Robert King Merton (July 5, 1910 - February 23, 2003) is a distinguished sociologist perhaps best known for having coined the phrase "self-fulfilling prophecy." He also coined many other phrases that have gone into everyday use, such as "role model".

A functionalist, he distinguished between manifest functions, which are the intended results of social processes, and latent functions, which are unintended or not obviously recognized results of those processes in Social Theory and Social Structure (1949).

He is the father of Robert Merton.

Publications

• Social Theory and Social Structure (1949),
• The Sociology of Science (1973),
• Sociological Ambivalence (1976).
• On the Shoulders of Giants : A Shandean Postscript (1985)

External link

• A website on Merton