatism, because the approved routes are no longer being used

Dropping out or starting again

Retreatism and rebellion are the pair that costs marks, because on the surface they look the same: both reject the goals and both reject the means. Here is the whole difference. Retreatism stops there. Rebellion does not, because it puts something in their place, replacing the goals and the means with new ones in order to build a different society. So the test is simple. Ask whether anything has been put in the place of what was rejected. If nothing has, it is retreatism. If something has, it is rebellion. That also explains why five adaptations come from two questions: four are the combinations, and rebellion is the one that adds a further move.

True of the five

Select the TWO statements that are true of Merton adaptations.

• Ritualism keeps following the approved means after giving up the goals
• Innovation and conformity both keep the success goals of the society
• All five adaptations describe forms of criminal behaviour
• A person chooses their adaptation deliberately and can state which it is

Adaptation to its example

Facts drill: the five adaptations

Five quick questions on the list this topic expects you to have exactly. Three lives.

Anomie in a paragraph

Merton argues that a society can value success very highly while leaving many people without a legitimate route to it. The strain that results is called _____. People respond to it in five ways, which he calls _____. Someone who keeps the goals but uses routes that are not approved is showing _____. Someone who gives up on the goals while still following the approved routes is showing _____. And someone who rejects both and puts new ones in their place is showing _____.

Retreatism or rebellion

A group rejects both the success its society values and the approved ways of pursuing it, and sets out to build a society organised around different aims entirely. Which adaptation is this, and how do you know?

• Rebellion, because something new has been put in the place of what was rejected
• Retreatism, because both the goals and the means have been rejected
• Innovation, because they are pursuing their aims by unapproved routes
• Either, because the two describe the same underlying response to strain

All five, answered

Question: describe Merton explanation of deviance. Model answer: Merton, writing from a functionalist position, argues that deviance arises from a strain within a society rather than from the failings of individuals. A society may value success very highly while leaving many people without legitimate means of achieving it, and the resulting strain he calls anomie. He sets out five adaptations to it. Conformity accepts both the goals and the approved means, and is not deviant. Innovation keeps the goals but turns to means that are not approved, which is how he explains much acquisitive crime. Ritualism abandons the goals but continues to follow the approved means. Retreatism abandons both and withdraws from the pursuit altogether; the specification gives vagrancy and addiction as examples of this response to blocked opportunity. Rebellion rejects both and replaces them with new goals and new means in order to build a different society. Note two things. All five are named, which is what this list requires, and the answer explains the strain before listing the responses to it, so the list has something to be a list of.

What anomie means

Select the TWO statements that describe what Merton means by anomie.

• A gap between what a society teaches people to want and what it lets them reach
• A strain that arises when success is valued above the legitimate routes to it
• A complete breakdown of law and order across a whole society
• A feeling of unhappiness experienced by people who commit crimes

Which description is wrong

Three of these describe an adaptation correctly. Select the ONE that does not.

• Conformity accepts the success goals and pursues them by approved means.
• Ritualism keeps pursuing the success goals while abandoning the approved means.
• Retreatism abandons the goals and the means without replacing either.
• Rebellion rejects both and substitutes new goals and new means for them.

Classify the response

You are given four described responses and asked to classify each. Use the two questions rather than trying to recall a list.

• Someone has stopped believing they will ever achieve what their society calls success, but goes on doing their job carefully and by the book. Which adaptation?
• Another person still wants what their society calls success and has found an unapproved route to it. Which adaptation?
• A third has withdrawn from the pursuit of success entirely and is not pursuing anything in its place. Which adaptation?
• An examiner asks what the theory does NOT explain well. What is a fair criticism to offer?

Explain the five

Describe Merton explanation of deviance and assess how useful it is.

• Explain what anomie is, and why Merton locates the problem in the society rather than the person
• Name all five adaptations
• Explain two of them in terms of what they accept and what they reject
• Explain clearly how retreatism differs from rebellion
• Give one criticism of the theory, attributing it rather than stating it as fact
• Reach a judgement on how useful the theory is, with a reason