Sociology

Sociology


Conformist - most of the people in Altum are conformists. Because of the way the society is cultivated and how the younglings are raised, conformism is encouraged to aid in the betterment of the community.

Innovator - the very early Altumiums split into two "clans". The Altumiums that wanted to travel and find new resources for their people are considered innovators

Rebel - probably one or two Altumiums



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What kind of deviant is your world?

Merton's Types of Deviant Behavior
Robert Merton

• Anomie: what happens to us when there is a disjuncture between the goals or values that define who we are, and the legitimate societal norms for achieving them
• merton argues deviance results from culture and structure of society itself (since all members of society share the same values)
• since members of society are placed in different positions in the social structure (class position), they do not have the same opportunity of realizing the shared values. This can generate deviance

Cultural Goals and Institutionalized Means

•  members of American society share major values of American culture – goal of success, largely measured in terms of wealth and material possessions
• accepted ways of achieving success are through education, talent, hard work, drive, determination and ambition
• in a balanced society an equal emphasis is placed upon both cultural goals and institutionalized means, and members are satisfied with both. In American society great importance is attached to success; less is attached to how you achieve success
• tendency in this society to "reject the rules of the game" and strive for success by any means necessary. by "anything goes", norms no longer direct behavior, and deviance is tolerated if not encouraged

Conformity 

• social order is maintained b/c modal behavior of members represent the cultural patterns, even if they are secularly changing
• behavior --> basic values --> society
• society does NOT exist if there is no "deposit of values" shared by interacting individuals 
• these values are most common and widely diffused
• they keep society "rolling"
• members of society conform both to goals of success and the normative means of reaching them. they strive for success by means of accepted norms and channels

Innovation

• Emphasis on success - goal --> "wealth and power"
• "occurs when individual has assimilated the cultural emphasis upon the goal without equally internalizing the institutional norms governing ways and means for its attainment"
• turn to deviant means to gain goals

Ritualism

• scaling down / abandoning cultural goals for personal aspirations
• although attempting not to accept cultural influences, abiding by institutional norms
• not generally considered to represent a social problem
• fairly frequent b/c individual has no ambition or achievement
• "I'm satisfied with what I've got", "I just work here; I don't make the rules", "Don't aim high and you won't be disappointed"
• serves as a prive escape:
• avoids danger and frustrations of cultural norms
• holds ont to safe routines 
• often found in lower middle class people

Retreatism

• may be least common form of adaption
• "in the society but not of it"
• outcasts, street people, drug addicts
• individuals have assimilated standards of both cultural goals and institutional means --> but they are not accessible --> individual is shut off
• Escape mechanisms: defeatism, quietism, resignation, detachment
• solution for a deviant person: abandon both goals and means and become asocial
• condemned because represents a "non-productive liability"
• positive side - minimal frustrations while seeking unattainable rewards

Rebellion

• Collective adaptation
• involves genuine transvaluation
• experience of frustration leads to full denunciation of previously prized values
• key difference: resentment condemns the object being craved; rebellion condemns craving
• rejection of both success goals and institutionalized means, and it replaces them with different goals and means

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