Suicide

Question 1

What positivist is known for their study of suicide?

Answer 1

Durkheim

Question 2

What did Durkheim believe that he could show?

Answer 2

That suicide had social causes and there were social patterns in suicide that this would prove that sociology was a distinct and genuinely scientific discipline

Question 3

In Durkheim’s view, what is our behaviour caused by?

Answer 3

Social facts - social forces found in the structure of society

Question 4

According to Steven Lukes, what are the three features of social facts?

Answer 4

They are external to individuals, they constrain individuals and they are greater than individuals

Question 5

For Durkheim, what is the suicide rate?

Answer 5

A social fact

Question 6

What did Durkheim use to analyse suicide rates?

Answer 6

Official statistics

Question 7

What four patterns did Durkheim identify from the official statistics?

Answer 7

Suicide rates for any given society remained more or less constant over time, when rates changed they coincided with other changes, different societies have different rates and within a society, the rates varied considerably between different social groups

Question 8

Instead of a psychological explanation, how does Durkheim explain the suicide rate?

Answer 8

He explains the suicide rate as the effect of social facts or forces acting upon individuals

Question 9

What two social facts does Durkheim identify that determine the rate of suicide?

Answer 9

Social integration and moral regulation

Question 10

What are Durkheim’s four types of suicide?

Answer 10

Egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide, anomic suicide and fatalistic suicide

Question 11

What is an egoistic suicide caused by?

Answer 11

Too little social integration

Question 12

What is an altruistic suicide caused by?

Answer 12

Too much integration

Question 13

What is an anomic suicide caused by?

Answer 13

Too little regulation

Question 14

What is a fatalistic suicide caused by?

Answer 14

Too much regulation

Question 15

What types of suicide tend to found in modern industrial societies?

Answer 15

Egoistic suicides because individuals rights and freedoms become more important than obligations towards the group so integration is low and also anomic suicides because rapid social changes undermines accepted norms

Question 16

What types of suicide tend to found in traditional pre-industrial societies?

Answer 16

Altruistic suicides because of higher levels of integration and fatalistic suicides because there are rigidly ascribed statuses that limit individuals opportunities

Question 17

Who developed Durkheim’s theory using his positivist approach and what did he argue?

Answer 17

Halbwachs, who argued that differences between urban and rural residence were the main reasons for variations in suicide rates

Question 18

How do Gibbs and Martin criticise Durkheim?

Answer 18

They argue that Durkheim does not operationalise his concept of integration

Question 19

What sort of approach does Jack Douglas take to explain suicide?

Answer 19

An interactionist approach

Question 20

What is Jack Douglas interested in?

Answer 20

The meanings that suicide has for the deceased, and in the way that coroners label deaths as suicides

Question 21

For what reason does Douglas criticise Durkheim’s use of official statistics?

Answer 21

The decisions to classify a death as a suicide are taken by a coroner and other social actors, which may produce bias in the verdicts reached

Question 22

What does Douglas criticise Durkheim for ignoring and assuming?

Answer 22

The meanings of the act for those who kill themselves and for assuming that suicide has a fixed or constant meaning

Question 23

What alternative method to categorising suicides based on social causes does Douglas propose for classifying suicide?

Answer 23

He argues that instead we must classify each death according to its actual meaning for the deceased using qualitative methods and sources to produce case studies based on the analysis of suicide notes and diaries etc. from which we can build up a typology of suicidal meanings

Question 24

Atkinson takes an ethnomethodology view of suicide. What does this mean?

Answer 24

Social reality is simply a construct of its members

Question 25

According to Atkinson, why can we never know the real rate of suicide?

Answer 25

We would have to know for sure what meanings the dead have to their deaths, which is impossible

Question 26

What does Atkinson focus on?

Answer 26

How the coroners categorise deaths

Question 27

What did Atkinson conclude about coroners from his research?

Answer 27

He concludes that coroners have a commonsense theory about the typical suicide which means that if a particular case fits their commonsense theory, the coroners are more likely to categorise the death as a suicide

Question 28

Atkinson argues that coroners commonsense theories lead them to see certain types of evidence as relevant. What evidence does this include?

Answer 28

A suicide note, mode of death, location and circumstances and life history

Question 29

What does Steve Taylor argue about statistics?

Answer 29

He argues that suicide statistics cannot be taken as valid

Question 30

What approach does Taylor adopt?

Answer 30

A realist approach

Question 31

What does Taylor’s realist approach aim to reveal?

Answer 31

Underlying structures and causes, which, though not directly observable can explain the observable evidence

Question 32

What does Taylor believe that we should look at and why?

Answer 32

We should look at both successful and unsuccessful suicide attempts as he notes that in many cases, those who attempt suicide are not certain that their actions will kill them

Question 33

What are Taylor’s 2 categories of suicide?

Answer 33

Inner or self-directed suicides (ectopic) and other directed suicides (symphysic)

Question 34

What two types of ectopic suicide does Taylor suggest?

Answer 34

Submissive suicides where the person is certain about themselves and they know they want to die and thanatation suicides where they are uncertain about themselves so they engage in risk taking behaviour that may lead to death

Question 35

What two types of symphysic suicide does Taylor suggest?

Answer 35

Sacrifice suicides where they are certain about others and know they have to kill themselves and appeal suicides where the person is uncertain about others so their suicide attempt is a form of communication that seeks to change the others behaviour

Question 36

How can Taylor’s research be criticised?

Answer 36

He only uses a small sample of case studies, which are unrepresentative of all suicides

Question 37

What is positivism?

Answer 37

It is the belief that society can and should be studied scientifically and develop laws of cause and effect to explain patterns that are observed