Nutshell Studies: Merton and Strain Theory (1938)

The third Nutshell Study is Merton’s Strain Theory (1938 ), designed “to make it easier for students to get to grips with significant classic and contemporary sociological studies in a simple, straightforward, way that doesn’t involve a shed-load of frankly quite time-consuming reading”.

Nutshell Studies give you a broad outline of a study – more than enough for all your exam-related needs – broken-down into three short sections (not to mention a bonus “Exam Tips and Where to Apply Them” section. So I won’t).

1. Illustration: This provides an everyday example to illustrate the basic ideas the author of a study is trying to get across. Think of this section as a simple way to understand the more-sociological content of:

2. Insights: This is a short list of the key ideas put forward by the author. It’s purposely-designed to be short, sweet, snappy and memorable.

3. Implications: The 3^rd and final section provides a quick list of the implications the featured findings have for a range of broad sociological perspectives, something that can be useful for comparative / evaluative purposes.

Disclaimer

Nutshell Studies should in no-way be considered a substitute for reading the actual study. But, having said that, needs must, hey?

Merton: Strain Theory (1938)

Illustration

Jamie is in his final year at his extremely prestigious, very expensive, school. Both his parents are medical professionals – one a highly-paid surgeon, the other a partner in a General Practice – and they are determined Jamie should follow in their footsteps. They are living what Merton called “The American Dream” and from a young age they’ve instilled in their son the conventional cultural values that success means getting top grades at school, attending an Ivy-League university and from there moving into a high-paying job that “gives something back to the community”.

As his final exams approach, however, things start to go a little awry for Jamie. He’s starting to party a little too hard and drink just a little too much with his friends – not enough to get him into trouble with his school or family, but just enough for his teachers to notice his grades are slipping. He’s not likely to fail, but his grades won’t be sufficient to get him where he wants to be post-school. His recent relationship with – and messy break-up from – a girl two years his junior also hasn’t helped and he’s starting to realise that his parents marriage isn’t as rock solid as everyone in the family likes to pretend.

Jamie’s legitimate means to success – gaining the qualifications he needs to achieve his ultimate goals – was in danger of being blocked until, arriving in his tutor’s office for a lesson, he noticed their computer password scribbled on a note on the desk. Later that day mainly, he told himself, out of curiosity, he used the password to enter the school’s examination system, where he discovered the upcoming papers for the exams he was about to sit.

A few weeks later Jamie achieved one of the highest exam pass rates his school had ever seen.

Insights

Merton argues that societies such as America and Britain promote cultural goals like wealth and status as being desirable, but then systematically limit access to the legitimate, institutionalised, means to achieving them, such as educational qualifications or stable, well-paid, jobs. When individuals experience this disconnect between what society tells them they should have and their inability to achieve these goals they experience strain – an uncomfortable social and psychological situation they can only resolve by adapting in one of five ways:

• Conformity: accept the goals and the means to achieve them.
• Innovation: accept the goals but reject the legitimate means (through, for example, crime means)
• Ritualism: reject the goals but accept the means (people in dead-end jobs, for example, just  “going through the motions”).
• Retreatism: reject both goals and means (dropping out of the job market, for example )
• Rebellion: reject both the current goals and the means to achieve them (by creating new and different goals and means).

In Jamie’s case he gained the success he was under such pressure to achieve using innovative (if illegitimate / criminal) means to achieve it…

Implications

Exam Tips and Where to Apply Them

Labelling Theory would emphasise the social construction of deviance, rather than blocked goals.

General Strain Theory (Agnew) addresses many of the perceived deficiencies in (economic) strain theory to include strains relating to general categories like age, gender and ethnicity, as well as specific forms of strain created through things like personal loss and negative personal relationships.