Race, Expectations and Anomia

An unanticipated finding relevant to anomia is examined-namely, that Negro autoworkers who were economically advantaged registered significantly higher anomia scores than those who were considerably less well off in terms of seniority and employment history. This particular finding was contrary to that found for white workers and also stands in contradiction to previous arguments and evidence based on anomie theory. The attempt to explain what was found includes a consideration of the relevance or nonrelevance of expectations and suggests that anomia functions as an indicator of frustration as well as despair. T he logic of the sociological perspective emphasizes that anomia1 is most properly viewed as an effect resulting from the pressures of certain social conditions. However, the specifications of the nature of such pressures and the mechanisms which explain their influence upon individuals provide a persistent challenge to sociologists.2 Among the many problems which serve to sustain that challenge, one of the most formidable stems from a key assumption which lies at the root of anomie theory as formulated by Merton over 25 years ago.3 In a recent paper, A. K. Cohen clearly discusses the point at issue-nalmely, that the concept of strain which presumably arises from the disjunction between cultural goals and institutionalized means suffers from an oversimplified conception of the goals people accept, internalize and actually strive toward.4 Cohen argues that the "relation between goals as components of that abstraction, culture, and the concrete goals of concrete role encumbents, is by no means clear and simple."5 The interest, however, in calling attention to Cohen's paper inheres not in its specifics but rather in the more general problem alluded tothat is, the matter of demonstrating rather than assuming that particular goals, aspirations or expectations are of actual relevance to persons who are presumably thwarted in their efforts to achieve them.6 It is the purpose of this paper to report a set of empirical findings which pertain directly to that theme and which serve to raise several important questions regarding the theoretical cogency of widely accepted correlates of anomia. More specifically, it will be shown that a similar set of conditions and circumstances which tend to produce relatively * This investigation was supported by Public Health Services Research Grant MH 08072, from the National Institute of Mental Health. 1 The term, anomia, is used in accordance with Srole's suggestion; i.e., contrary to anomie, anomia has the particular state of the individual as the central empirical referent and not society or a given social system variable. See Leo Srole, "Social Integration and Certain Corollaries: An Exploratory Study," Aw1erican Sociological Reviewu, 21 (December 1956), pp. 709-716. 2 See for example, R. L. Simpson and H. M. Miller, "Social Status and Anomia," Social Problem1ls, 10 (Winter 1963), pp. 256-264, for a concise discussion of three alternative hypotheses which attempt to relate aspects of status and class to anomia. See also, E. H. Mizruchi, "Social Structure and Anomia," Aimerican Sociological Review, 25 (October 1960), pp. 645-654; and D. Meier and W. Bell, "Anomia and Differential Access to the Achievement of Life Goals," Atmerican Sociological Reviezcw, 24 (April 1959), pp. 189-202. 3 Robert K. Merton, "Social Structure and Anomie," Anerican Sociological Reuiew, 3 (October 1938), pp. 672-682. 4 Albert K. Cohen, "The Sociology of the Deviant Act: Anomie Theory and Beyond," Americas Sociological Reviewu, 30 (February 1965), pp. 5-14. 5Ibid.. p. 6. 6 This poinlt is also made by Marshall Clinard and Edvin Lemert in their contributions to the recently published work, An4om-ie anid Deviant Behavior, (ed.) Marshall B. Clinard (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964) : see M. B. Cliniard, "The Theoretical Implications of Anomie and Deviant Behavior," pp. 1-56, and Edwin Lemert, "Social Structure, Social Control and Deviation," pp. 57-97. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.163 on Sat, 19 Nov 2016 04:30:31 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms