Final answer:
The claim that an individual admitting to a problem such as alcoholism and seeking to change is experiencing tertiary deviance is not accurate. The concepts of primary and secondary deviance better describe the stages of behavior before this point of recovery or rehabilitation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement given suggests that someone who admits to having a problem such as alcoholism and wants to change his life for the better is experiencing tertiary deviance. This is not accurate according to the concepts identified by sociologist Edwin Lemert. Primary deviance refers to a violation of norms that does not have a long-lasting effect on an individual's self-image or interactions with others. It is when these violative actions become labeled by society and result in a change of self-concept and behavior that secondary deviance occurs. Eventually, this can lead to the individual adopting a deviant identity as their master status. However, tertiary deviance is an unofficial term sometimes used to describe the process of normalization or decriminalization of a behavior, which isn't fully applicable to the individual's acknowledgment and change of their personal situation. Hence, the correct term for when an individual with a deviant label starts to change his life for the better seeking recovery and transformation, it is most accurately conceptualized as a recovery or rehabilitation process rather than tertiary deviance. Hence , given statement is false .