Here are possible points to address in your assessment:- Positivists like Durkheim aimed to discover objective social facts that cause suicide rates to differ between social groups. However, interpretivists argue we cannot separate social facts from the meanings actors give to their actions. - Suicide statistics are problematic as they are based on coroners' subjective interpretations. Interpretivists prefer qualitative data on meanings.- Even if groups differ statistically, this may be due to social construction rather than objective causes, e.g. Catholic stigma influencing reporting. - Realists like Taylor acknowledge statistics are flawed but believe underlying causes can still be revealed through case studies to understand meanings.- Theories provide useful insights
Similar to Here are possible points to address in your assessment:- Positivists like Durkheim aimed to discover objective social facts that cause suicide rates to differ between social groups. However, interpretivists argue we cannot separate social facts from the meanings actors give to their actions. - Suicide statistics are problematic as they are based on coroners' subjective interpretations. Interpretivists prefer qualitative data on meanings.- Even if groups differ statistically, this may be due to social construction rather than objective causes, e.g. Catholic stigma influencing reporting. - Realists like Taylor acknowledge statistics are flawed but believe underlying causes can still be revealed through case studies to understand meanings.- Theories provide useful insights
400-600 words.Read 1,2,3, 5Objective Define and utilize c.docxmeghanivkwserie
Similar to Here are possible points to address in your assessment:- Positivists like Durkheim aimed to discover objective social facts that cause suicide rates to differ between social groups. However, interpretivists argue we cannot separate social facts from the meanings actors give to their actions. - Suicide statistics are problematic as they are based on coroners' subjective interpretations. Interpretivists prefer qualitative data on meanings.- Even if groups differ statistically, this may be due to social construction rather than objective causes, e.g. Catholic stigma influencing reporting. - Realists like Taylor acknowledge statistics are flawed but believe underlying causes can still be revealed through case studies to understand meanings.- Theories provide useful insights (20)
Here are possible points to address in your assessment:- Positivists like Durkheim aimed to discover objective social facts that cause suicide rates to differ between social groups. However, interpretivists argue we cannot separate social facts from the meanings actors give to their actions. - Suicide statistics are problematic as they are based on coroners' subjective interpretations. Interpretivists prefer qualitative data on meanings.- Even if groups differ statistically, this may be due to social construction rather than objective causes, e.g. Catholic stigma influencing reporting. - Realists like Taylor acknowledge statistics are flawed but believe underlying causes can still be revealed through case studies to understand meanings.- Theories provide useful insights
3. 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?
4. Interpretivism and Suicide
Positivists focus on causes of 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
(the meanings of suicide for those involved
e.g. deceased & the coroners label deaths)
5. Interpretivism and Suicide
Douglas (Interactionist) criticises
Durkheim’s study of suicide on 2 main
grounds:
1. Use of suicide statistics
2.Actors meaning and qualitative data
6. Use of suicide statistics
• Suicide is not influenced by social facts as
Durkheim believes but social constructs based
on coroners interpretations of deaths and
influences by other actors e.g. Family
members
• Suicide and the stats based on them are the
product of interactions and negotiations
between those involved- Well Integrated
individuals have family & friends to deny &
cover up suicide
7. McCarthy & Walsh study
• Studies the suicide rate in Dublin
between 1964 and 1968 and estimated
that the suicide rate should have been 4
x greater than officials records showed.
• Family members, police, family doctors
and court officials collaborated to cover
up suicides and have them categorized
as accidents due to stigma associated
with suicide in Catholic society (mortal
sin)
8. In Western Societies social meanings of suicide include
escape, repentance, search for help/sympathy, self
Actors meaning and qualitative data
punishment, revenge
Other societies may do it for religious reasons e.g. getting
to heaven
• Durkheim ignores the meanings of the act
• Douglas suggests that motives and meanings
of suicide can vary between cultures
• We must classify suicides according to their
meaning for the deceased
• To do this qualitative data must be used;
suicide notes, diaries, interviews with
survivors & relatives
• This will give a better idea of the real rate of
suicide than OS
9. Evaluation
Douglas produces a classification of suicide
based on the actors supposed meanings.
However what evidence is there to state that
Sociologists are better than coroners at
interpreting a persons meanings
Douglas is inconsistent suggesting that OS
are the product of a coroners opinions. At
other times he claims we can really discover
the causes of suicide- yet how can we if we
can never really know whether a death was a
suicide if all we have is coroners opinions
10. Take a comparative approach in
the study of suicide between
Durkheim and Douglas
Write a brief summary of
Douglas’s explanations of
Suicide
11. Ethnomethodology
• Ethnomethodology, another type of social
action approach, can certainly be described as
micro sociology as it examines how people
speak to each other and interact in everyday
conversations and in relationships within their
own homes.
12. Ethnomethodology
• Ethnomethodology
reveals that there are
unspoken rules when
people of a common
culture chat to each
other. For example we
usually take turns and
respond to what the
other person has just
said in an appropriate
way.
13. Ethnomethodology
• There are conventions
such as not describing
our ailments in detail if
a comparative stranger
greets us with ‘How are
you?’
14. Ethnomethodology
Atkinson (1978)
Takes a different Interpretivist approach from
Douglas
Ethnomethodology- social reality is a construct
of its members
He agrees with Douglas that statistics are
merely the result of coroners interpretations
16. Atkinson's commonsense factors which affects
a coroners decision to classify a death as a
suicide or not are:
1. The presence of a suicide note or suicide
threats before death
2. Type of death such as hanging indicate suicide
3. Location and circumstances
4. Life History e.g. Depression, Disturbed
childhood, Divorce, Bankruptcy etc
17. • These common sense factors provide clues to
whether the deceased intended to take their
own life
• Coroners engage in analysing cases using taken-
for-granted assumptions about what
constitutes a ‘typical suicide’
• Therefore when Positivists study suicide
statistics that shows isolated individuals
commit suicide all they will discover is the
taken for granted assumptions made by
coroners not social facts about causes of
suicide
18. AO2
Ethnomethodology has been criticised for being
self-defeating….Atkinson's view that the only
thing that can be studied is coroners
interpretation can be turned back on him. If
objective truth cannot be found (real suicide
rate) then ethnomethodologists own accounts are
no more than interpretations- so why should we
accept it
Most ethnomethodologists accept that the
accounts are merely interpretations (do not claim
that their interpretations are superior to those
of coroners)
20. Taylor: Realism & Suicide
• Takes a different approach to Positivists and
Interpretivists.
• Like Interpretivists he argues that suicide stats
are not valid ‘persons under trains study’
• However like Positivists he believes we can
explain suicide (can discover real patterns and
causes)
• Realist approach aims to reveal underlying
structures and causes which though not
observable can explain observable evidence.
• Uses case studies to discover the meanings that
cause suicide
21. ‘Persons Under Trains’
(1989)
• Questions
usefulness of
suicide statistics
• Studied a 12 month
period – 32 cases
of uncertainty – no
strong suicide clues
but 17 were
defined as suicide
22. Defining Suicide
• Many theories focus on acts where the individual
was intent on dying and that resulted in death
• Taylor suggests that in many cases those who
attempt suicide are not certain that their actions
will kill them.
• Neither are all who attempt suicide aiming to die
• We should look at successful and unsuccessful
attempts and adapt a broader definition
‘any deliberate act of self damage or potential self
damage where the individual cannot be sure of
survival’
23. Types of Suicide
• Suicide is based on an individuals
certainty or uncertainty about
themselves or others
• Read through the 4 types of Suicide
and summarise (page 152)
24. AO2
Taylor’s theory is based on his interpretations of
the actors meanings (we do not know if it is
correct)
Individuals cases may involve a combination of
motives and be difficult to categorise
Taylor used a small number of case studies
(unrepresentative)
Theories are useful in explaining some of the
observed patterns of suicide such as why attempts
differ in seriousness and why only some people
leave notes
Deals with failed and successful attempts
27. Theory Explanation of suicide Usefulness of statistics? Evaluation points
(+ key concepts) (methods discussion)
Durkheim
Positivism
Social facts as things
Gibbs & Martin
Interpretivism
Douglas Comparative method
Social
Baechler constructionism
coroners
Atkinson Meanings of suicide
correlations
Taylor
labelling
28. Practice Questions
1. Quick Check Questions Page 153
2. Item A: For positivists, suicide has social causes.
This is why different groups have different rates
of suicide. Foe example, Durkheim found that
Protestants have higher rates than Catholics. In
his view, this was the result of differences in
levels of social integration and moral regulation
Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess
the view that we can discover the social causes of
suicide
Editor's Notes
Subjective Social Action Verstehen Meanings and Motives Validity Interpretivist’s aim to study suicide in a non-scientific manner, they reject using statistics to look at why people commit suicide, Interpretivist’s prefer to look and try to understand why humans behave in such a way and they believe this isn’t knowable through statistics.
Douglas is interested in the meaning that suicide has for the deceased and in the way that coroners label deaths as suicides
Douglas is interested in the meaning that suicide has for the deceased and in the way that coroners label deaths as suicides Classifying a death as a suicide is decided by coroner and other social actors which may produce bias in verdicts reached Suicide and the stats based on them are the product of interactions and negotiations between those involved- relatives, friends, doctors, police, the coroner and so on High level of integration leads to low suicide- well integrated individuals have friends & relatives who deny the death as suicide or even cover it up Socially isolated individuals have no-one to oppose a suicide verdict. Integration doesn't prevent suicide all it does is affect the likelihood of a death being labelled and recorded as a suicide Douglas identified that suicide statistics are based on the coroner’s decisions as to whether they decide if the death was a suicide or not, so the coroner’s verdict is based on interpretation. Douglas saw that there are different types of suicide based on the meaning and reason for the death. For example in some societies Eskimos were expected to kill themselves in the times of food shortages.
However Atkinson rejects the idea that we can find the deceased meanings and discover the real rate since neither the researchers nor coroners can classify deaths objectively (and we cannot get the meanings from the dead). As we cannot do this it is therefore pointless trying to discover the real rate. All we can do is study how the living come to classify a death as a suicide, accident etc. The statistics are neither right or wrong, they are interpretations made by certain officials and so all we can study is how they were constructed. Atkinson states the only task for sociologists is to discover ‘How do deaths get categorised as suicide?’ He uses qualitative methods: court documents, conversations with coroners, observations of inquests. From this research he concludes that coroners have a commonsense theory about the typical suicide including what type of person commits suicide, for what reasons, what is a typical mode or place of death and so on. If a case fits this common sense theory coroners are more likely to categorise the death as a suicide.
Location and circumstances- death by shooting is more likely to be recorded as suicide if it occurs in a deserted lay-by than when out with a hunting party
A verdict of suicide is simply an interpretation of a death based on these taken-for-granted assumptions
Atkinson, similarly to an Interpretivist just looks at how deaths are categorized, as Atkinson demonstrates Coroners just use their own interpretation to decide whether a death was a suicide. E.g. the presence of a suicide note in interpreted as a sign of suicide.
Atkinson, similarly to an Interpretivist just looks at how deaths are categorized, as Atkinson demonstrates Coroners just use their own interpretation to decide whether a death was a suicide. E.g. the presence of a suicide note in interpreted as a sign of suicide.
Realism is “the assertion that social reality, social structures and social currents, etc, have an existence over and above the existence of individual actors”
Realism is “the assertion that social reality, social structures and social currents, etc, have an existence over and above the existence of individual actors”
Consolidation chart to help students bring together studies/debates central to sociology of sucide. Use in conjunction with Suicide ppt and core textbook. Encurage students to think about the methodological issues central to this agenda..and link back through other parts of topic and serve as a springboard to methods in context work.
1. Because he wanted to show that even an act as personal as suicide could nonetheless have social patterns and social causes. In doing so, he would be able to demonstrate the need for sociology as a separate scientific discipline to explain such patterns and causes. 2. They are external to the individual; they shape individual behaviour; they are greater than individuals. 3. Anomic suicide. 4. Because there is more individualism (individuals’ rights and freedoms become more important than obligations and responsibilities towards the group. 5. Escape; repentance; cry for help, self-punishment; revenge; seriousness. 6. Mode of death; location; suicide note; history of mental illness; social circumstances (e.g. recent redundancy, bereavement or divorce). 7. Where the suicide is produced by the individual’s relationship with or feelings about another person or persons. 8. Altruistic suicide.
