Question

Read about the study of suicide by Emile Durkheim in our textbook, learning module for this week, and in the links below to answer the following questions.

http://edurkheim.tripod.com/id19.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YebwfG47rO0&feature=youtu.be&list=PLEqpie8YUShDjP_Xp-Eq_fc3Gb4GOPlFi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9W0GQvONKc&feature=youtu.be&list=PLEqpie8YUShDjP_Xp-Eq_fc3Gb4GOPlFi

What was the question Durkheim had about suicide?

What were the research methods he used? What were the variables he measure or studied?

What were the patterns revealed by Durkheim's study?

What were Durkheim's conclusions about suicide? You may want to include the types of suicide briefly.

What theoretical perspective (Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interaction) is his theory in line with? Why?

Answer 1

Durkehiem had a natural attraction towards the concept of suicide and he had a question that led him to studying the phenomenon, it was that there must be larger macro social factors contributing to the phenomenon as well as opposed to only psychological factors which have been studied.

He factored in the scientific method of scientific reasoning and analysis of data to gauge and understand the trends in suicide.

And through his study Durkheim found that there were social factors, which were accountable for the commuting of suicide amongst people and he categorized them into the following types: fatalistic, egoitisc, anomic and altruistic. Egoistic and Altruistic were more socially charged.

The theory is in line with the theoretical perspective of conflict theory, which states that the society is in a state of constant Flux over the structural imbalance in power, dominance and resources, which leads to instability and conflict, whether intra or inter.