Merton and American Dream

Merton and American Dream

Robert King Merton was an American sociologist; and most of his career was spent in teaching at the Columba University. He was the one who developed the concepts such as "unintended consequences," the "reference group," and "role strain." However, he is more famous for the two terms, "role model" and "self-fulfilling prophecy" (Alvermann, et.al., 2005). In the social groups, the social roles were the main thing in Merton's theory and he emphasize on the fact that a person has one role and status and the social structure in which he belongs determines the expected behaviors. ...