Merton’s Five Modes of Adaptation to Strain Essay Example

jobs, even a healthy attitude towards work), strain results. (Merton’s Strain Theory, n.d.)

The strain theory advanced by Merton identified “five modes of adapting to strain.” These are: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Conformity, according to Merton, is the usual manner of strain adaptation. Under this mode, the members of society accept both the goals emphasized by society and the recommended means of achieving them. People are considered conformists if they subscribe to the goals set for them by society and do their best to achieve them utilizing only the means prescribed by society. In other words, these people do not resort to illegal means just to attain their goals. Under the innovation mode, individuals also agree to what society considers as desirable goals. Unfortunately for some people, the approved or legitimate means are not available to them.

What they do is look for other, extra-legal means, so that they can realize the goals set for them by society. They resort, for instance, to robbery, theft, embezzling, and swindling. Ritualism, on the other hand, refers to those who have ceased to believe in the goals emphasized by society. In other words, they have decided to turn their backs on society and its mores and have chosen to live their lives the way they have always wanted to. However, these ritualistic individuals do not go against the law. Retreatism essentially means giving up. People who adapt this mode have altogether given up on the goals set for them by society as well as the means prescribed to achieve them. Examples of these people are the drug addicts and the alcoholics. Merton refers to these people as those

who have “escape[d] into a non-productive, non-striving lifestyle.” Rebellion, on the other hand, results when people finally reject both the goals and the means prescribed for achieving them and have substituted them with their own goals and means of achieving them. Revolutionaries fall under this category. (Merton’s Strain Theory, n.d.)

I had once known of a person who fully agreed with what society considers as desirable goals. Widowed at the age of 30, she worked hard in order to satisfy the needs of her two daughters – a beautiful house, good education, fancy car, lovely dresses. However, because she was a single mom with no substantial means at her disposal, she supplemented the income she derived from doing office work by selling illegal substances like marijuana and heroin. Unfortunately, the long arms of the law caught up with her. She ended up in prison, leaving her two very young daughters at the care of the social welfare people. That woman was an innovator.