The Suicide debate

The sociology of suicide may be examined as a form of deviance The Suicide Debate The sociology of suicide may be examined as a form of deviance Used to illustrate methodological debates

The Suicide debate Explaining theories of social disturbution Evaluating the functionalist explanation of suicide Explaining the social construction of suicide statistic Evaluating the positivist approach to sociology Assess the usefulness of the comparative survey Assessing the usefulness of secondary data and official statistics in particular

Durkheim 1858 -1917 Develops the debate over positivism. His method was ‘multivariate analysis’ Comparisions of social factors with the incident to event Studied statistics and collected death certificates and official documents He found clear patterns

His study Over 20 years suicide rate different by regions, countries, religions, married, unmarried He found that the greater the level of social integration the happier the society This was reinforced by religion ‘shared values’ and through the family Social institutions help to integrate people into society Can you suggest any? Give an explanation of how they fulfil this role!

Categorising suicide Durkheim identified 4 types of suicide Egoistic Alturistic Anomic Fatalistic Divide into groups and create a mini presentation (publisher) on a category Email these to me 20 minute task

Evaluating Durkheim His study was used for over 70 years and provided the basis of positivistic research. He threw Sociology into the respectable ranks of ‘science’. Yet…interpretive sociologists say this form of research into the individual in society is fundamentally flawed. Interpretive sociologists seek a different understanding

Suicide : Interpretivism Douglas 1967 Investigate the four ways people commit suicide Atkinson 1971 Investigate Atkinson’s social construction of suicide

From Positivism to Interpretivism to Taylor Says they have all missed ‘parasuicides’ Where the person is not certain whether they want to die or not, and gambles with their life ‘risk taking’…develops Durkheim’s so he suggests successful ‘parasuicides’ can be categorised as ‘ordeal’ sucides

Taylor 1990 So Taylor pulls wider social factors (Durkheim) With Douglas’s meanings Ordeal suicides Relates to Durkheim’s ‘Anomie’: they feel this profoundly Purposive suicides Similar to fatalism More likely to happen in individuals too detached from others in society (egoistic) And in those over attached (altruistic)