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CULTURALLY PRESCRIBED ASPIRATIONS

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2011

Culturally prescribed aspirations is a rejection of the notion that aspirations are entirely a matter of self-creation; rather they are defined by culture and transmitted by other members of the society.

Merton assumes that everyone shares the same cultural goals or aspirations and that the primary goal is wealth. It should be noted that Merton wrote during the great depression and his idea may be appropriate for an age of scarcity. Do they apply to an age of prosperity?

Other sociologists have argued, and demonstrated, that groups of people may have quite different aspirations or goals.

Cyclical domination of the main spheres of the social life is stipulated by interaction at the macrolevel of the frame of society of two major subsystems — the organizational-managerial and the value-standard ones, the divergence of which consists in a conflict between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured means of their attainment (R.Merton). 

Merton saw high unemployment, poverty and crime as an expression of disequilibrium caused by “a disassociation between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured avenues for realising these aspirations”. 

According to Merton aberrant behaviour including crime and delinquency “may be regarded sociologically as a symptom of dissociation between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured avenues for realizing these aspirations”.

Robert Merton emphasis on the conflict between culturally prescribed aspirations and legally sanctioned opportunities of realizing these.

Delinquency problems may be regarded as a symptom of strain caused by the gap between culturally prescribed aspirations (e.g. monetary success) and socially structured avenues designed to achieve goals.

“Deviance is a form of adaptation to the strain that exists between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured avenues."

"Sociological ambivalence experienced by the immigrants may be induced by the opportunity structure characterized by the disjunction between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured avenues for realizing these goals."  

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