Education is one of the most crucial instruments in the machinery of society, driving the citizens of our nation be more productive members of the work force. Decades ago a high school education used to be a privilege especially since jobs were obtained at a much younger age. Education was limited to what an individual needed to know, and most of what they learned was obtained through experience gained in a job setting. Now, however, education has evolved to a degree where a high school diploma is not competitive in the job market and college degrees are generally necessary for a career. Several students growing up in our current society generally feel the necessity to go to college and work hard to maintain good grades. These students would fit into Robert Merton’s strain theory of conforming, meaning that the ones that follow the definition of society’s goals (getting a good job with above average pay) and through society’s accepted means (getting a college degree).
However, not everyone conforms. The strain theory states that deviance is when an individual fails to accept either the goals, the means, or both.
Those who accept society’s means but reject society’s goals by doing the bare minimum but still follow the goal of society’s structure to achieve a good job are ritualists. Innovators are those that accept society’s goals, but either reject the means or do not have the means to achieve them. There are also those who reject both the goals and the means of society and they fall into two categories. One of these categories is retreatist; who rejects both socially acceptable means and goals by completely withdrawing from, or not participating in such norms. The other category is rebellion, not only do these people refute the means and goals, but they also want to alter or destroy the social institutions from which they are alienated from. Merton’s theories can have different meanings for subgroups and communities as compared to American society and culture as a whole. The classifications we are using are intended to be related to the American society and the conformation to the American Dream.
For our blog, we interviewed a sample group of peers and adults, to obtain data to compare previous studies and statistics relating to our project to create a national view for our project. Our interviews included questions about the importance of education, views on future education, how education has changed within the past couple of decades, etc. Over the next few posts we will be relating what we found among our sample group, relating their views, and then comparing those views to statistics relating to education from the 1950s - present. We will also be examining these responses through a sociological perspective.
However, not everyone conforms. The strain theory states that deviance is when an individual fails to accept either the goals, the means, or both. Those who accept society’s means but reject society’s goals by doing the bare minimum but still follow the goal of society’s structure to achieve a good job are ritualists. Innovators are those that accept society’s goals, but either reject the means or do not have the means to achieve them. There are also those who reject both the goals and the means of society and they fall into two categories. One of these categories is retreatist; who rejects both socially acceptable means and goals by completely withdrawing from, or not participating in such norms. The other category is rebellion, not only do these people refute the means and goals, but they also want to alter or destroy the social institutions from which they are alienated from. Merton’s theories can have different meanings for subgroups and communities as compared to American society and culture as a whole. The classifications we are using are intended to be related to the American society and the conformation to the American Dream.
For our blog, we interviewed a sample group of peers and adults, to obtain data to compare previous studies and statistics relating to our project to create a national view for our project. Our interviews included questions about the importance of education, views on future education, how education has changed within the past couple of decades, etc. Over the next few posts we will be relating what we found among our sample group, relating their views, and then comparing those views to statistics relating to education from the 1950s - present. We will also be examining these responses through a sociological perspective.
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