Assess Different Sociological Explanations of SuicideAnomie Essay

using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess assorted sociological explanations of self-annihilation. (21 marks) Suicide is theintentionaltakingof nonp beilsownlife and sociologists over the years deal tried to target forward different explanations for why someone whitethorn do this.Within sociology there are many different berths on suicide on the causes and explanations for it, these come from two main methodologies which are Positivists who believe that sociology is a information and they should header to make causal laws on suicide rates, compared to Interpretivists who believe that they should look for meaning behind occurrences and sealed individualistics experiences originally the suicide. Other perspectives also put in their views on what they believe to justify suicide for role model, Realists.Item A references to Durkheims Structural Functionalist view on suicide, as stated Durkheim believes that out-of-pocket to sociology being a science with the topic o f suicide it is very easy to make causal laws or as utter in Item A companionable facts. Due to the fact Durkheim believed that there were a number of causes behind suicide he form four types of suicide from a Positivist viewpoint. Egoistic suicide which is when individuals are non integrated well enough into society for caseful people who live alone compared to those who live with family.second Altruistic suicide which is when individuals are felt to be too integrated into society causing suicide, for example shares of the armed forces were say to have greater suicide rates than civilian personnel as they were too strongly integrated into a united body. Durkheim also put forward the idea of Anomic suicide, this is when the norms and value in society become unclear or confused in times of great social throw and an individual is not taught to adapt to changes well enough. For example an unexpected death of a family member is sharp social change which can cause Anomic suicide .Lastly, he suggested Fatalistic suicide. Fatalism is the thinking of the individual that they can do nothing to affect their situation and individuals find their future blocked and oppressed due to society over regulating them. For example slaves and prisoners may have this mindset when they take their own lives. Durkheim said that his work on suicide had several merits as it correctly revealed that suicide is a social kinda than psychological occurrence and proved his methodology that you can establish laws and show that sociology is a science.However his hypothesis on suicide has been met with some criticism. Douglas claimed that Durkheims work relied too heavily on the use of official statistics on suicide and he incorrectly faux that these were representative of the real truth. Douglas notes that official statistics are socially produced and can be distorted in many ways, for example via concealment and varying definitions of suicide by coroners meaning that the validity of the statistics is doubted. So Douglas himself put forward an explanation for suicide.Douglas adopted a Symbolic Interactionist perspective, along with a interpretive methodology which is opposite to that of Durkheim. Some would argue that Douglas selected to look at suicide as an area of investigation as he thought it would illustrate the beliefs of Interactionists and highlight the short comings of the Structural Functionalists irrefutable nestle. Douglas used psychiatrists reports and newspaper accounts to come up with his four patterns of social meaning for suicide and within his oeuvre he took a very subjective approach looking at meaning and motives.In Douglas view suicide could be due to four reasons, the first to gain release from the cares of the world to find happiness, to change the opinion of others in the suicides favour, to achieve a state of fellow feeling creating a climate of benevolence or to simply get revenge towards those who are causing pain towards them. Do uglas believed that his work highlighted that suicide is a rational act rather than an automatic response to the environment as people are energetic not passive, and also to show that sociology is not a science and we should look into meanings over statistics.Obviously this was highly criticised by Structural Functionalists such as Durkheim who believed that Douglas work was too unscientific and that he incorrectly assumed that the nature of man is active rather than passive. Another sociologist who takes an Interpretivist methodology is Atkinson, believing that social meaning and scene is more grievous in finding root causes. However unlike Douglas, Atkinson is a Ethnomethodologist which has a primeval belief of showing that each individual use their own members methods to work out what they see.This is why Atkinson determined to study suicide, also to show how official statistics are not enough. Atkinson focused on a coroners report and underwent participant observation at an office to see what methods they used to decide whether a death was suicide or not. Atkinson stated that they used common sense theories of suicide so if reliable information were to fit the theories it would be called a suicide. They would look at clues to help decided, Atkinson named a few to which he believed was important within their decisions.Firstly was there a suicide note left, this clearly is a puffy clue to whether or not the individual meant to kill themselves. Secondly how did the individual die as certain ways such as hanging point towards suicide, also the location of the body, usually if it is hidden remote out of sight then the person is indicating that they did not want to be found. Finally did the individual have any past mental illnesses or life history that could lead them towards suicide.Atkinson and so stated that a suicide verdict reflects the assumptions and interpretation of the clues by the coroner rather than reality and facts. Atkinsons study was sai d to have some merits as it did identify what clues coroners use to arrive at a suicide verdict, entirely also shows that positivists use of quantative data such as official statistics is not valid as they are produced by coroners who base the label of suicide on their own social assumptions.Hindess put forward a criticism for both Douglas and Atkinson, arguing that although Interpretive researchers have maintained that suicide statistics can be delusory they havent stated to what extent they distort peoples ideas, so therefore it may only be slight and still be possible to make accurate causal laws from a Positivist viewpoint. Taylor has put forward his view on suicide, taking a Realist approach which is very different from the explanations already stated.Taylor has tried to combine both Interpretivist and Positivist methodologies to come to a verdict on suicide. Taylor underwent a study on the London Underground and people who had died from falling underneath a train take a fir m stand that causal factors are important in considering suicide especially that of significant others such as family. In his investigation over half of the 32 who had died were said to have committed suicide although they were no literal evidence, coroners just based this on history of mental illness.Ignoring such factors of suicide and focusing on coroners is unrealistic, so looking at causal factors is from Taylors view a valid approach. But it is also important to gain a fuller figureing of suicide by finding a synthesis in the midst of the causes of the occurrence which is the Structural Functionalist side but also the exploration of the social meanings behind it, showing the Interactionist approach.Taylor therefore identified a category for suicide which is Sacrifice suicide, where it has occurred by the conduct of other people towards the suicide, for example family members have made the individuals life so unbearable this is the only way out. An advantage of Taylors appro ach to suicide is that it attempts to show how both positivist and interpretive methods are useful in trying to understand suicide, however certain sociologist have criticised it for being too one sided. It has been stated that Taylor focused more on the Interactionist failing to achieve Structuralism.Another criticism from Durkheim is that Taylors cause of suicide that he put forward seems unimportant compared to the large scale of the structural causes central concern such as sudden social change which is a more widespread reason. To conclude many sociologists have differing views to try to explain suicide and why they think individuals do take their own lifes, however these are just theories because no one will ever know the real root cause of why someone has cease their lives unless they leave a note explaining why and in many causes this does not happen.