Theory and methods

What can sociology contribute to an understanding of suicide?

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Sociology is the science of society; its techniques were created and

developed by Comte and Durkheim. Sociology techniques have been

applied to the social issue of suicide to try to find out the reasons

behind certain groups and types of people commit suicide. The leading

person into research about suicide is Emile Durkheim, he took Comte

theoretic ideas about applying the natural science methods to find a

positive science of society and create rules that he tested in his

research into suicide around the world.

Emile Durkheim performed a world-recognised piece of research into

suicide in the late 18th century; in this research he applied the

methods and rules of sociology that he developed in his first book

‘The Rules of Sociology Methods’. The method he used to research into

suicide was statistical secondary data in the form of official public

statistics from around the world. This data suggested that suicide

rates were influence by certain social factors and when an individual

is exposed to them the end result maybe a death. Durkheim found that

suicides rates variety from time to time and place to place.

Durkheim’s research found that suicide rates were higher in towns then

they were in the countryside, higher in richer than poorer countries

and higher amongst Protestants then Catholics. Durkheim concluded that

the people who are prone to suicide all fit into four different types

of suicide. He then applies these types of suicides to different types

of social conditions. The first suicide type Durkheim iden...

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movement from the immediate suicide to the immediate situation of the

wider social contexts. Where Taylor believed he might have found the

wider levels of causality of these suicides, and claims that his work

was not sufficiently realist.

In conclusion sociology methods can be used to find answers into

issues that are usually difficult to research into, due to the high

level of emotions involved in these cases. The leading researcher into

suicide is that of the positivist Emile Durkheim, he was the first

research to apply sociology methods to research into suicide. Durkheim

uses of secondary public statistics has been widely criticised by

fellow positivists, phenomenology and realist researchers, due their

view that the 19 century statistics are unreliable and just

assumptions made by the social powerful.