Robert Merton: Manifest And Latent Theory

Born in 1910 in Philadelphia into a working class Jewish emigrant family, Merton became a very important figure in Sociology as a whole. He started his education in Temple College and then later went on to Harvard where he studied Sociology in both. He proved extremely popular and highly respected when he was ranked the University’s highest academic rank, later to be awarded the national Medical of Science award and founding sociology of science. It’s important to add also that he was the first ever to do this.
So why is Robert Merton so deserving of this? What makes his work so respected? A lot of it comes down to the passion he shows towards his area of expertise. Merton is a very prominent figure in sociology because of how he shaped and

This demonstrates his willing ness to go against what was being told and shows how much of a great man he was for sociology because he was thinking against what was told and not going with it. He believed that Parsons generalized theorizing or grand theory should instead be middle range theory which is quite similar to Weber’s Protestant Ethic in a way that empirical realities which articulate the relations that exist between particular

In society the ‘parts’ are structures, for example in society we have criminal systems, education systems. Within these parts they must carry out their niche or job in society. This should mean that society will run smoothly and everyone will be ok, but once one part doesn’t do their job correctly it causes an unwanted reaction. We need this theory of Merton’s to view the way we go about society. Manifest and Latent functions show how functions can be clear which is Manifest and Latent not so clear, a hidden function. As an example we could use a new job as an example of a social structure. People go into a new job to earn money, maybe gain experience this is a manifest function, whereas most people won’t think that a new job is good for the economy or they may meet a new partner there which is a latent function of a new