Positivism and Suicide - h6a2sociology



Durkheim, Positivism and Suicide

Durkheim is a classic positivist sociologist who used official statistics in his study of suicide from a positivist perspective.

Durkheim wanted to study suicide so that he could prove our actions are influenced by wider social forces which we have no control over. The reason for Durkheim choosing suicide was because if he could show that wider social actions could influence a person into taking their own life, then he this could be used as evidence to show that other human actions could be affected by wider social actions as well.

Durkheim’s definition of suicide was “all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or a negative view of himself, which he knows will produce this result”.

Durkheim’s Methods

• Used the comparative method. (Making comparisons between data to discover differences)

• Used official statistics – Used these to make comparisons between countries.

Durkheim’s Conclusion

- Differences in suicide rates varied from country to country although the differences were fairly stable.

- Suicide rates vary between groups.

From this Durkheim came to the conclusion that suicide rates were not driven by the individual but by social factors. If suicide was individually influenced the statistics would have been more scattered.

Durkheim categorised why people commit suicide in the following way:

Durkheim’s Types of Suicide’s Explained

What type of suicide?

[Some cases may be more than one]

Which type of suicide would Durkheim say the below cases were:

• Suicide by a lottery winner.

• Suicide by a widowed person.

• Suicide by a long-term unemployed person.

• Suicide by prisoners.

• Suicide by divorced people.

• Suicide by members of the radical Islamic Hamas group.

• Suicide by Jews in a German concentration camp during the war.

Positivist Approaches to Suicide

Think, what is Positivism about?

Halbwachs (1930)

Sociologist Halbwachs carried out a review of positivist sociologist, Durkheim’s work. Halbwachs agreed with the scientific approach that Durkheim used when studying suicide.

Halbwachs criticism of Durkheim was the issue that Durkheim completely over emphasised religion and how it participates to suicide rates. For Halbwachs difference in whether an individual lives in a rural or urban area had more of an impact on suicide rates than a person’s religion.

Gibbs and Martin (1994)

Sociologists Gibbs and Martin also agreed with taking on a scientific method when studying suicide.

Gibbs and Martin criticised Durkheim because he appeared to of not defined integration and this lack of explanation of his definitions could lead to a problem when trying to measure such things.

Gibbs and Marin were among a selection of Sociologists who criticised Durkheim for not taking a thoroughly positivist approach to studying suicide.

Gibbs and Porterfield (1960)

Gibbs and Porterfield studied suicide statistics for New Zealand; they thought using statistics was good because you could see a victim’s occupational class at birth and at death.

- Social mobility creates anxiety, feelings of failure and frustration

- Social mobility also weakens social ties which then leads to a lack of support at times.

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Recap of Positivism

• Scientific

• Objective

• Cause and effect

• Quantitative

What type of research methods do positivists use?

Integration

Regulation

B

A

L

A

N

C

E

Lack of Integration

Over-integration

Lack of Regulation

Over-integration

Type of Suicide

Egoistic

Altruistic

Anomic

Fatalistic

Egoistic

This type of suicide occurs when an individual is under integrated in society.

E.g. The rates of suicide are higher amongst Protestants than Catholics and Protestants have a looser social network.

Altruistic

This type of suicide occurs when an individual has become over integrated into society.

E.g. Followers who commit suicide after the death of a leader – A modern example is terrorist suicide bombers.

Anomic

This type of suicide occurs when society has a lack of control over individuals, a lack of regulation exists.

E.g. When economic depression or rapid change occurs people find it difficult to adapt to the changes.

Fatalistic

This type of suicide occurs when society has too much regulation and control over people’s lives.

E.g. Prisoners or Slaves who have no control over themselves but are controlled by others.

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