SOCI201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Public Figure, Copycat Suicide, Dan Burros

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCI201
• Professor: Best Joel

Document Summary

Thesis- people are influenced to commit suicide by media, public figures, and occurrences in their area. The sorrows of the young werther: novel written by goethe, hero committed suicide; many people copied the hero and committed suicide as well, european authorities considered banning the book. Durkhein (1897: reviewed research linking suicide and suggestion, found no evidence relating them, suicide might influence people in the very area, but not on a national level, those who were influenced would have probably committed suicide regardless. Lester (1972: studied studies on suggestion, aid that so(cid:373)e studies" results (cid:449)ere (cid:862)i(cid:374)(cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:272)lusi(cid:448)e, (cid:272)o(cid:374)tradi(cid:272)tor(cid:455), or (cid:272)ould (cid:271)e e(cid:454)plai(cid:374)ed i(cid:374) so(cid:373)e other (cid:449)a(cid:455)(cid:863, concluded that nothing thus far has proven that suggestion affects the level of suicide. Motto (1967: hypothesized that suicide rates in an area should drop when local newspapers of the area are on strike, found no evidence to support this hypothesis.