Aparticular student wants to do well in school, but never seems to be able to earn higher than a d. in pursuit of academic success, the student begins to cheat on exams. this is most consistent with which form of adaptation in merton’s theory of strain?

This is most consistent with INNOVATION form of adaptation in Merton’s theory of strain

Explanation:

Robert Merton focused on explaining why people tend to commit to deviant behavior within society and he opposed the other theorists who believed that it is derived by individual motives. Merton argued with these theorists by suggesting that some people feel that the only way to adjust in a normal way within society is to turn to criminal activities to alleviate their critical situation. He referred into anomie or strain theory , anomie which state that

due to confusion of what is happening in one's life and how hard they find it to achieve certain goals in a normal way they will resort to criminal activities.

The first way is to conform to society which means accept what ever is defined by society by pursuing success only in the ways acceptable within society such as education and earning money through a job.

The second reaction is innovation , this refers mostly to criminal act these are people who still believe they must pursue success just they innovate their own ways to pursue that success. They turn to deviant behavior because they want to achieve the success expected from them just that they use deviant innovations.

Such as the student above , he want to do well in school hence he innovate cheating as a way to help him achieve this goal.