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Merton's Modes of Adaptation

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Merton named five responses to strain: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion, defined by whether a person accepts the goals and the means.

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Rejecting the goal but keeping the means is ritualism; rejecting both without substitutes is retreatism.

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Only conformity is non-deviant; the other four are Merton's deviant adaptations, and conformity is by far the most common.

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