Suicide2

A2-Level SociologyA2-Level Sociology

Suicide

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093792/Gary-Speed-inquest-Issues-marriage-Louise-months-suicide-Alan-Shearer-reveals.html

Interpretivism and SuicideInterpretivism 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?


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)


Douglas (Interactionist) criticises Durkheim’s study of suicide on 2

main grounds:

1.Use of suicide statistics2.Actors meaning and qualitative data

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

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)

Actors meaning and qualitative data

• 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

In Western Societies social meanings of suicide include escape, repentance, search for help/sympathy, self

punishment, revengeOther societies may do it for religious reasons e.g. getting

to heaven

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

Take a comparative approach in the study of suicide between

Durkheim and Douglas

Write a brief summary of Douglas’s explanations of

Suicide

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.

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.

Ethnomethodology

• There are conventions such as not describing our ailments in detail if a comparative stranger greets us with ‘How are you?’

EthnomethodologyEthnomethodology

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

EthnomethodologyEthnomethodology

What does Atkinson believe?Page 151

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 circumstances4. Life History e.g. Depression, Disturbed

childhood, Divorce, Bankruptcy etc

• 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

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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)

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Summarise Atkinson

Taylor: Realism & SuicideTaylor: 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

‘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

Defining SuicideDefining 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’

Types of SuicideTypes 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)

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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

Plenary: Meanings of suicide activity

Theories Recap

Theory Explanation of suicide(+ key concepts)

Usefulness of statistics? (methods discussion)

Evaluation points

Durkheim

Gibbs & Martin

Douglas

Baechler

Atkinson

Taylor

Positivism

Interpretivism

labelling

correlations

Social constructionism

Meanings of suicide

coroners

Comparative method

Social facts as things

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

Documents

Suicide2