Sociology 1020 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Altruistic Suicide, Auguste Comte, Social Fact
Document Summary
Major concern of sociology us to explain why members of some groups behave differently than members of other groups. Many of durkheim"s contemporaries thought that mental illness, inherited tendencies, or unhappiness were the causes of suicide. Durkheim argued that social factors-factors pertaining either to group structure or to the relationships among individuals in groups-also affect suicide. Durkheim called these social sources of behaviour social facts. Social facts: point to social or group-level explanations of behaviour, such as ethnicity, gender, place of residence, and marital status. Greater frequency in men, protestants, the older, and the unmarried as due in part, to the relative social isolation they experienced. Durkheim called the suicides that occur because of the lack of such social ties, egoistic suicides. Excessively strong social ties can also lead to higher suicide rates, this kind of suicide, called altruistic suicide, is exemplified by suicide bombers.
