ABSTRACT
Social change almost invariably involves some breakdown in social control. If social disorganization is an aspect of social change, it follows that social reorganization sometimes involves the eventual acceptance of some of the behavior patterns once condemned as deviant. Social change consists of a change in the outlook of men, and such transformations apparently depend upon interpersonal relations. People who occupy a marginal status are continually confronted with the necessity of forming moral judgments. There is no necessary relationship, then, between marginal status and personality disorders. But a study of the few who do develop maladjustments is instructive, for they reveal in exaggerated form the inner conflicts experienced with less intensity by others who occupy marginal positions. Everyone living in a changing society encounters some difficulties, but for most people the conflicts are mild and intermittent. However, some find themselves in marginal status, a position that incorporates within it the contradictions of the structure of the community.
