Suicide

In the 19th century, at a time when sociology was struggling to establish itself as an academic discipline in its own right.

His study of suicide was part of his project to demonstrate the validity of sociology as a subject.

Because we tend to think of it as an intensely personal act and often as the product of mental illness so would perhaps be a better job for psychologists. Despite this, he believed he could show that suicide has social causes and that this would prove that sociology was a distinct and genuinely scientific discipline.

He thought that if he could show that there were social patterns in suicide and discover their social causes, he would in his view have shown sociology to be a science as he can then discover 'scientific laws' (causal explanations) of suicide.

-He demonstrated that factors such as climate have no effect on suicide rate (a popular view at the time)
-Said psychological explanations are inadequate as he doesn't believe that psychological factors can explain the differences in suicide rates of whole groups or societies, eg, Jews had higher mental illness rates than Protestants yet had lower suicide rates.

Our behaviour is caused by social facts - social forces found in the structure of society.

-They are external to individuals
-They constrain individuals, shaping their behaviour
-They are greater than individuals - they exist on a different 'level' from the individual.

A social fact.

1. Suicide rates for any given society remained more or less constant over time.
2. When the rates did change, this coincided with other changes, eg. the rates fell during wartime, while they rose at times of economic depression and times of rising prosperity.
3. Different societies have different rates.
4. Within a society, the rates varied considerably between different social groups. eg. Catholics had lower rates than Protestants, married people with children had lower rates than single, widowed or childless and rural dwellers had lower rates than city dwellers.

For Durkheim, the patterns he identified were evidence that suicide rates could not simple be a result of motives of individuals, eg. suicide rates remain fairly constant over time in Paris despite different individuals making up the population over time.

-Social integration: the extent to which individuals experience a sense of belonging to a group and obligation to its members - in highly intergreated groups, individuals feel a strong bonf with and sense of duty towards others.

-Moral regulation: the extent to which individuals' actions and desires are kept in check by norms and values. In Durkheim's view, without regulation by socially defined goals and rules, individuals' desires are infinite and incapable of satisfaction.

Suicide results from either too much or too little integration or regulation.

1. Egoistic suicide
2. Altruistic suicide
3. Anomic suicide
4. Fatalistic suicide

Egoistic suicide is cause by too little social integration. Durkheim argues that this is the most common type of suicide in modern society, cause by excessive individualism and lack of social ties and obligations to others.

Durkheim believes this explains the rate because, whilst both religions condemn suicide, Protestants have more individual freedom in what to believe and how to express their faith, whereas Catholics are more tightly integrated by shared beliefs and collective ritual.

Because these create a stronger sense of belonging and common purpose.