James Paul Hyatt SS 395 LESSON PLAN 1 Deviance: Merton’s Strain Theory I. Focus: It is simple at times for students to simply pass off a person’s status in life by generalizing a person’s life according to a stereotype. What this statement means is that people often look at a poor/homeless person and say that they are poor/homeless because they do not work hard enough, or they are lazy. We do this with people who are rich also and claim that they are rich and successful because they worked hard for their keep. While both of these statements about the rich and the poor may be true they do not appreciate a scientific approach to coding normative or deviant behavior. Robert K. Merton attempted to define deviant behavior according to five typologies that rely on the disparity between culturally accepted goals and institutional means of attaining those goals. The typologies are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Conformity refers to an individual who accepts cultural goals and the means of achieving these goals. This is the person that goes to a job that they receive a relative amount of enjoyment from doing, pays their taxes, and is working toward the “American Dream.” Next is the innovator, which is a person who accepts cultural goals, but rejects the means of attaining these goals. This is the person that we associate most closely with crime (a good example of an innovator is a drug dealer). The third typology is ritualism. The ritualistic person accepts institutional means, but rejects any form of major life goal. An example of the ritualistic person is someone who uses his/her job for survival instead of a way to project him/herself forward. After ritualism we have the retreatist mentality. This involves the idea of an individual who rejects both the goals and the means. We commonly associate retreatism with homeless people. The last and final typology, which is a sort of outlier that does not fit into culturally defined goals or institutional means, is rebellion. This typology involves the idea of instituting new goals and new means of attaining said goals. Examples of this include revolutionary minded individuals, or people involved in social movements like Occupy Wall Street. In this lesson students will gain theoretical scientific knowledge on how to better interpret deviant behavior. While there are several reasons why people deviate from the norm it is important to attempt to code this information into a manageable form. For example, as a veteran it is difficult for me to think that homeless veterans simply gave up on life and reject any form of goal or means of achieving goals. I believe that it is more psychological than that. To me it is more likely that a homeless veteran simply has issues that they cannot shake off from the stresses of combat. This lesson will ask students what goals and means are. It will also ask students to interpret the five typologies of Merton’s Strain Theory and to give examples of each. II. Unit: -­‐Sociology of deviance III. Objectives: -­‐Students will analyze the elements of Merton’s Strain theory. -­‐Students will know the difference between culturally defined goals and institutional means. -­‐Students will analyze the five typologies of Merton’s Strain theory. -­‐Students will interpret the five typologies and give examples for each. IV. Learning Standards: -­‐S.11.4 Explore explanations of deviance such as Merton’s Strain theory, Sutherland’s differential association theory, and Hirschi’s control theory. -­‐D2.Soc.16.9-­‐12. Interpret the effects of inequality on groups and individuals. V. Central Questions: -­‐What are culturally accepted goals and means of attaining goals? -­‐What are the five typologies of Merton’s Strain Theory? VI. Procedures: A. Beginning (17 minutes) 1. (2 Minutes) My classroom procedures will be set up to where students will pick up any handouts for my class on a desk or table by the door. This ensures that time is not wasted by handing out papers at the beginning of each class. In order to make my class run smoothly I will also have a procedural phrase that will get the students attention whenever we transition from one activity to the next. This phrase will be ZERO. The students will respond by shouting back FREEZE! a. I will begin the lesson by shouting ZERO in order to get the students attention. Once I have their attention I will assemble students into groups. They need not be performance-­‐based groups since they will not be producing anything other than discussion topics. 2. (5 minutes) Once I have students into groups I will instruct students to discuss and write down any life goals they might have. a. While students are doing this I will have time to take attendance. Once I have finished taking attendance I will shout ZERO. This will get students’ attention and allow me to move on with the next discussion topic. b. The next discussion topic will be for students to discuss and write down how they plan on attaining these goals. I will give students time to discuss this and then bring the class back together by shouting ZERO. 3. (10 minutes) Once I have the students’ attention I will begin discussing the difference between goals and the means of attaining goals. I will draw on the class to discuss different goals that they have and the means they plan on using to attain these goals. a. I am doing this in order to make a personal connection to the topic and to garner their interest in the discussion. b. Once we have fully reported out I will explain how goals and means are a driving force in our lives and the absence of goals or means can lead to socially deviant behavior. This will lead into our discussion of Merton’s Strain Theory and the five typologies according to his theory. B. Middle (30 minutes) 1. (10 minutes) At this point I will instruct students to take out Handout 1 that they picked up as they entered my classroom. I will shout ZERO once the students have their handouts in order to get their attention again. Once I have their attention I will begin my lecture of the five typologies of Merton’s Strain Theory. I will be very detailed and give precise examples of each typology. I will instruct students to take notes over the lectured material either on the handout or in their personal notebook. a. The typologies are as follows: i. Conformity-­‐ accepts cultural goals and the means of achieving these goals (Ex: American Dream). ii. Innovator-­‐ accepts cultural goals, but rejects the means of attaining these goals (Ex: Criminals). iii. Ritualism-­‐ accepts institutional means, but rejects any form of major life goal (Ex: job for survival). iv. Retreatism-­‐ rejects both the goals and the means (Ex: Homelessness). v. Rebellion-­‐ instituting new goals and new means of attaining said goals (Ex: Occupy Wall Street). 2. (20 minutes) After this I will put students into five groups based on performance. This will also be done in order to get students moving around the room because when the butt dies the brain dies. a. Once I have students into five groups I will have students conduct an activity that will involve each group to create a scenario for each of the typologies. The students will act out each of these scenarios in front of the class. Students will take turns narrating and acting out their scenarios. b. This will be a fun and interesting way for students to show that they know what they are talking about. I will instruct the students to interject if students happen to give a scenario that is wrong. After each group has presented we will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their scenarios. C. End (10 minutes) 1. (8 minutes) At this point in the class I will shout ZERO and gain the students attention for the last time. I will explain the assessment, which will be for students to get online at home or at school and find links to media that portrays each of the five typologies. Once the students have found all five they will send me an email through the school’s blackboard site with the links in the email explaining which typology fits each link. The assignment will be due two days after it is assigned. a. I will model the assessment by pulling up an overhead projection of an Internet browser. Once I am there I will show students a quick example of what I want. Here are two examples of retreatism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-­‐
j36_9xPGY and http://www.gq.com/news-­‐
politics/newsmakers/201409/the-­‐last-­‐true-­‐hermit 2. (2 minutes) At this point I will open the class up for any last questions they might have about the assignment or the class discussion in general. The class will wait for me to dismiss them and they will grab the assessment as they walk out the door. VII. Assessment: Students will demonstrate their knowledge of Merton’s Strain Theory by finding popular movie portrayals from an online source that they will send to me through the school’s blackboard site. VIII. Sources, Materials, and Accommodations: A.
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Handout Internet Projector Assessment handout My sources -­‐https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-­‐sociology-­‐
textbook/deviance-­‐social-­‐control-­‐and-­‐crime-­‐7/the-­‐functionalist-­‐
perspective-­‐on-­‐deviance-­‐62/strain-­‐theory-­‐how-­‐social-­‐values-­‐produce-­‐
deviance-­‐375-­‐6183/ -­‐ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-­‐j36_9xPGY -­‐http://www.gq.com/news-­‐politics/newsmakers/201409/the-­‐last-­‐true-­‐
hermit Assessment Instructions Students will demonstrate their knowledge of Merton’s Strain Theory by searching for online media (articles, videos from popular movies, youtube videos, etc.). The media should fit school guidelines and not be profane in any way. This is meant to be a fun way of reviewing the information that was discussed in class. Not a way of tormenting your instructor. Listed below are the five typologies of Merton’s Strain Theory. Make sure to email the instructor by the assessment deadline with a clearly labeled link. Below will be an example of how I want the assignment to look. Typologies: -­‐Conformity -­‐Innovation -­‐Ritualism -­‐Retreatism -­‐Rebellion Example of assessment submission: Dear Mr. Hyatt, What follows is a series of links to different media for the assignment for Merton’s Strain Theory. Retreatism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-­‐j36_9xPGY Respectfully, -­‐So&So Handout 1