Durkheim's Suicide: Cosmic Factors and Social Causes

Flashcards covering key sociological concepts, empirical observations, and analytical methodologies from Émile Durkheim's study on Suicide.

Cosmic Factors

Physical or environmental influences, such as climate and seasonal temperature, evaluated by Émile Durkheim to determine whether physical environment drives suicide rates.

Morselli's Zone

The geographic area located between the $47^{\text{th}}$ and $57^{\text{th}}$ degrees of latitude and $20^{\text{th}}$ and $40^{\text{th}}$ degrees of longitude, identified as having the highest prevalence of suicide in Europe.

Law of Seasonal Variation in Suicide

The empirical pattern showing that suicide rates reach their maximum during the fine season (spring and summer, peaking around June) rather than during autumn or winter.

Aetiological Classification

A method of classifying types of suicide according to their producing social causes rather than directly describing their psychological or morphological characteristics.

Egoistic Suicide

A social type of suicide caused by excessive individualism and the disintegration or weakening of an individual's integration into social groups.

Altruistic Suicide

A type of suicide occurring when social integration is excessively strong, leading individuals to sacrifice their lives due to overwhelming collective duty or influence.

Coefficient of Preservation

A numerical measure indicating how many times less frequent suicide is in one social group (such as married individuals) compared to another baseline group (such as unmarried individuals) at the same age.

Matrimonial Selection

The hypothesis that lower suicide rates among married individuals are due to pre-existing physical, moral, and economic advantages required to marry, rather than the protective influence of family life itself.

Family Density

The actual average number of members composing a domestic household, which inversely correlates with the suicide rate due to the intensity of collective sentiment in larger groups.

Free Inquiry

The religious principle of Protestantism allowing personal judgment over religious dogma, which Durkheim links to diminished religious cohesion and higher suicide rates.