SOCIOL 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Altruistic Suicide
Document Summary
Suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of an individual in social groups. Nature of religion-->catholicism and protestantism are very similar, but protestantism encourages individuality, read bible by yourself. Mentions that there can be several factors that influence suicide. However, tries to make argument that nature of religion is the key. Looks at statistics, obvious differences between catholic and protestant countries, catholic countries tend to have lower suicide rates than protestant countries. Can be something else that is a factor, look within the countries and see how suicide rates differ. Looks at countries which are majority protestant with pockets of catholicism and observes, and vice versa. Also looks at different ways of practicing protestantism. This is how he goes about making case of influence of religion on suicide rates in populations. More choice-->more free inquiry-->lack of social integration-->higher tendency to suicide.
