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Flashcards by ashiana121, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by ashiana121
almost 9 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Interpretivists focus on the __________ of suicide for those involved | Meanings |
| Who's theory is "The social meanings of suicide" | Douglas |
| Douglas is interested in the way _______ label deaths as suicides | Coroners |
| On how many grounds does Douglas criticise Durkheims study of suicide? | 2 |
| What are these grounds? | 1. The use of suicide statistics 2. Actors meanings and qualitative data |
| How does Douglas criticise Durkheims use of suicide statistics? | The decision to classify as death as a suicide is made by the coroner This may explain why individuals with high level of integration have low suicide rates - family and friends may be unwilling to accept the death as suicide and cover it up Socially isolated individuals will have nobody to oppose the suicide verdict on their behalf |
| Douglas argues that intergration does not prevent suicide, it merely affects the ________ of a death being ______ and ________ as a suicide, rather than it actually being a suicide. | Affects the LIKELIHOOD of a death being LABELLED and RECORDED as a suicde |
| For Douglas, suicide verdicts and the statistics based on them are the product of __________ and _________ between those involved (friends, coroner, relative, doctors, police, social worker) | Product of NEGOTIATIONS and INTERACTIONS |
| Douglas also criticises actors meanings and qualitative data. What does this mean? | Durkheim ignores the meaning of the act and assumes that suicide has a fixed meaning. |
| Douglas notes that meanings of suicide can _____ ________ _______ | Vary between cultures |
| Motives and meanings must be understood within their own... | Social and cultural context |
| How, according to Douglas, must be classify each death according to its actual meaning? | Qualitative methods Case studies based on suicide notes. and diaries In-depth interview with friends and relatives |
| What does Douglas suggest the meaning for suicides in Western societies include? | Escape Repentance Search for help/sympathy Self punishment Revenge |
| For Douglas, using qualitative data also overcomes the problems caused by _______ _______ | Official statistics |
| Douglas argues that official statistics are what? | Socially constructed |
| What is a criticism of Durkheims classification of suicides based on meanings? | There is no evidence to suggest that sociologists are better than coroners at interpreting a dead persons meaning |
| Douglas is _____________ | Inconsistent |
| How? | Sometimes suggests official stats are the product of coroners opinions Other times he suggest we can discover the cause of suicide - how can we know it was a suicide if all we have is the coroner saying it was a suicide |
| Who's theory is "ethnomethodology and suicide?" | Atkinson |
| What does ethnomethodology mean? | Its a method of social analysis that explores how individuals use everyday conversation to construct a common view sense of the world |
| Ethnomethodology argues that social reality is.... | Simply a social construct of its members |
| We create reality used ___________ knowledge | Commonsense |
| Atkinson accepts Douglas' point that official statistics are merely the constructs or labels coroners give to death. What point does he reject? | That using qualitative data allows us to get behind the labels to find the real meanings - from this we can discover the real rate of suicide |
| Why does Atkinson argue we can never know the real rate of suicide? | We would have to know for sure what meanings the deceased gave for deaths which is impossible |
| Atkinson argues the only thing we can study is... | How we as humans come to classify a death as suicide, accident etc |
| What does Atkinson then focus on? | How coroners categorise deaths |
| What methods did he use to do so? | Qualitative Conversations with coroners Observations of inquests Examination of court records |
| What did Atkinson conclude from this research? | Coroners have a commonsense theory about the typical suicide |
| What does this include? | What type of person commits suicide For what reasons someone commits suicide How someone commits suicide Where someone commits suicide |
| What are coroners more likely to do if a death fits their commonsense theory? | Class it as a suicide |
| Atkinson argues that coroners commonsense theories lead them to see the following types of evidence as relevant: | - Suicide note/threats prior to death - Mode of death - Location and circumstances - Life history |
| What is meant by the life history? | E.g a disturbed childhood, history of mental health issues, difficult social/personal situation (divorce, bereavement, social isolation) or bankruptcy are seen as classic causes of suicide |
| What does Atkinson conclude? | Coroners are make a verdict by analysing cases using assumptions about what constitutes a typical suicide |
| Why does this cause problems for Durkheims theory? | All statistics are doing are spelling out the coroners theory about suicide Taking the stats at face value is echoing the coroners commonsense theory, rather than discovering the cause of suicide |
| Give the name of one person who criticises Atkinsons ethnomethodology theory | Structuralist Barry Hindess |
| What does Barry Hindess call Atkinsons theory? | Self-defeating |
| Why does he say this? | The coroners interpretations can be turned back on him - if we have only interpretations and no objective truth then ethnomethodologists accounts are no more than interpretations and there is no good reason to accept them |
| However, most ethnomethodologists accept this, unlike who? | Positivists, who believe that their scientific and objective view of social reality is superior to those of the people (such as the coroners) they study |
| Who takes a realist approach went explaining and studying suicide? | Taylor |
| What does he say about suicide statistics? | They cannot be taken as valid |
| What did Taylor study? | People who died by being hit by London tube trains |
| What did he find out? | Half the cases reached the verdict of a suicide even though there was no conclusive evidence of suicidal intent |
| Taylor found that coroners saw factors such as what to increase the likelihood of a suicide verdict? | A history of mental illness |
| How is Taylor's realist approach similar to the positivist approach? | Taylor believes we can explain suicide and discover real patterns and causes |
| How does Taylor's approach differ from the positivist approach? | He does not believe we can rely on suicide statistics |
| What does his realist approach aim to do? | Reveal underlying structures and causes, which although not directly observable, can explain the observable evidence |
| What does he use to discover the underlying structures of meaning that cause suicide? | Case studies |
| What does Taylor note about people who attempt suicide? | They are not all sure their actions will kill them They are not all aiming to die - some are communicating with others |
| What does Taylor argue we need to study to adopt a broader definition of suicide? | Both successful and unsuccessful attempts |
| What is an example of this definition? | Any deliberate act of self-damage or potential self-damage where the individual cannot be sure of survival |
| In which situations does Taylor suggest a person is most likely to attempt suicide? | Where there is TOTAL certainty or TOTAL uncertainty - either about themselves or others |
| How many types of suicide does Taylor identify? | 4 |
| What are the names of these 4 types? | Submissive Thanatation Sacrifice Appeal |
| What does ectopic mean? | Self-directed, the individual is psychologically detached from others An ectopic suicide is a private, self contained act |
| Which, of the 4 types of suicide identified by Taylor, are ectopic? | Submissive & thanatation |
| Submissive suicides, where the person is... | CERTAIN about themselves e.g - they know they have no reason to go on - they know they want to die, so suicide attempt is serious |
| Thanatation suicides, where the person is.. | UNCERTAIN about themselves e.g - uncertain about what others think of them - attempt involves risk taking (they may/may not survive) |
| What does symphysic mean? | Other directed Individual has overwhelming attachment to another person/people They feel the other(s) give them a reason for living A way of communicating with others |
| Sacrifice suicide, where the person is... | CERTAIN about others e.g - betrayal/affair, other has done something that makes it impossible for individual to keep living - serious attempt |
| Appeal suicide, where the person is... | UNCERTAIN about others e.g - they have doubts about their importance to others - communicating to change behaviour/opinion of other(s) - combination of wishing to die and wishing things to get better - risk taking |
| Taylors theory is based on ___________ of the actors meanings | Interpretations |
| Why may individual cases be difficult to categorise? | They may contain a number of motives |
| The London tube train study may be argued to be what? | Too small to be representative of suicides in general |
| Unlike Durkheim, Taylor has not connected the 4 types of suicide to ____ _____ _______ | Wider social structures |
| What are some similarities between the two (positivist Durkheim and interpretivist Taylor) theories of suicide? | - Taylors uncertainty and certainty are parallel of Durkheims anomie and fatalism - Taylors ectopic and symphysic suicides are parallel to Durkheims egoistic and altruistic suicides |
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