Functionalist Perspective On Suicide

"More people in the general population die from suicide than homicide in North America. There are almost 11 suicide deaths each year for every 100,000 people living in the United States, and for every suicide, there are between 8 and 25 attempts" (Brent 4203). Based on this research, the great effect of suicide is displayed. According to dictionary.com, suicide can be defined as "the intentional taking of one's own life." Suicide is a major issue for all people, but it most obviously affects those ranging from ten to twenty-four. People need to understand the tremendous ramifications caused from suicide everyday; when people take their lives, others lose their loved ones. Suicide, one of the leading causes of death of numerous people each day, has reached a crisis point for adolescents and young adults, and it needs to be prevented.

There are several theories that attempt to understand suicide, such as Durkheim’s Sociological Theory of Suicide and Shneidman’s Theory of Suicide as Psychache. However, one of the newest and most well known theories is Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide. The goal of this theory is to understand suicide at an interpersonal level. More specifically, it evaluates why individuals engage in suicidal behavior and identifies individuals who are at risk for engaging in such behaviors. There are three main components of Joiner’s theory, including thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability.

The essay will attempt to evaluate and assess how the various theoretical perspectives within sociology have contributed to our understanding of the deviant, individual act of ‘suicide’. This will be achieved by defining and evaluating ‘functionalism’, a ‘macro perspective’ and the application of this functionalistic approach formulated by Emile Durkheim, to the social phenomenon of ‘suicide’. Criticisms in relation to Durkheims’s study will also be evaluated, drawing upon other ‘Positivist’ theories and contrasting, ‘Interpretive’ theories of ‘suicide’, such as ‘Symbolic Interactionism’, a ‘micro perspective’; who’s principles were originally formulated

Despite the lack of research done by sociologists on the topic of suicide, little is known about what societies perspective of it. In this research paper, the sociological aspects of suicide are going to be brought up. The way suicide deals with deviance and how a particular Sociologist studied different theories. The analyzation of four journal articles that are cited back up my answer in my research paper. My research question is, Does the Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why impact societies viewpoint on the sociological issues of suicide? Providing evidence to prove this true through the general thoughts and knowledge I have cumulated in Introduction in Sociology. Oddly enough there is not much research in the general category of suicide in sociology

Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess different sociological explanations of suicide. (21 marks)

“Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” - Phil Donahue. As a complex, tragic public health issue, suicide occurs in men significantly more often than in women. Suicide is simply defined as the act of intentionally ending one’s own life, however, the factors that play into a person making that decision are anything but simple. The most evident and severe effect of suicide is the loss of a valuable, meaningful human life. According to Harvard School of Public Health (n.d.), suicide affects parents, children, siblings, friends, lovers, and spouses; the loss to society is psychological, spiritual, and financial. People who lose a loved one to suicide often experience devastating effects and deal with a complex grief. These

Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess different sociological explanations of suicide. (21 marks)

Imagine someone’s best friend dies. Later this person discovers that their friend commit suicide. Envision this person’s feelings and all of the painful thoughts and memories going through their mind. This person probably feels intense sadness and maybe even betrayal. Do not forget the suicide victim’s parents. Their own child felt worthless enough to kill themselves. The students at the victim’s school have confusion, start rumors, and gossip. All of the victim’s friends feel as if the suicide happened because of them. Everyone feels as if they could have done something to prevent this tragic event. Suicide is a social issue rising in severity. Each year, over a million people commit suicide throughout the world. Suicide has the name of a

Mikva and Rosenthal. “Guns and the Rising Rate of Suicide.” New York Times. 14 Dec. 2015:

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death mostly in the age of 16-24. Suicide is becoming major issue in United States. Rate of Suicide in teenagers is rising day by day. I believe the people who commit a suicide are selfish people because they don’t think about their friends and family. When I was in my senior year a friend of mine, Jassey committed the suicide. A day before that we both were working on our government project, everything was great. Next day of school, I was in my math class, doing my warmup questions, and was not listening to our daily announcement. Suddenly I heard that Jassey had committed a suicide, it was shocking. He committed a suicide because he broke up with his girlfriend. His death was so depressing and shocking.

Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of different sociological approaches to suicide. (21 marks)

Suicide occurs throughout the lifespan and was the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds globally in 2012.” People who are 15-29 years olds would normally study or work in the society, so they might have had a problem about modern society. Also, the number of people who die due to suicide every year would prove that people are affected by society and have something bad problem about the society. The problems would be occurred in school or workplace, and those problems would be related to mental health such as bully, harassment and

wouldn’t have known the balance and equilibrium a society needs through individualism. Although the individual action is important as well the actions of an individual don't have the same effects as the actions of a collective of individuals. For example, in team sports, there could be a team that has a superstar player one that outshines and plays better than all but if that individual is not surrounded by a team that plays together collectively as a team that superstar’s skills won’t be sufficient for the team to be efficient and win games. The same can be said about the society we must work together to function as a society and maintain that order that functionalism provided. Social integration is another important process that has an important

Key Theories: Durkheim’s social fact, mechanical and organic solidarity, anomie suicide, Marx’s alienation of labor, and Weber’s class struggles

Suicide has preserved its importance since the time ancient philosophers began questioning the purpose of living (Nussbaum & Long, 1988). Some of them stated that it has no meaning, some thought that life itself is searching for meaning and some said that to be happy is the meaning (Nussbaum & Long, 1988). Did they kill themselves if there was no meaning? Would they kill themselves if they were unhappy? The answers to these questions are paradoxical because each person and their experiences are unique. Today, many psychological tests are available to disclose whether one might be suicidal or not suicidal, however, the topic suicide dated back to the 284-322 BC, is still exist. The reason is that emotions are complex and amendable to change,