Durkheim on Suicide Slideshow

Question 1

What did Emile Durkheim find?

Answer 1

functional paradigm which is also known as structural functionalism

Question 2

What were his 3 main research questions?

Answer 2

• Why do people commit suicide
• Why do some people not
• Why does the rate of suicide differ from place to place

Question 3

What were the two explanations for suicide at the time?

Answer 3

• Suicide was the result of an individual’s psychological conditions.
• The other explanation was the natural environment, such as time of year, temperature, climate.

Question 4

Why were December and February months with the highest suicide rates?

Answer 4

• Holidays: Christmas and Valentines, usually spent with people and family
• Cold dark months

Question 5

What was Durkheim’s hypothesis?

Answer 5

• basic cause of suicide was social in nature.
• 3 factors: religion, marital status, and pace of social change.
• The degree of social attachment or the lack of it explained the variation in suicide rates.-

Question 6

What research methods were used?

Answer 6

• Statistics
• Accurate figures of the total population
• Variation of places

Question 7

What conclusion did he come across when he compared demographics?

Answer 7

• Social attachment is the key
• Suicide is caused by either unusually high and low social attachments
• Larger degree of social solidarity leaves the person at a higher risk of committing suicide

Question 8

What are the three kinds of suicide?

Answer 8

• altristic
• egoistic
• anomic

Question 9

Altristic Suicide

Answer 9

-not labeled a suicide
-someone who had a high degree of social interaction
-Just because you are connected does not mean you are happy
for example soldiers going into dangerous missions, devotion to the country

Question 10

Egoistic Suicide

Answer 10

• Opposite of altristic suicide
• Lack of attachment of the individual and society
• City-dwellers, men, single people, have fewer attachments and responsibility, more individualism, more social freedoms

Question 11

Anomic Suicide

Answer 11

-When an individual is forced to make decisions without any strong social attachments
-The individual is unattached because the whole society is undergoing rapid change and the old rules no longer seem to apply
-Happens in periods of uncertainty, times of crisis, revolution, and economic depression
For example the relationship between covid and seniors.