theory of suicide structural functionalism

For his magic acts he initially chose the stage name 'Merlin', but eventually settled on the surname 'Merton' to further 'Americanize' his immigrant-family name. Young Merton developed a strong interest in magic, heavily influenced by his sister's boyfriend. Merton initially as a stage name for his magic performances. In 1994, Merton stated that growing up in South Philadelphia provided young people with 'every sort of capital-social capital, cultural capital, human capital, and, above all, what we may call public capital-that is, with every sort of capital except the personally financial.' As a student at South Philadelphia High School, he was a frequent visitor to nearby cultural and educational venues, including the Andrew Carnegie Library, the Academy of Music, the Central Library, and the Museum of Arts. Įven though Merton grew up fairly poor, he believed that he had been afforded many opportunities. His father later became a carpenter's assistant to support the family. Merton's family lived in strained financial circumstances after his father's uninsured dairy-product shop in South Philadelphia burned down. His father was Aaron Schkolnickoff, a tailor who had officially been registered at port of entry to the United States as 'Harrie Skolnick'. His mother was Ida Rasovskaya, an 'unsynagogued' socialist who had freethinking radical sympathies. Robert King Merton was born on July 4, 1910, in Philadelphia as Meyer Robert Schkolnick into a family of Yiddish-speaking Russian Jews who had immigrated to the United States in 1904. Merton emphasized that, rather than a person assuming just one role and one status, they have a status set in the social structure that has, attached to it, a whole set of expected behaviors. Social roles were central to Merton's theory of social groups. The term grew from his theory of the reference group, the group to which individuals compare themselves but to which they do not necessarily belong. Merton's concept of the 'role model' first appeared in a study on the socialization of medical students at Columbia University. More specifically, as Merton defined, 'the self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior, which makes the originally false conception come true'. The concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, which is a central element in modern sociological, political, and economic theory, is one type of process through which a belief or expectation affects the outcome of a situation or the way a person or group will behave. He developed notable concepts, such as ' unintended consequences', the ' reference group', and ' role strain', but is perhaps best known for the terms ' role model' and ' self-fulfilling prophecy'. Merton's contribution to sociology falls into three areas: (1) sociology of science (2) sociology of crime and deviance (3) sociological theory. In 1994 he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions to the field and for having founded the sociology of science. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor. He served as the 47th president of the American Sociological Association. Robert King Merton (born Meyer Robert Schkolnick J– February 25, 2003) was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology.

Theory of suicide structural functionalism