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Conformity and Deviance

Every society encourages conformity to social norms through social control but also allows for some deviance. Deviance can range from minor infractions to serious crimes. What is considered deviant can vary across time, place, and social groups. Societies define deviance and deal with it in ways related to their organization. Deviance serves important social functions, such as affirming norms, clarifying moral boundaries, bringing people together in reaction to it, and encouraging social change, according to sociologist Emile Durkheim. Sociologist Robert Merton argued that a lack of means to achieve cultural goals through approved avenues can lead to different types of deviance, such as innovation, ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion.

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832 views2 pages

Conformity and Deviance

Every society encourages conformity to social norms through social control but also allows for some deviance. Deviance can range from minor infractions to serious crimes. What is considered deviant can vary across time, place, and social groups. Societies define deviance and deal with it in ways related to their organization. Deviance serves important social functions, such as affirming norms, clarifying moral boundaries, bringing people together in reaction to it, and encouraging social change, according to sociologist Emile Durkheim. Sociologist Robert Merton argued that a lack of means to achieve cultural goals through approved avenues can lead to different types of deviance, such as innovation, ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion.

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Mary Joy Dailo
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Conformity and Deviance

Conformity and deviance (Macionis 2012: 194)

Every society is a system of social control or attempts by society to regulate people’s


thoughts and behavior. Social control encourages conformity to certain norms and
discourages deviance or norm breaking. Deviance range from minor infractions, such
as bad manners, to major infractions, such as serious violence.

Norms that become specified and institutionalized are called laws. Crime refers to the
violation of the law.

There is a lack of consensus in society regarding which behaviors or traits are deviant.
What is considered as deviance will vary across time, places, and social groups. How a
society defines deviance, who is branded as deviant, and what people decide to do
about deviance all have to do with the way society is organized.

The functions of deviance (Macionis 2012: 197). According to Emile Durkheim (1858–
1917), deviance performs the following functions:
 Affirms cultural norms and values. Deviance is needed to define and support
morality. There can be no good without evil and no justice without crime.
 Clarifies moral boundaries. By defining some individuals as deviant, people draw
a boundary between right and wrong.
 Brings people together. People typically react to serious deviance with shared
outrage, and in doing so reaffirm the moral ties that bind them.
 Encourages social change. Deviant people suggest alternatives to the status quo
and encouraging change.

Merton’s strain theory (Macionis 2012: 197–198). Robert Merton (1910–2003) argued
that the extent and type of deviance people engage in depend on whether a society
provides the means (such as schooling and job opportunities) to achieve cultural goals
(such as financial success). Conformity means achieving cultural goals through
approved means. However, the strain between the cultural goal and the lack of
opportunities to achieve these goals using approved means may result in deviance.
Merton identifies four types of deviance: innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.
Innovation involves using unconventional means (for example, Steve Jobs, the founder
of the Apple computer company, and his colleagues who, without support from big
corporations, worked in a garage to invent personal computers) rather than
conventional means (working for an established computer company) to achieve a
culturally approved goal (wealth). In ritualism, people do not care much about the goal
(getting rich) but stick to the rules (the conventional means) anyway in order to feel
“respectable.” A third response to the strain between the cultural goal and the approved
means is retreatism, rejecting both cultural goals and conventional means so that a
person in effect “drops out.” The fourth response is rebellion. Like retreatists, rebels
reject both the cultural definition of success and the conventional means of achieving it,
but they provide alternatives to the existing social order.

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