SOCIOLOGICAL THINKERS: R.K.

MERTON

About the scholar: Best known for developing theories of deviance, as well as the
concepts of "self-fulfilling prophecy" and "role model," Robert K. Merton is
considered one of America's most influential social scientists. Robert K. Merton was
born July 4, 1910 and died February 23, 2003.

Manifest and Latent Functions:

Latent functions: Functional consequences that are not intended or recognized by the
members of a social system in which they occur.

Manifest functions: The functions of a type of social activity that are known to and
intended by the individuals involved in the activity.

Robert Merton, pursued a version of Parsons’s functionalism, but did so in a much

more critical way. Merton saw that while many sociological studies focused on either
the macro-level of society as a whole or the micro-level of social interactions, this
polarization had failed to ‘fill in the gaps’ between macro- and micro-levels.

To rectify this, Merton argued for middle range theories in particular areas or on
specific subjects. Merton criticized some of the more extreme and indefensible
aspects of structural functionalism. But equally important, his new conceptual
insights helped give structural functionalism a continuing usefulness.

Although both Merton and Parsons are associated with structural functionalism, there
are important differences between them.
> While Parsons advocated the creation of grand, overarching theories, Merton
favoured more limited, middle range theories.
> Merton was more favourable toward Marxian theories than Parsons was.

Functional Theory and Merton:

Merton criticized what he saw as the three basic postulates of functional analysis as it
was developed by anthropologists such as Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown.
1. The first is the postulate of the functional unity of society.
This postulate holds that all standardized social and cultural beliefs and practices
are functional for society as a whole as well as for individuals in society. This
view implies that the various parts of a social system must show a high level of
integration. However, Merton maintained that although it may be true of small,
primitive societies, this generalization cannot be extended to larger, more
complex societies. Merton argues that functional unity is a matter of degree. Its
extent must be determined by investigation rather than simply beginning with the
assumption that it exists.

2. The second postulate is the universal functionalism.

That is, it is argued that all standardized social and cultural forms and structures
have positive functions. Merton argued that this contradicts what we find in the
real world. It is clear that not every structure, custom, idea, belief, and so forth,
has positive functions. He suggests that functionalist analysis should proceed
from assumption that any part of society may be functional, dysfunctional or non-
functional. For example, poverty may be seen as dysfunctional for the poor but
functional for the non-poor and for society as a whole.

3. The third is the postulate of indispensability.

The argument here is that all standardized aspects of society not only have
positive functions but also represent indispensable parts of the working whole.
This postulate leads to the idea that all structures and functions are functionally
necessary for society. Functionalists have often seen religion in this light. For
example,

Merton’s position was that all these functional postulates rely on no empirical
assertions based on abstract, theoretical systems. At a minimum, it is the
responsibility of the sociologist to examine each empirically. Merton’s belief that
empirical tests, not theoretical assertions, are crucial to functional analysis led him to
develop his “paradigm” of functional analysis as a guide to the integration of theory
and research. A detailed elaboration of this in his famous book Social Theory and
Social Structure.

Function: Functions, according to Merton, are defined as “those observed

consequences which make for the adaptation or adjustment of a given system”.
Function is precisely contribution that brings order, unity and cohesiveness in a
society. Again, there are some functions you are aware of and there are some other
functions you are not aware of.
Dysfunction: However, there is a clear ideological bias when one focuses only on
adaptation or adjustment, for they are always positive consequences. It is important to
note that one social fact can have negative consequences for another social fact. To
rectify this serious omission in early structural functionalism, Merton developed the
idea of a dysfunction. Just as structures or institutions could contribute to the
maintenance of other parts of the social system, they also could have negative
consequences for them.

Non-function: Merton also posited the idea of non-functions, which he defined as

consequences that are simply irrelevant to the system under consideration. Included
here might be social forms that are “survivals” from earlier historical times. Although
they may have had positive or negative consequences in the past, they have no
significant effect on contemporary society.

Manifest & Latent Function:

Merton also introduced the concepts of manifest and latent functions. These two
terms have also been important additions to functional analysis. In simple terms,
manifest functions are those that are intended, whereas latent functions are
unintended. This idea is related to another of Merton’s concepts— unanticipated
consequences. Actions have both intended and unintended consequences. Although
everyone is aware of the intended consequences, sociological analysis is required to
uncover the unintended consequences; indeed, to some this is the very essence of
sociology.

Peter Berger has called this “debunking”, or looking beyond stated intentions to real
effects. Merton made it clear that unanticipated consequences and latent functions
are not the same. A latent function is one type of unanticipated consequence, one that
is functional for the designated system.

As further clarification of functional theory, Merton pointed out that a structure may
be dysfunctional for the system as a whole yet may continue to exist. One might
make a good case that discrimination against blacks, females, and other minority
groups is dysfunctional for society, yet it continues to exist because it is functional for
a part of the social system; for example, discrimination against females is generally
functional for males. However, these forms of discrimination are not without some
dysfunctions, even for the group for which they are functional. Males do suffer from
their discrimination against females. One could argue that these forms of
discrimination adversely affect those who discriminate by keeping vast numbers of
people underproductive and by increasing the likelihood of social conflict.
Merton contended that not all structures are indispensable to the workings of the
social system. Some parts of our social system can be eliminated. This helps
functional theory overcome another of its conservative biases. By recognizing that
some structures are expendable, functionalism opens the way for meaningful social
change. Merton’s clarifications are of great utility to sociologists who wish to
perform structural-functional analyses.

DEVIANCE AND CONFORMISM

Robert Merton in his theoretical analysis of ‘Social Structure and Anomie’ takes
inspiration from Durkheim‘s work. It provided the intellectual foundation for
Merton‘s attempt to develop a macro-level explanation of rates of norm violating
behaviour in American society. In contrast to Durkheim, Merton bases his theory on
sociological assumptions about human nature. Anomie, for Durkheim, referred to the
failure of society to regulate or constrain the ends or goals of human desire. Merton,
on the other hand, is more concerned with social regulation of the means people use
to obtain material goals.

Merton’s conceptualisation of Deviance:

Merton in his theory of deviance indicates that deviants are not a sub-cultural group.
Rather people manifest deviant behaviour in different spheres of social life. A
mismatch between cultural prescriptive means and socially prescriptive goals give
way to deviant behaviour. He finds out that deviant behaviour persists in society
because it has not outlived its function therefore sociology should not be concerned
about deviance as a pathological problem rather one should study the latent and
manifest orientations of deviance.

Merton considers that anomie is not a product of rapid social change. Rather it is a
form of behaviour manifested by the people when they are suffering from social
strain. Therefore anomie theory is also known as social strain theory. The strain is the
product of mismatch between culturally prescriptive means and socially prescriptive
goals. When people experience social strain, they channelize there strains in different
ways in order to manifest different forms of anomic behaviour. At different points of
time. These forms of deviant behaviours are functional, dysfunctional and non-
functional.

> Conformity, is a non-deviant adaptation where people continue to engage in

legitimate occupational or educational roles despite environmental pressures toward
deviant behaviour. That is, the conformist accepts and strives for the cultural goal of
material success by following institutionalized means.
> Innovation, on the other hand, involves acceptance of the cultural goal but rejection
of legitimate, institutionalized means. This type of adaptation occurs when the
individual has assimilated the cultural emphasis on the goal without equally
internalizing the institutional norms.
> Ritualism, represents quite a different sort of departure from cultural standards than
does innovation. The ritualist is an over conformist. Here, the pursuit of the dominant
cultural goal of economic success is rejected or abandoned and compulsive
conformity to institutional norms becomes an end in itself.
> Retreatism, is the rejection of both cultural goals and institutionalized means.
Therefore, retreatism involves complete escape from the pressures and demands of
organized society. Merton applies this adaptation to the deviant role ―activities of
psychotics, outcasts, chronic drunkards, and drug addicts.
> In Rebellion, the rebel not only rejects the goals and means of the established
society but actively attempts to substitute new goals and means in their place. This
adaptation refers, then, to the role behaviour of political deviants, who attempt to
modify greatly the existing structure of society.

In his later work, Merton uses the term nonconformity to contrast rebellion to other
forms of deviant behaviour that are atypical. The nonconforming rebel is not
secretive as are other, the rebel publicly acknowledges his or her intention to change
those norms and the social structure that they support in the interests of building a
better, more just society.

REFERENCE GROUPS

Reference group is defined as a group with which one always makes a comparison
inorder to evaluate once achievements, aspirations, role performance and ambition.
The act as normative standards for the individual. Reference group is the aspirational
group and is defined in normative terms as a standard of comparison.

Positive reference groups are the ones that individual wishes to join and negative are
those which individual wishes to avoid. He also gives the concept of Anticipatory
Socialization in which individuals starts to behave in a manner in which members of
aspirational reference groups behave. It leads to change in the value system of
individual and it facilitates easy merger of individual in the aspirational group. A
dysfunctional aspect of anticipatory socialization in closed systems is that an
individual becomes an outcast in his own social group and also fails to gain entry into
reference group and is reduced to a marginal man.

INFLUENTIAL FACTORS IN CHOOSING A REFERENCE GROUP

> Power and prestige
> culture and values of the person and the reference group
> Isolation in membership group
> Open versus Close group
> Reference individuals or role models in a group

CHARACTERISTICS OF REFERENCE GROUPS

> The individual or group considers the behaviour of the other individual or group as
ideal behaviour and imitates it.
> The individual or group compares himself or itself with the other individual or
group.
> In Reference Group Behaviour the individual or group desires to rise higher in the
social scale and as such the group or individual comes to feel it’s or his defects or
weaknesses.
> The feeling of relative weaknesses or defects leads to the feeling of relative
deprivation in the individual or group.

Criticisms:

>Marxists point out that lack of equality of opportunity is at the heart of the Capitalist
system. (Elites make the system work for them, which disadvantages the lower
classes).
> Merton refers to goals and means, but there may be other aspects of social structure
which may cause Anomie.
> Albert Cohen argues that deviance is due to a specific subculture that members of a
particular subgroup develops. Hence, it is collective in nature and not at an individual
level as Merton has tried to prove.
> A person at different times may respond to the same type of social impetus
differently. This shows that anomic behaviour depends on the individual as well.
> Lemert and Laurie Taylor argue that those who wield power also decide who will
be deviant. Definitions of deviance don’t reflect consensus of society.
> It only explains how an individual is influenced by a Reference Group, but it does
not explain how the Reference Group is influenced by his entry into the group.