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Sociological perspective theory of suicide
Theoretical framework of Emile Durkheim
Theoretical framework of Emile Durkheim
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Emile Durkheim is a French sociologist that is commonly labeled as the “father of sociology”. In his book Suicide, Durkheim studied the suicide rates in Catholic and Protestant communities. He argued that the suicide rates are higher in Protestant communities because Catholics have stronger social control over their community. His research concluded that even though men are more likely to commit suicide than women, women who are unmarried and childless are more likely to commit suicide then those who aren’t. Durkheim stated “the term suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result”. (Pickering 2000) He theorized that there are four different types of suicide: …show more content…
Then patrollers sure would get you and beat you up. If they couldn’t catch you when you were running away from them, they would come on your master’s place and get you and beat you. The master would allow them to do it. They didn’t let the patrollers come on the Blackshear place, but this gal was so hard-headed ’bout goin’ out that they made a ’ception to her. And they intended to make her an example to the rest of the slaves. But they didn’t get Lucy” (1938). Suicide is the act of intentionally causing your own death. Whether you choose to do it anomically, egoistically, altruistically, or fatalistically, the act is still tragic. Durkheim theorized many different reasons why a person would commit suicide. He theorized that an uncontrolled environment, a feeling of worthlessness, heroicness, or oppression could push someone to take their own life. Whatever the cause may be don’t not wait to find out. There are many alternatives: talking to a friend, talking to a counselor, or calling the suicide hotline. Be an overcomer not a theorized
Durkheim’s concept of social integration refers to social groups with well-defined values, traditions, norms, and goals. These groups will differ in the degree to which individuals are part of the collective body, also to the extent to which the group is emphasized over the individual, and lastly the level to which the group is unified versus fragmented. Durkheim believed that two types of suicide, Egoistic and Altruistic, could stem from social integration. Egoistic suicide resulted from too little social integration. Those people who were not sufficiently bound to a social group would be left with little or no social support in times of crisis. This caused them to commit suicide more often. An example Durkheim discovered was that of unmarried people, especially males, who, with less to connect them to stable social groups, committed suicide at higher rates than married people. Altruistic suicide is a result of too much integration. It occurs at the opposite end of the social integration scale as egoistic suicide. Self sacrifice appears to be the driving force, where people are so involved with a social group that they lose sight of themselves and become more willing to take one for the team, even if this causes them to die. The most common cases of altruistic suicide occur to soldiers during times of war. Religious cults have also been a major source of altruistic suicide.
According to Durkheim, two types of suicide arise from the different levels social integration. One cause of suicide is extremely low social integration, which is referred to as egoistic suicide. Durkheim argues that this is the case because others give the individual’s life meaning, so without this support from the group the person may feel hopeless (Conley 188). The other type of suicide, altruistic suicide, reflects the opposite situation: when an individual is too socially integrated (Conley 189). This type of suicide occurs when members of a group or community become so totally engrossed by the group tha...
Kuhl wrote about how Emile Durkheims idea’s about suicide is connected with social intergation. The authors argue that individual factors may play in for youth sucide as well as the social intergation.
According to Durkheim, studying individual reasons for an action is psychology’s concern, not sociology (Durkheim, Suicide, 35). Weber would argue that the individuals are what make up a society, and thus, they should be the ones to be studied since their meaningful social actions are the ones that impact the society as a whole. Weber states, “Action in the sense of subjectively understandable orientation of behavior exists only as the behavior of one or more individual human beings” (Weber, Basic Sociological Terms, 3). In the case of suicide, Weber would argue that we must take the generalities within Durkheim’s theory into consideration, but then go beyond that. It would be more thorough to analyze the individual cases within different societies to derive a clear understanding of the motives people have behind the act of suicide. Weber would also utilize his concept of verstehen, to gain an explanatory understanding of the subjective
In 1897, Emile Durkheim (1997) showed that the suicide – perhaps the most personal of all decisions – could be analysed through the conceptual lenses of sociology.
Emile Durkheim is a French sociologist who investigated suicide and the connection to society using the functionalist perspective. He talks about solidarity being a component of suicide. The less people that an individual has a connection to the more likely they are to consider taking their own life. Belonging to a social group can increase the sense of belonging that people have in their everyday life. Social stratification is a factor of whether someone feels like they belong in a group or not.
When Durkheim conducted his research on suicide he did it with the intention of establishing Sociology as a science and as a result almost validate the worth and power of sociology. Before Durkheim’s study, suicide was considered only as the act of an individual however Durkheim’s theory was that suicide tied in with social structures and even though he believed that suicide is ‘the most personal act anyone can undertake’ (Durkheim, 1897), he also believed it was accredited to social causes.
A Study of Suicide: An overview of the famous work by Emile Durkheim, Ashley Crossman, 2009, http://sociology.about.com/od/Works/a/Suicide.htm, 25/12/2013
... the evidence changed in his later works). He has been widely criticised for his use of official statistics, which are open to interpretation and subject to possibly systematic misreporting, and therefore may not represent the true pattern or rates of suicide. It is also argued that he was confused between the distinction between egoism and anomie, and that he failed to substantiate his claims of the existence of altruism and fatalism; this is argued to such an extent that it has even been suggested that there is only one cause of suicide (egoism) that Durkheim could claim to be true. However, whilst acknowledging some of Durkheim’s own contradictions or confusions, some sociologists have gone on to develop and substantiate the ideas that he developed, and there is no denying that his study of suicide is a far-reaching and legacy-building work of substantial value.
Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. (J. A. Spaulding, & G. Simpson, Trans.)
Although sociologists like J.D. Douglas would question the reliability of the statistics, due to the coroners decision being final, most sociologists would agree that Durkheim's study into suicide was successful, and indeed many have tried to develop and improve on his theory. Overall, this essay has shown that one type of methodology may not always be suitable for the particular research carried out. Both Interpretative sociology and the Positivist approach equally show that they are valid methods for carrying out research, but like everything, nothing is one hundred percent accurate. Therefore, there is always room for flaw, but in the study of Sociology, there is always room for more ways of obtaining and interpreting data.
Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly. Committing suicide probably sounds like a foreign idea to most people, but to the people who think about it, they deal with it every day. More importantly, the question is what leads people to kill themselves? In general, most people do not want to actually kill themselves, even though many people joke about it on a daily basis. Being human, we all have a certain amount of will to live.
A useful framework to analyze male suicide is Baumeister’s escape theory of suicide. This theory states that suicide is a method of problem solving which is used when people are unable to recognize other options for themselves in stressful situations. It occurs when people become fixated on their failures (Coleman, Kaplan and Casey, 2011). Studies have shown that men, specifically unemployed men, tend to score higher on scales which measure social perfectionism (Wyllie et al, 2012). Social perfectionism is defined as the belief that one must always meet the expectations of others and society even when those expectations are unrealistic. The unrealistic cultural expectations that males strive to achieve is likely associated with cultural expectations of gender behaviour, showing the interplay between anthropological and psychological factors. These high levels of social perfectionism can lead to fixation on failures and lead to a narrowed state of mind, or cognitive rigidity. This cognitive rigidity can drive men to suicide as they are not able to recognize other methods of coping with their stress and problems. A point of note is that certain aspects of masculinity, such as fathering, can play a positive role and be protective against suicide (Coleman, Kaplan and Casey, 2011). In fact, studies have shown that scoring higher on scales measuring masculinity can be protective against suicide (Coleman, Kaplan and Casey, 2011). These studies show that masculinity itself is not inherently problematic, but that the feeling of inadequacy at failing to live by a masculine set of standards is the main cause for
Suicide is one of the most common death around the world. Life is just taking away very easy by someone or yourself. We have study the causes of someone killing themselves, but our human behavior can easy change and eventually make that deciduous. The causes and effects of suicide are depression, the past meaning your life before, and feeling unloved or lonely. The effects are the people that loved you are going to be depress, never reach those goals that you set for yourself, and people that loved you will feel the guilt.
Suicide is an individual act, but everything surrounding suicide such as the influences and factors are social. It is also social because it has to do with society; the stigmas, the way we respond and who it affects. Suicide is related to social factors that include but are not limited to; age, race and ethnicity, class and sexuality. Society plays a role in suicide and there is an explanation for suicide through society. Everything surrounding the topic of suicide is social, such as the reasons someone decides to do it. Social factors such as bullying, leads us into delving deeper into the topic. Why is bullying still continued when it is known to cause individuals to attempt/commit? Why aren’t schools doing more to prevent bullying? Will being homeschooled help? There are many unanswered questions which all link back to society and it’s impact of