SUICIDE + FUNCTIONALISM

Suicide

• Durkheim has suicide as one of his early works

• Regarded as a suoermely antisocial and non-social act in society 

  • Due to focusing on individual state ofmind rather than on the state of society 

• Social perspectives can be used to determine the hidden social causes

Emile Durkheim

• Suggests suicide rates strongly influenced by social forces

  • Looked at associations between rates of suicide and psychological disorder for different groups

  • Found: suicide and psychological disorder rates does not vary directly, sometimes appeared inversely 

    • Those who were jewish and catholic had lower suiicide, but may have higher rates of psychological disorder

• Argues suicide rates varied as a result of the dfferences in degree of social solidarity

Social solidarity

• the degree to which group members share beliefs and values, and the intensity and frequency of their interaction 

• Ex. jewish, catholics, etc had stronger community ties and freqeunt interactions 

• Note: jewish people at the time were seen in negative light, often had mroe psychological problems, but not suicide 

Suicide in canada today

• In youth: substantial increase since 1960s

• Shared moralprinciples and strong social ties have eroded

  • Religious participation decreased among youth

  • Unemployment increased

    • Children experience less adult supervision + less meaningful social interaction with parents

Functionalism key points

• Durkheim’s theory of suicide was early example of functionalism

1. Stresses human behaviour is governed by stable patterns of social relations

2. Shows social structures can either maintain or undermine social stability

   1. On a range of functional ←→ dysfunctional

3. suggests social structures based mainly on shared values/preferences

4. Argues that re-establishing equilibrium is best way to solve most social problems

   1. Institutions seen comes more naturally but NOT innate → due to a way to solve social problems 

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Talcott Parsons

• Important figure in functionalism and brought it to america

• Argues various institutions must work together to ensure smooth operations of society as a whole

examples of institutions working together to ensure smooth operations of society

• Families effectively rasing new generations

• Military successfully defending society against external threats

  • Functionalist perspective: police deals with internal threats

• Schools teach students necessary skills and values

• Religions help people share a moral code 

• These institutions arent necessarily equal in importance, BUT they have to work together to ensure smooth operations in society 

Robert Merton

• Important figure in functionalism

• Came up with notion: social structures can have diff consequences for diff groups of people, and some may be dysfunctional

• Different kinds of functions of social structures/institutions

  • manifest functions

  • latent functions

manifest functions

• Obvious and intended effects of social structures 

• Ex. university as a place to get an education/degree

Latent functions

• Non-obvious and unintended effects of social structures 

• Ex. university as a marriage market, as an unintended effect