Durkheim's Suicide: Cosmic Factors, Social Causes, and Egoistic Suicide

Vocabulary flashcards defining the key sociological concepts, methodologies, and findings presented in Emile Durkheim's Suicide.

Cosmic Factors

Physical or material environmental factors, specifically climate and seasonal temperature, to which an influence on suicide rates has historically been attributed.

Morselli's Zone

The geographical area between the $47^{\text{th}}$ and $57^{\text{th}}$ degrees of latitude and the $20^{\text{th}}$ and $40^{\text{th}}$ degrees of longitude, identified by Morselli as the region of Europe most stricken with suicide.

Seasonal Law of Suicide

The statistical regularity showing that suicide reaches its maximum during the fine season or summer ($88\%$ of analyzed cases) and its minimum during winter ($88\%$ of cases), rather than during cold or dark periods.

Diurnal Influence

The phenomenon wherein the vast majority of suicides occur during daytime and evening rather than at night, corresponding directly with the hours of most intense social life and human interaction.

Imitation

A purely psychological phenomenon occurring between individuals without any necessary social bond or collective influence, which Durkheim argues lacks the power to produce or modify social suicide rates.

Aetiological Classification

The sociological method of classifying types of suicide according to the distinct social causes and conditions that produce them, rather than by morphological symptoms.

Morphological Classification

A classification system based on the observable characteristics, methods of execution, and psychological states of individuals at the moment of suicide, rejected by Durkheim as inadequate for determining social types.

Presumptive Motives

The immediate antecedents (such as family trouble, poverty, or drunkenness) recorded by recording officials, which represent subjective opinions and individual manifestations of a deeper collective condition rather than true determining causes.

Free Inquiry

The spirit of individual judgment and examination in religion, which arises from the breakdown of traditional beliefs and explains the higher propensity for suicide in Protestant societies compared to Catholic ones.

Coefficient of Preservation

The ratio indicating how many times less frequent suicide is in one specific demographic group compared to another of the same age.

Coefficient of Aggravation

A preservation ratio that falls below unity ($< 1$), representing an aggravated or higher propensity for suicide in a given category relative to the comparison group.

Matrimonial Selection

The rejected hypothesis that married people enjoy immunity from suicide merely because marriage filters and selects individuals possessing superior physical, moral, and economic health.

Conjugal Society

The marital association between husband and wife formed by contract and elective affinity, which provides only limited protection against suicide when isolated from children.

Family Society

The domestic group uniting successive generations through consanguinity, which acts as the essential and powerful counteragent against suicide for parents.

Family Density

The actual average number of members sharing domestic group life, which correlates inversely with the suicide rate by multiplying shared sentiments, interactions, and traditions.

Egoistic Suicide

The distinct social type of suicide resulting from excessive individualism and insufficient integration of the individual into religious, domestic, or political societies.

Altruistic Suicide

The social type of suicide characteristic of lower societies and certain modern environments that is caused by insufficient individuation and overly intense social integration.