Final answer:
Robert Merton's Strain Theory lists five responses to societal strain: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion, all of which are ways individuals respond to a mismatch between societal goals and the means to achieve them.
Step-by-step explanation:
Sociologist Robert Merton's Strain Theory is a crucial contribution to the understanding of deviance and social structure. Merton detailed five ways in which individuals respond to the gap between socially accepted goals and the means available to achieve them:
- Conformity: When an individual adheres to both the goals and the socially approved means of achieving them.
- Innovation: Where one accepts the goals but turns to unapproved or illegal means to achieve them.
- Ritualism: Involves the rejection of cultural goals but continues to adhere to the institutional means.
- Retreatism: When a person rejects both the goals and the means and withdraws from society.
- Rebellion: A response where both goals and means are rejected and new ones are created in their place.
Merton's theory indicates that the societal pressure to achieve certain goals without providing the means can lead to deviant behavior as individuals strive to meet those goals.