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What are the features of Merton's 5 adaptations? Think of an example of each.

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Final answer:

Merton's five adaptations represent different responses to the tension between societal goals and the means to achieve them, ranging from conformity to rebellion, with examples including a student's pursuit of education or an employee's embezzlement for financial success.

Step-by-step explanation:

Merton's five adaptations include ways individuals respond to the tension between societal goals and the means to achieve them. These adaptations are:

  1. Conformity: Embracing the cultural goals and the conventional means of achieving them. For example, a student working hard to achieve good grades and obtain a college degree.
  2. Innovation: Accepting the goals but using illicit means to achieve them, such as an employee embezzling funds to reach financial success.
  3. Ritualism: Abandoning the goals but continuing to adhere to the means, like a worker who goes through the motions without aiming for promotion.
  4. Retreatism: Rejecting both the goals and the means, for instance, a person dropping out of society to live off the grid.
  5. Rebellion: Rejecting and replacing both the goals and the means with alternative ones, as seen in revolutionary movements that aim to overhaul the current system.

Each adaptation represents a different strategy to cope with the pressures of societal expectations and the individual's ability to fulfill them.

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