Exam 1

Question 1

What was the Dreyfus Affair?

Answer 1

Dreyfus was made a scapegoat because he was Jewish, called a traitor and executed.

Question 2

What does Sui Generis mean in regard to society?

Answer 2

An objective reality that is irreducible to the individuals that compose it

Question 3

What is a social fact?

Answer 3

• Facts are “general throughout the extent of a given society”
• A social fact is marked by any manner of action capable of exercising over the individual exterior constraint

Question 4

What is collective conscience?

Answer 4

The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society that forms ad terminate system which has its own life

Question 5

What is collective representation?

Answer 5

Another name for collective conscience/consciousness.

Question 6

What is mechanical solidarity?

Answer 6

Traditional: minimal division of labor

Question 7

What is organic solidarity?

Answer 7

Modern: advanced division of labor

Question 8

What is anomie?

Answer 8

A lack of moral regulation

Question 9

What is Durkheim’s stance on crime?

Answer 9

Crime defines the moral boundaries of a society. When society defines a norm. It also defines the consequences for breaking the norm, Thereby communicates the range of acceptable behavior

Question 10

What is Durkheim’s definition of religion?

Answer 10

A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which united into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them

Question 11

What is collective effervescence?

Answer 11

 Humans are able to create high levels of emotional energy when they gather together
 A positive form, where people feel closer to society/God, and a negative one, where morals and inhibitions slip away

Question 12

What makes something sacred?

Answer 12

Sacredness is not a function of the object; sacredness is something that is placed upon the object

Question 13

What is a symbol?

Answer 13

A symbol is something that stands for something else. It is a representation that calls up collective ideas and meanings

Question 14

What is a church, a moral community?

Answer 14

A society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world, and by the act that they translate these common ideas into common practices

Question 15

What is Durkheim’s hypothesis on suicide?

Answer 15

Suicide rates are highest in moments when, and in places where, individuals lack social and moral regulation and/or integration

Question 16

What is Altruistic Suicide?

Answer 16

Committed by people who are deeply committed to group norms and goals and who see their own lives as unimportant. Basically, these suicides involved dying for a cause.

Too much integration

Question 17

What is Fatalistic Suicide?

Answer 17

Pervasive oppression; excessive regulation that pitilessly blocks the possibilities of future; violent choking of passions by oppressive discipline. Not considered to be a condition of modern life, “No Way Out”

Too much regulation

Question 18

What is Egoistic Suicide?

Answer 18

They are not strongly supported by membership in a cohesive social group. In times of stress, they feel isolated and helpless, prolonged sense of not belonging, not integrated in a community

Not enough integration

Question 19

What is Anomic suicide?

Answer 19

Disjuncture between existing norms and changing social structures. This breakdown of moral guidance results in rising rates of deviance, social unrest, unhappiness, and stress.

Not enough regulation