A2-Level Sociology

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A2-Level Sociology

• Suicide

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Defining Suicide

• Defining suicide is an issue which needs to be
  considered before we can investigate the reasons
  behind suicide.
• Interpretivist's would argue that we know whether
  someone has committed suicide or not because we
  use our interpretation.
• Although we all interpret situations differently
  therefore can we define suicide specifically?

What is your definition of suicide?
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A Definition of Suicide

• Taylor A Realist
• Taylor criticised the common definition of
  suicide and came up with the following three
  forms of suicide
• Suicidal Gesture No intention of dying
• Clear-Cut Suicides Clear intention to die
  known often from a suicide note
• Para-Suicides Risk taking acts which gamble
  with life

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Positivism and Suicide

• What key words can you remember in relation to
  positivism?
• How can those key words be applied to suicide?
• What types of research methods do Positivists
  use?

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Positivism and Suicide

• Durkheim is one of the most useful examples to
  use when explaining Positivism and suicide.
• Durkheim decided to study suicide as he wanted to
  prove that our actions are influenced by wider
  social forces in which we have no control over.

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Durkheims Definition of Suicide

• all causes of death resulting directly or
  indirectly from a positive or a negative view of
  himself, which he knows will produce this result

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Durkheim's Methodology

• Comparative method making comparisons between
  data to identify differences.
• Official Statistics Durkheim used these to make
  comparisons between countries.

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Durkheims Discoveries

1. Suicide rates varied between countries although
   overall they were fairly stable.
2. Suicide rates varied between groups.

From Durkheims discoveries he concluded that
suicide rates were not driven by individual s
but by wider social forces. If suicide was
driver individually then suicide rates would have
been more scattered.
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Durkheims Categorisation of Suicide
Type of Suicide
Integration
B A L A N C E
Lack of Integration
Egoistic
Altruistic
Over-Integration
Regulation
Lack of Regulation
Anomic
Fatalistic
Over-Regulation
Read the definitions for each of these types of
suicide on the handout.
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Task

• Complete the activity on the handout headed What
  type of suicide?.

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Positivist Response to Durkheim

• Halbwachs (1930)
• Halbwachs claimed that Durkheim over emphasised
  the influence religion has over suicide.
  Halbwachs claims that living in a rural or urban
  area has more of an impact.

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Positivist Response to Durkheim

• Gibbs and Porterfield (1960)
• Gibbs and Porterfield studied suicide statistics
  for New Zealand and found them useful as the
  provide an individuals occupation class at birth
  and death.
• From this they then drew conclusions.

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Interpretivism and Suicide

• What key words can you remember in relation to
  Interpretivist's?
• How can those key words be applied to suicide?
• What types of research methods do
  Interpretivist's use?

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Interpretivism and Suicide

• Interpretivist Sociologists study suicide in a
  non-scientific method. Interpretivist's reject
  the use of official statistics as they prefer to
  look at why individuals behave in the ways they
  do.

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Interpretivism and Suicide

• J.D Douglas (1967)
• Douglas identifies that suicide statistics are
  based on the coroners decision as to whether the
  death was a suicide or not.
• Douglas saw how suicide can have different
  meanings decedent on the reason for the death.

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Interpretivism and Suicide

• Jean Bachelor (1979)
• Bachelor aims to identify what motivates people
  to commit suicide.

Escapist Suicide
Escape an unbearable situation
Aggressive Suicide
To hurt or harm someone else
Oblative Suicides
Used to gain a desire E.g. Heaven
Ludic Suicides
Done for the risk and excitement
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A Phenomenological Approach

• Atkinson (1978)
• Atkinson rejects the idea of coroners classifying
  suicides because the facts are social
  constructions.
• Atkinson saw how there are four commonsense
  factors which affects a coroners decision to
  classify a death as a suicide or not.

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A Phenomenological Approach

• Atkinson's commonsense factors are
• The presence of a suicide note indicates suicide
• Type of death such as hanging indicate suicide
• Location and circumstances
• Evidence of illnesses. E.g. Depression