Download Positivism and Suicide

A2-Level Sociology
Unit 6: Crime and Deviance
Durkheim, Positivism and Suicide
Recap of Positivism
 Scientific
 Objective
 Cause and effect
 Quantitative
What type of research methods do
positivists use?
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:
Type of Suicide
Integration
Regulation
B
A
L
A
N
C
E
Lack of Integration
Egoistic
Over-integration
Altruistic
Lack of Regulation
Anomic
Over-integration
Fatalistic
A2-Level Sociology
Unit 6: Crime and Deviance
Durkheim’s Types of Suicide’s Explained
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.
What type of suicide?
[Some cases may be more than one]
Which type of suicide would Durkheim say the below cases were:







Suicide
Suicide
Suicide
Suicide
Suicide
Suicide
Suicide
by
by
by
by
by
by
by
a lottery winner.
a widowed person.
a long-term unemployed person.
prisoners.
divorced people.
members of the radical Islamic Hamas group.
Jews in a German concentration camp during the war.
A2-Level Sociology
Unit 6: Crime and Deviance
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.