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| Review: Durkheim | |||||
| Introduction: Durkheim is known for establishing the 1st Sociology
Dept.
This was at the University of Paris Durkheim is known for establishing Sociology as a Social Science He did this through applying the Scientific Method to Social Facts in his study of Suicide |
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| Suicide was written by Durkheim in 1897 | |||||
| Durkheim chose his Topic: | |||||
| Durkheim conducted the research on suicide in order to establish Sociology as a social science on par w/ psychology | |||||
| For Durkheim, suicide is perhaps "the most personal act" any human can undertake | |||||
| Durkheim believed that if he could show that the most individual of acts, which had previously been attributed to psychological causes, had social causes, then he would validate the power & worth of Sociology | |||||
| In writing Suicide, Durkheim Reviewed the Literature, examined appropriate Theory, & employed common sense: | |||||
| Durkheim believed a society had to accomplish two major functions to be successful | |||||
| a. Integration is the degree to which collective sentiments (knowledge, beliefs, values) are shared by members is society | |||||
| The opposite of Social Integration is Isolation in a society | |||||
| b. Regulation is the degree of external constraint on people,
i.e. the common norms people live under
Regulation vs Lack of Regulation in a society |
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| The widespread failure of Integration or Regulation in society yields
societal collapse
The occasional failure of Integration or Regulation in society yields an increased rate of suicide |
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| What are some common causes of suicide?
Why do some people commit suicide & others don't? What are some possible explanations?
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| Depression
Terminal illness
Spouse leaves them Picked on by peers Lost job Loneliness |
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| Durkheim then uses the deductive method to develop his Thesis & Hypotheses: | |||||
| Durkheim's Hypothesis is that Suicide would be highest among single, Protestant, men because these groups are less integrated & less regulated | |||||
| Other groups w/ a tendency toward suicide are those who are highly integrated or over-regulated | |||||
| Durkheim's Method was to travel from parish (country) to parish & examine death certificates of suicides & record demographic info, & the circumstances surrounding the death | |||||
| Durkheim rode from Parish (county) to Parish in France in the 1890s | |||||
| Durkheim collected data on social background of suicide victims, e.g. demographic information including age, religion, class, job, work history, income, wealth, gender, etc. | |||||
| Then Durkheim grouped people according to suicide rates & each social factor; & he did this by hand ( a computer would do this today ) | |||||
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Table on Durkheim's Four Types of suicide | ||||
| 1. Altruistic Suicide is correlated w/ High Integration into society | |||||
| When social integration is too strong, the individual is literally forced into committing suicide | |||||
| Hero suicide occurs when a parent dies while pushing their child out of the way of a car | |||||
| With Altruistic Suicide, death is deliverance | |||||
| Altruistic suicide springs from hope, for it depends on the belief in the beautiful afterlife: death is a deliverance | |||||
| Non-extreme examples | |||||
| - soldier jumping on grenade or charging hill | |||||
| - policeman dying in line of duty | |||||
| - parent pushing child from path of car | |||||
| Extreme Examples: | |||||
| - Kamikazes | |||||
| - Muslim bombers | |||||
| - 1996: men emolating (burning) themselves to protest: Miss World pageant in India. | |||||
| - The followers of Reverend Jim Jones at the People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana. |
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| - The followers of David Koresh & his followers of the Branch Dividians in Texas. |
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| 2. Fatalistic Suicide: High Regulation by society | |||||
| Persons w/ pitilessly blocked opportunities & passions, violently choked by oppressive discipline | |||||
| Fatalistic suicide was little mentioned by Durkheim | |||||
| Examples: | |||||
| - slaves | |||||
| - prisoners | |||||
| - overworked college students | |||||
| - American middle class working men | |||||
| - American middle class house wives | |||||
| School Age suicides/killers: I cannot stand the harassment by the in-crowd, because I am different | |||||
| - over-worked Japanese employees | |||||
| - over-worked American executives | |||||
| 3. Egoistic suicide: Low Integration into society | |||||
| Individual experiences a sense of meaninglessness | |||||
| Found in societies where individuals are not well integrated into the society | |||||
| Personal feeling/emotion: Sense of meaninglessness, depression | |||||
| Stems from the social currents of incurable weariness & sad depression | |||||
| Society is where we "learn" [ socialize or imprint ] our norms & morals | |||||
| These are internalized into the self | |||||
| Therefore, w/ egoistic suicide, a person may also appear as out of control | |||||
| They lack of internal control of self | |||||
| If people are left to pursue their private interests in whatever way they wish, they are likely to feel considerable personal dissatisfaction | |||||
| Why? Because all needs cannot be fulfilled | |||||
| Self as constructed by society is seen as nearly insatiable | |||||
| Needs that are satiable simply lead to the generation of more and more needs. | |||||
| Examples | |||||
| - Unmarried individuals have higher rates of suicide than married people | |||||
| - Lone Wolf Suicide: You have nothing: The Stranger | |||||
| - School Age killer/suicides: I have no friends; I am left out of everything | |||||
| These troubled young men have the following qualities in common | |||||
| Generally isolated... not popular at all
Harassed or teased by others Unregulated in that they could get access & time to gain weaponry |
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| - Millionaire suicide: People only like me for my money: Richie Rich: the poor little rich kid | |||||
| - Star Egoistic Suicide: Many stars die of egoistic suicide | |||||
| Marilyn Monroe | |||||
| Janis Joplin of Big Brother & the Holding Co. d. 1970 |
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| Jim Morrison of the Doors. | |||||
| Kurt Cobain of Nirvanna in b. 1967 d. 1994 |
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| Religion insulates against suicide: integrates people into society | |||||
| Religion limits wants | |||||
| 4. Anomic suicide: Low Regulation by society | ||
| Anomie: experience where Culture ( common knowledge,
beliefs, values, norms ) does not exist &/or has become ineffective
( for Durkheim, Culture may be thought of as the collective unconscious ) |
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| In comparing Anomie to Alienation, Alienation is the separation or isolation from existing culture whereas Anomie is the condition where there is no culture, i.e., no culture to be separated from |
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| See: Anomie |
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| See: Alienation |
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| See: Culture | ||
| Societal disintegration leads to currents of depression & disillusionment. | ||
| The moral disintegration of society predisposes the individual to commit suicide, but the currents of depression must be there to produce differences in rates of anomic suicide. | ||
| But even though social forces may be weak, an individual is never totally free of the collectivity | ||
| Disruptions in regulative powers of society leaves people dissatisfied because they have little control over their passions | ||
| So people are allowed to run wild in an insatiable race for gratification | ||
| Success can significantly reduce the Regulation that one experiences: The newly rich may quit their job, move to a new community, perhaps find a new spouse | ||
| These changes disrupt regulatory effect of old structures & the person may not yet feel new regulatory effects | ||
| Examples of anomic suicide |
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| - I am so weak, I have nothing left to lose | ||
| - Suicide from great loss (lay-off) | ||
| - Bum: I can do whatever I want because no one can
hurt me
"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose" Janis Joplin |
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| - I am so powerful, I cannot lose |
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| - College students away from home, family, friends, becomes wild party animal, & dies of overdose, car wreck, etc. | ||
| - Person moving to big city for first time | ||
| - Millionaire: I can do whatever I want because I am so powerful: No one can tell me what to do |
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| - Suicide from great gain (finally “making it big” career wise) |
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| - Superstars, and anyone who die "accidentally" in that they were not depressed, despondent, etc. | ||
| - They live the wild life, feel free, & feel little societal control or fear | ||
| - Jimi Hendrix |
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| - James Dean |
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| - John Belusi? | ||
| - Social or natural crises reduce regulation & people feel they have nothing left to lose, no reason to live |
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| Periods of disruption unleash currents of anomie, moods of restlessness & normlessness |
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| Rates of anomic suicide may rise w/ almost any social crises such as a storm, a war, an economic boom, an economic depression, etc. |
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| Individuals experience the sensation ( usually felt as fear or anxiety ) that society is breaking down |
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| Old rules no longer apply | ||
| Either econ boom or econ depression makes society incapable of exercising its authority over individuals. | ||
| The old norms no longer apply, but new norms are not yet in place | ||
| Losing a job can cut the individual off from the Regulation that the company, the job, the workplace friendships may have had | ||
| Being cut off from the economic sector, or family, religion, state, etc. leaves the person rootless |
| Findings: What is the profile of a suicidal person? | ||
| Men commit suicide more than women
( Women make more attempts at suicide, but men succeed more often ) |
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| The young, mid teens to mid twenties & the middle aged, late 40s & 50s are the most suicidal age groups |
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| Protestants more than Catholics or Jews to commit suicide |
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| People of all Classes have about the same rates of suicide, except for the extreme rich & poor |
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| Those who have been recently Laid-Off more likely to commit suicide |
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| If you are male, middle-age, Protestant, laid-off, Watch-out! |
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| Durkheim's findings are still valid today & yet most of the focus is on psychological causes |
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| Durkheim's study has been confirmed by many other researchers & its generalization is very widespread |
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The End
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