How to study why people commit suicide… using Sociology.

Studying suicide shows how Positivism & Interpretivism differ:

POSITIVISM Interpretivism

•Sociology should be studied as a science: objective & observable.

•To study the social world: use quantitative methods.

•The world is full of social facts, expressed in statistics & correlations.

•Sociology should focus on the meanings and motives of individuals (actors).

•To study the social world: use qualitative methods.

•People work out what something means before they react to it. •We can discover

laws of human behaviour that are the same all over the world.

•Human behaviour is shaped external stimuli.

•Human behaviour is shaped by internal stimuli (what goes on in the mind).

In his study of suicide entitled ‘Le Suicide’ (1897), Durkheim set out to

show how even an apparently personal, individual act such as suicide

can be a product of EXTERNAL FORCES i.e. that SUICIDE IS A SOCIAL

FACT.

Durkheim compared suicide STATISTICS from different countries in order to find correlations and patterns between them. He hoped to uncover a CAUSE & EFFECT FORMULA for suicide.X + Y = Z

Comparing Quantitative/

Statistical Data to uncover patterns is

known as the COMPARATIVE

METHOD

Fatalistic

Anomic

AltruisticEgoistic

Regula

tion

Integration

Occurs in extremely oppressive societiesToo much regulation in society. Seen as a fairly uncommon

occurrence. Committed by people who are controlled by others.

Committed by people who are no longer sure of their role and their purpose. If society fails to regulate behaviour people resort to naturally selfish needs

Occurred at times of rapid change

Committed by people who feel

they don’t belong in society.

Too much integration into

society. Individual

happiness is not seen as

important

•Committed by people who want to

please their community & who really stick to their cultural norms and

values.

Insufficient integration

Stress importance of

individual looking after

themselves at expense of

others

Altruistic

Hindu women throwing themselves

on graves/suicide bombers

FatalisticSuicide of

slaves/prisoners

Anomic

Economic booms. Depression

Egotistic

Protestants

•Sociology should focus on the meanings and motives of individuals (actors).

•To study the social world: use qualitative methods.

•People work out what something means before they react to it.

•Human behaviour is shaped by internal stimuli (what goes on in the mind).

A recap on Interpretive approaches:

KEY CONCEPTS: transformation of the soul; transformation of the self; means to achieve sympathy; getting

revenge.

He is very critical of Durkheim’s positivist study of suicide.

He particularly criticized the use of official statistics, questionning their validity.

The decision to define a death as suicide is made by a coroner.

This depends on available evidence & is influenced by other people, chiefly the family of the deceased.

Douglas pokes holes in Durkheim’s categories of suicide.

If a person is very well integrated into society, their family & friends are more likely to deny the possibility of suicide.

Sociology must investigate the meaning attached to the suicide act by those involved: suicide can have very different meanings in different cultures.

I’m so unhappy

Transforming self

I killed myself because you rejected me

Gaining revenge

Please help me!

Achieving fellow feelings

You ruined my life

Transforming oneself

RESEARCH METHOD: He didn’t carry out any research, this was chiefly a critique of Durkheim, so it’s entirely theoretical.

WEAKNESSES: while this is a useful critique of Durkheim which led to further Interpretivist study of the issue of suicide, it does lack empirical rigour to back up its claims.

KEY CONCEPTS: coroner;

social construction of suicide

statistics; commonsense theories

of suicide.

Atkinson doesn’t accept that a ‘real’ rate of suicide exists as an objective reality.

The suicide rate is not an exact record of how many suicides there have been.

He focuses on the methods used by coroners to categorize some deaths as suicides.

Atkinson argues that coroners have a commonsense theory of suicide.

If information about the deceased person fits their theory, they are likely to record a suicide verdict.

What behaviours would you expect of a suicidal person?

What information would you, as a Coroner, want in order to arrive at a verdict of suicide?

Coroners consider four types of evidence when trying to reach a verdict:

i) suicide notes; ii) mode of death; iii) location and circumstances of

death & iv) the biography of the deceased –

mental health history, things happening in their lives etc.

RESEARCH METHOD: He carried out interviews with coroners & attended inquests in three different towns. He also observed a coroner’s officer at work & examined some of the records of a particular coroner.

EVALUATION: Atkinson has used a more thorough empirical approach to support his theoretical claims and it makes us seriously think about the social construction of the suicide statistics.

KEY CONCEPTS: ectopic suicide; symphysic suicide; submissive suicide; thanatation; sacrifice suicides; appeal suicides.

Realist Approach (Middle ground between Positivism & Interpretivism)

What do you know about Realist Approaches to Crime & Deviance?

Taylor (1982) ‘Persons under Trains’

Studying suicides and attempted suicides (para-suicides) on the London underground, Taylor found that coroners do build up a biography of victims’ life-histories and mental conditions. As such statistics reflect subjective rather than pbjective data (SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION).

Taylor also suggested that external forces do act on the individual that might lead them into suicide. Like Durkheim Taylor believes that suicide largely depends on peoples attachments & certainty about themselves.

However: INTERPRETIVIST

POSITIVIST AND INTERPRETIVIST

Taylor agrees that suicide statistics are unreliable.

Over the course of one year, he found 32 cases of deaths on the London Underground where there were no strong clues as the reason for the deaths (inconclusive).

No suicide notes were left and there were no witnesses who could say if the person had jumped.

It was impossible to say with any certainty if these 32 had been suicide.

Despite this, 17/32 of the deaths were recorded as suicide, 5/32 were classified as accidental and 10/32 were left as open verdicts (undecided).

Taylor found that a number of factors made a suicide verdict more likely; i) deceased people with mental health issues and/or had suffered from some form of social failure or disgrace, were more likely to be recorded as suicide;

ii) when the deceased had no good reason to be at the train station;

iii) the verdict was strongly influenced by witnesses who testified to the dead person’s state of mind – if they were close friends or relatives of the deceased, they were more likely to deny a suicide verdict.

Taylor classifies suicides as either ectopic (what the person thinks about themselves) or symphysic (suicide as a result of their relationships with others).

Suicide and its attempts are also related to certainty and uncertainty – people are sure or unsure about themselves or others.

He comes up with two types of ectopic suicides:

i) Submissive suicides occur when a person is certain about themselves and their life – it’s CRAP. They see themselves as already dead. The person is sure they want to die. Common in people with terminal illness.

ii) Thanatation is a type of suicide which is a gamble, the person isn’t sure about dying or living.

Which of these is submissive & which is thanatation?

Taylor also identifies two symphysic or other-directed suicides:

i) sacrifice suicides are certain that others have made their life unbearable and they have no choice but to end it;

ii) appeal suicides are when a person wants to show another that they are desperate, desperate enough to try to kill themselves – if it doesn’t work, that’s fine.

Any thoughts?

ECTOPIC(suicidal action is directed

towards oneself).

SYMPHYSIC(suicidal action is directed

towards other people).

CERTAINTY(totally sure about wanting

to die).

UNCERTAINTY(unsure about wanting to

die).

Thanatation (who am I?), e.g. taking risks like

Russian Roulette.

Submissive (I am already dead), e.g. the

terminally ill.

Appeal (who are you?), e.g. the cry for help.

Sacrifice (I am killed), e.g. making others feel

guilty because they have driven you to

suicide.

Others cannot tell the individual what he

wants to know.

Others have made this individual’s life really difficult and painful.

Others cannot dissaude the individual from what he knows.

Others have terminated the individual’s existence in the world.

RESEARCH METHOD: He conducted a study of ‘persons under trains’ – people who were killed on the London Underground by being hit by trains.

EVALUATION: Taylor’s study helps to explain why some suicide victims leave notes and others don’t & why some are more serious attempts than others.

All have ignored parasuicides

What about those people who attempt suicide and fail?

When questioned these people are taking more of a gamble than a definite decision

Need to incorporate Durkheim and Douglas

Successful suicides can be linked into Durkheim’s explanations

But we also need to include the meanings behind them