Robert King Merton

Structural Functionalism and Systematic Racism

Structural functionalism is still going strong, despite the presence of systematic racism. Robert Merton, a prominent sociologist, developed a specific version of structural functionalism that deviated from the original pillars of the theory.

Merton discarded three important aspects of the original structural functionalism:

1. Universal functionalism: the belief that if an activity or phenomenon is functional for a particular group of people, it is functional for everyone.
2. Functional unity: the idea that society is tightly united, and even a small change can have a significant impact on the entire society.
3. Functional indispensability: the notion that everything that is stable is indispensable.

Merton's new functionalism was considered to be "one of the most liberal versions of functionalism."

One of Merton's notable contributions was the formulation of the Thomas Theorem, which states, "If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." In other words, the interpretation of a situation influences the resulting actions. This interpretation is subjective and influenced by individuals' perceptions of the situation.

Therefore, individuals respond not only to the objective features of a situation but also to their subjective understanding of it.

but also to the meaning this situation has for them. The subjective and psychological becomes real and empirical. “Whatever has consequences has to be somehow real” — if a thing is recognized as true in a community, then it does function as true in that community.

Goodhart’s Law “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” — any observed statistical regularity will be altered in its meaning once some pressure is placed on it.

The self-confirming prophecies: In 1948, Robert K. Merton coined the term self-fulfilling prophecy to describe “a false definition of a situation evoking a behavior which makes the originally false conception come true”. An initially inadequate definition of a situation becomes true because of the actions performed as a result of the acceptance of the prophecy. Public predictions of future social developments become a new element in the concrete situation, thus tending to change the initial course.

In other words, in a self-fulfilling prophecy an individual's expectations about another person or entity eventually result in the other person or entity acting in ways that confirm the expectations. The prophecy is originally inadequate: it takes place not because of the actor's conscious beliefs, but for different causes. Self-fulfillingness always rests on casual unintentionality.

Self-fulfilling means that it would not come true if it were not for the subject's concrete behavior. The Pygmalion effect: "When we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur." For example, if the professor believes that his students are very good students, eventually he will make them very good students.

The term Pygmalion Effect originated from a poem by the Greek poet Ovid entitled Metamorphoses. In it, Pygmalion was a sculptor who eventually fell in love with one of his own creations and begged the gods to

Deliver him a wife similar to the sculpture he became enamored with. As the story goes, the gods made his wish come true, and the sculpture came to life. Rosenthal and Jacobson became inspired by the story and subsequently named their findings after the sculptor.

Suicidal prophecy: A self-defeating prophecy is the complementary opposite of a self-fulfilling prophecy; a prediction that prevents what it predicts from happening. "The self-defeating prophecy is a true definition of the situation, evoking a new behavior which makes the originally true conception become false". The prediction failure which occurs in this case is a consequence of the renewed intentions of the subjects, who modify certain aspects of their behavior in response to this new awareness.

This self-destroying process presupposes that the social actors have understood the sociological prophecy so correctly that they are able to act in such a way to prevent the predicted event from occurring. Lecture I: THE

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY

In a series of works W.I. Thomas set a theorem basic to the social sciences: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences". Though it lacks the precision of a Newtonian theorem, it possesses the same gift of relevance, being applicable to most social processes.

The theorem has been repeatedly set by numerous disciplined minds long before Thomas.

The first part of the theorem provides a reminder that men respond not only to objective features of a situation, but especially to the meaning this situation has for them. And once they have assigned some meaning to the situation, their consequent behavior and some of the consequences of that behavior are determined by the attributed meaning.

As an example: Milling Ville's bank had become insolvent, and there had been numerous rumors circulating about its prominent insolvency.

What really happened is that the rumors had affected the actual outcome: the prophecy of collapse led to its own consequences.

fulfillment.Milling Ville had never heard of the Thomas theorem but despite this he had no difficulty in recognizing its working. The bank would have survived had not the misleading rumors created the very conditions of its own fulfillment.

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.

It is the self-fulfilling prophecy which goes far towards explaining the dynamics of ethnic and racial conflict in America. Black people, seen as strikebreakers, were so because they had been excluded from unions and from larger ranges of jobs, rather than being excluded from unions because strikebreakers.- This can be seen by the virtual disappearance of black people as scabs in industries as soon as they gained admission to the unions.

The application of the Thomas theorem suggests how the circle of self-fulfilling prophecies can be broken: the initial definition of the situation which sets the

circle in motion must be abandoned. Only when the original assumption is questioned and a new definition of the situation is introduced, does the flow of events give the lie to the assumption. - Only then does the belief is no longer far from reality. But to question these deep-rooted definitions of the situation is only a simple act of the will. They are not brought into being by mass propaganda or mass education. If psychic ills could be cured by the dissemination of truth, the psychiatrist of this country would be suffering from unemployment. Nor will a continuing educational campaign itself destroy racial prejudice and discrimination. The appeal to education as a cure-all for the most varied social problems is rooted deep in the mores of America. Yet it is illusory. Teachers share the very prejudices they are urged to defeat, and when they don't, they are being asked to serve as martyrs in the cause of educational.

utopianism. Education may serve as an optional adjunct but not as the basis for any change in the prevailing patterns of relations.

In order to understand why educational campaigns cannot be counted on to eliminate prevailing ethnic hostilities, we must examine the operation of "in-groups" and "out-groups" in our society.

Ethnic out-groups consist of all those who are believed to differ significantly from ourselves in terms of nationality, race or religion. Counterpart of ethnic out-groups is the ethnic in-group, constituted by those who belong.

There is nothing fixed or eternal about the lines separating the in-groups from out-groups: as situations change, lines of separation change.

Under the guidance of the dominant in-group, out-groups are subjected to a process of prejudice which negates mass education and mass propaganda of ethnic tolerance and is the process through which in-group virtues become out-group vices.

If it appears to the white in-group that black people are

not educated in the same measures as themselves, it is not difficult to understand the charge that the blacks are considered inferior to the whites. This is why educational campaigns cannot be counted to eliminate prevailing ethnic hostilities.

If the dominant in-group believes that blacks are inferior, they consider that funds for education are wasted on those individuals and this makes the prophecy fulfill.

The systematic condemnation of the out-group continues largely irrespective of what he does. Discrimination aimed at the out-group isn't a result of what the out-group does, but what the out-group does is a consequence of the exclusion operated by the in-group.

This is why a theory was established: "the same behavior must be differently evaluated according to the person who exhibits it". According to this theory a behavior undergoes a complete change of evaluation in transition from the in-group to the out-group.

The right activity by the wrong people (out-groups) becomes a

thing of contempt, not honor. For clearly, only in this way, by holding these virtues exclusively to themselves, can the men of power retain their distinction, their prestige, and their power. The limitations enforced upon the out-group logically imply a fear of the in-group of superiority of the out-group. Were it otherwise, no discrimination need to be practiced. After a time of being repeatedly told that one is inferior, and lacks any positive accomplishments, that their often as a matter of self-defense these out-groups become persuaded virtues really are vices. In this confusion of inverted values it is impossible to determine when virtue is sin and sin moral perfection. The Lavanburg study proved that: UNDER APPROPRIATE INSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONDITIONS THE EXPERIENCE OF INTERRACIAL AMITY (friendship) CAN OVERTHROW THE FEAR OF INTERRACIAL CONFLICT. - The self-fulfilling prophecy operated only in the absence of deliberate institutional controls. Ethnic prejudices do die, but with the

Help of unconsciousness and cutting off their necessities for existence provided by certain institutions of our society, and NOT by insisting that it is unreasonable and unworthy of them to survive.

Lecture II: UNINTENTIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN ACTIONS

The problem of the unanticipated consequences of purposive action has been treated by virtually every substantial contributor to the long history of social thought (psychology, religion...).

In the first place, the greater part of this paper deals with isolated purposive acts rather than with their integration into a coherent system of action.

Furthermore, unforeseen consequences should not be identified with consequences which are necessarily undesirable (from the standpoint of the actor) - undesired effects are not always undesirable effects.

The intended and anticipated outcomes of purposive action, however, are always, in the very nature of the case, relatively desirable to the actor, though they might seem negative.