Sociology 1020 : CHAPTER 1-4 TEXTBOOK NOTES.docx
13 Nov 2012
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Major concern of sociology is to explain why members of some groups behave differently than members of other groups: groups can include: Smaller groups that can share the same status (eg doctors, unionist) Social categories (possess a common social characteristic eg. having no kids, being over 6 ft tall) Many sociologist have a view point developed by emile durkhein. Believed other experts focused too much on the individual. He thought social factors (group structure, relationships within groups) also effected suicde: social facts: point to a social/ group level explanations of behaviour (eg. ethnicity, gender, place of residence, marital status) Social facts are shared and are unlike psychological factors: psychological factors: individual internal processes (drives/motives) In his study he found that men had higher rates of suicide than woman, protestants higher than catholics, older people higher than younger, and single people high than married. Connected these finding to be relation to social isolation (more isolated= more suicide)
