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GCSE Sociology · key term
Frustration at being unable to gain respect or social standing through accepted routes, central to Cohen’s explanation of delinquent subcultures.
Used by AQA and Eduqas
Paper 1, Paper 2
Frustration resulting from being unable to gain the status or recognition valued by wider society.
Revise: Social Construction of Crime and DevianceUnable to gain conventional status, they experienced status frustration.
Frustration caused by being unable to achieve the respect or social standing a person seeks.
For Cohen, connect educational failure and poor employment prospects to status frustration, then explain how delinquency brings peer prestige.
Distinguish Albert Cohen’s explanation of status frustration from Stanley Cohen’s work on moral panics.
Link the stages of Cohen’s explanation: cultural deprivation, educational failure, poor employment prospects, status frustration and subcultural rewards.
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Frustration caused by being unable to achieve desired recognition or standing; Albert Cohen linked it to working-class boys’ failure to meet middle-class educational expectations.
Frustration arising when people cannot gain the social standing and recognition they seek through accepted routes.
Component 2
Revise: Patterns of Criminal BehaviourFailure to meet middle-class expectations can produce status frustration: resentment at being unable to gain respect through accepted routes. A delinquent group can offer an alternative. Behaviour such as vandalism, graffiti or joyriding may win approval within the group, even though it brings condemnation outside it.
The frustration experienced when someone cannot gain the respect or social standing they seek through accepted routes.
