Modern Day Sociologist: Robert K. Merton

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Introduction
Robert K. Merton was an American sociologist and is considered a major influence on modern day sociology. Robert Merton was born Meyer R. Schkolnick on July 4, 1910 and died February 23, 2003. Merton attended Temple College and Harvard University before earning his doctorate degree in 1936. After which he taught at Harvard, Tulane, Columbia and Rockefeller until 1984.
Robert K. Merton is best known for his theories of deviance and development of the concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and role model. His work in sociology has influenced bureaucracy, deviance, communications, social psychology, social stratification, and social structure (Calhoun, 2003).
Contributions
According to Calhoun (2003), Merton’s work in sociology …show more content…

The different modes of adaptation include: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Conformity, obviously means that that conforms to culture goals and institutionalized means of achieving those goals. Innovation means that while they conform to the culture goals, they do not adhere to the accepted institutionalized means of achieving those goals. Ritualism is when the person does not conform to the culture goals but they do follow the institutionalized means. Retreatism is that the person does not conform to the culture goals nor the accepted institutionalized means of achieving those goals. Finally, rebellion is when someone rejects and substitutes both the culture goals and the institutionalized means with something else …show more content…

His theory presents the idea that it is not biology and genes that lead to crime but a social aspect. It makes this something that is not permanent and something that we can fix. Society presents this concept of what to aspire to and makes it important to the people, makes it part of their culture. So people try and shoot for that dream and when they lack the necessary means to achieve that dream, they turn to illegitimate means. These are the people who turn to crime to achieve their goals; these are who Robert Merton would call the

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