SOC101Y1 Chapter Notes -Altruistic Suicide, The Sociological Imagination, Scientific Revolution
Document Summary
Sociology = the systematic study of human behavior in a social context (7) Durkheim examined the rates of suicide and compared that to the rates of psychological disorder in certain groups (8) But durkheim learned that there were slightly more men than women in asylums, but four times as many men than women committed suicide (8) Suicide rates and psychological disorders seemed not to correlate (8) Durkheim said that difference between suicide rates in different groups was because of different levels of social solidarity (8) For example, married people are less likely to commit suicide than unmarried people, even when their spouse has died, because they have high levels of social solidarity (8) Altruistic suicide = norms tightly govern behavior so people commit suicide to protect the group high levels of social solidarity, ex. suicide bombers or soldiers (9) Egoistic and anomic suicide = low levels of social solidarity (9)