Strain Theory

Robert King Merton

Other than being that thing that whispers soft perversions to you through the cracks in the walls, Robert King Merton is just another white guy with a sociological theory called Strain Theory, which compares one's interest in conventional goals with one's interest in the conventional way of reaching those goals. The emphasis, or lack of emphasis, that individuals place on either of those two factors, combine to create four types of behaviors that can each conveniently be assigned to Tammy, Mandy, Courtney, and Misty.




To understand Strain Theory, consider the cultural goal to be having a child:

TAMMY: RETREATISM: Person loses sight of both means and goals

Tammy may have a child, but has no memory of the means in which it got there, and certainly isn't going to start to pay attention to any goal now.

MANDY: CONFORMITY: Person continues to accept goals and means set by society.

Mandy values both socially acceptable goals as well as the socially acceptable ways of reaching those goals. While for others the ceremony of getting married outweighs the actuality of marriage, Mandy sincerely values the daily under-salted meals and the occasional Franzia-induced "woman on top" sex that marriage brings- and she gets even more excited when the leeching, Go-Gurt stained offspring eventually show up.

COURTNEY: INNOVATION: Response when person accepts goals set by society but rejects socially acceptable means .

Courtney values and desires socially acceptable goals (like a water bed or novelty Rasta tam hat), but rejects the socially acceptable way of completing them (like paying for things with money). So, if Courtney's aim is to have a baby, she's not as much interested in the process of pregnancy as much as the end goal of having something other than her stuffed animals to watch Baywatch Nights with. So she does it her own way by getting inseminated by her teenage manager, smoking throughout the pregnancy, and scratching out the evidence in the photographs when the kid is old enough to ask questions.

MISTY: RITUALISM: Means and goals conformed to, but person loses sight of goals and has no real interest in outcome.

It may be that Misty likes the sexy Lord-filled copulation, but it's more likely that she enjoys being pregnant because she can't remember what it's like to not be pregnant and her vagina is too elephantine to get a job. Misty doesn't invest much into the end goal of what happens to the child after it comes out, and relies on after school programs, over-the-counter deliriants, and gangs to pick up the slack.