SOC205H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: General Strain Theory, Richard Cloward, Anomie
Document Summary
Anomie and strain theories: robert merton joined with ashley-montagu offered a stinging rebuttal to earnest. The inability of many americans to achieve this goal had dire consequences for the society. This produces intense pressure for deviation: typology of adaptations: merton proposed that different ways existed for people to resolve the strains generated from the inability to attain stress, he delineated 4 deviant modes of adaptation: They mitigate their strain, however, by scaling down their aspirations to the point where these ends can be reached comfortably: retreatism: makes a more dramatic response. Alienated from prevailing ends and normative standards, they propose to substitute a new set of goals and means: merton borrowed the notion of anomie from durkheim. Durkheim used the concept to describe a social condition in which institutionalized norms lost their power to regulate human needs and action: merton did not believe it completely but learned that institutionalized norms will weaken.
