The Social And Sociocultural View On The Cause Of Suicide

Attempting suicide is an epidemic in the United States; especially when 41% of transgender individuals have attempted suicide compared 1.6% of the general population (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Due to this, the question of whether or not transgender youth have a harder, more straining adolescence than their cisgender counterparts rises. Although adolescence can be hard on everyone, experiences such as a school environment, puberty, laws that guarantee protection, family and social acceptance of transgender youth are harder than those of their cisgender counterparts (harder does not necessarily mean correlate with strenuous, the use of harder is aiming more towards different, costly, and possibly more confusing). The revolution for transgender lives is just beginning, change is happening. But in order for change to occur, adequate information on the material needs to be discussed and terminology must be defined and questions must be answered. Questions such as: what do the terms transgender and cisgender actually mean? Why is it important to know the difference between the two terms? What is the difference between transsexual and transgender?

The importance of social factors over the individual can also be seen in Durkheim’s work on suicide (Stones, 2008). Suicide was explained in terms of two independent variables, integration in society and regulation by society. Low levels of integration led to egoistic suicide, while low levels of regulation led to anomic suicide. Durkheim cited egoism and anomie as the main causes of suicide in the modern world; a world which he believed showed less interaction and people thinking more about themselves than others. As a result, people are less bound to one another, there is less community and social control is weaker (Stones, 2008). Durkheim applied his

For many the concept of teenage suicide is almost always correlated with the psychological mindset of the individuals. However, there is a lot of the factors behind these horrifying events that actually are more sociologically related. These catastrophic events are directly correlated with interactions with the world. The loss of teenagers across the world is increasing and it is a subject that should be touched on in both sciences. Throughout this paper the study of teen suicide in the sociological view will be discussed by going through Emile Durkheim’s studies and the sub groups in which it can occur. These events are related back to such things as social rejection, religious beliefs and social situations. This paper will also touch on the different types of suicide and what the suicides correlate with. The main purpose of this paper is to show how teen suicide is not only a psychological problem with students but to breakdown the areas in which cause these feelings.

Imagine, the entire province of New Brunswick committing suicide. That is approximately how many people take their own lives over the course of a year. Suicide: a word that has become mum in our society for fear of offence. However, looking at it in a sociological view proves it less personal for many. Suicide is a multi-faceted, prevalent issue engulfing and affecting many today.

Suicide is the intentional taking of one's own life and sociologists over the years have tried to put forward various explanations for why someone may do this. Within sociology there are many different views on suicide on the causes and explanations for it, these come from two main methodologies which are Positivists who believe that sociology is a science and they should aim to make causal laws on suicide rates, compared to Interpretivists who believe that they should look for meaning behind occurrences and certain individuals experiences before the suicide. Other perspectives also put in their views on what they believe to explain

Suicide is the act of killing yourself. It is the 11th leading cause of death in America (CDC 2009). I have never had any intentions on committing suicide and I never really understood why people commit suicide that’s why I chose this topic to help me understand what problems people go through that makes them do such a thing. Sociology is the study of social behavior and the culture of humans. There are numerous reasons like financial stress, family problems or mental health disorders that lead to suicide. The number one cause of suicide is untreated depression. The issues that were just listed are some social conditions from society that results in a suicidal

There is never a reason that one should commit suicide, but different cultures have varying views on the act. In Japan there is a type of suicide that is referred to as an honorable suicide. This act is committed by the individual, usually a samurai, were the sword is inserted in the stomach to induce the individuals death. The individual does this to prevent dishonor upon his family through loss of the fight or any great despair (Chambers, 2010). In other societies such as the American Indians they believe that suicide should not even be spoke about due to the fact it will increase the rate of suicide around them. When a suicide occur within the American Indians society they minimize the events associated with the death, and attempt to

Many researches have been done every year since 1970. Lots of volunteers try to put this area in control as well as make a great effort to prevent the person who wants to commit suicide there. However, the annual reports have been shown that only corpses were found and buried kindly. In recent years, the number of found deaths from researches has been decreasing. At the beginning of years in this decade, the number has gained from 70 to

These types are known as egoistic (too little social integration), altruistic (too much integration), anomic (too little moral regulations) and lastly, fatalistic (too much moral regulations). Egoistic suicide is the most common form in modern societies and is defined as the type of suicide as those individuals who are not bound to other social groups such as religion, who share values, norms and goals. An example Durkheim found was that of unmarried males with less to connect them to social groups - this is typical of European and North American societies. This means that suicide rates are undoubtedly different across cultures, for example, in Item A, it is suggested that there is more chance of suicides in Denmark than in England, if coroners base their verdicts of cause of death on the probability of suicide. In contrast, altruistic suicide occurs at the opposite end of the integration scale of egoistic suicide. The most common cases of altruistic suicide occurred amonf the members of the military, for example, kamikaze fighter pilots and suicide bombers. Anomic suicide, according to Durkheim, was when people were naturally selfish and will only look after their own interests unless society restricts them. This is mainly linked to suicide rates to periods of social change. Lastly, is the fatalistic type of suicide where an individual believes

Durkheim does not see egoism, altruism, anomie and fatalism as types of suicide, but types of social structure that highlight the presence or lack of integration and regulation. It must be stressed that this excess/lack of integration and regulation are not seen as direct causes of suicide, rather Durkheim sees a number of voluntary deaths in society as inevitable; integration and regulation are merely prophylactic to suicidal impulses, which when taken to excess or dramatically reduced, fail to act as a preventative, and so suicides occur. This clarification is an important strength of Durkheim’s theory: it allows the biography of the individuals who kill themselves to vary, while still explaining underlying pressures/lack of to explain their deaths, and the varying suicide rates between groups.

The first sociologist to research into suicide was Ėmile Durkheim; he “wished to show that sociological factors were ‘capable of explaining much about such anti-social phenomena’” (Gingrich). Durkheim’s research allowed for him to understand how society connected to the rates of suicide and, more detailed, the importance of social integration on the rates of suicide across the country. He found a correlation between the rates of suicide and the seasons because the amount of social interactions increased as the seasons became longer and people were more likely to interact with the more accommodating temperatures (Gingrich). His views on suicide can all relate back to the degree to which society plays a role in one’s life due to the amount of interactions one has with society and the regulations that society imposes on the individual (Gingrich). Along with this view Durkheim also created four different reasons for committing suicide. The first type of suicide is egoistic suicide is when social integration in very limited, and people have the feeling of being normless. Next is altruistic suicide where societal pressures were too great and where suicide is forced upon a person, like the ritual suicides found in Japan that will be discussed later in this text. Anomic suicide is when there is a change in society, and the norms and

The experiment that was conducted was assess whether ethnicity is associated with suicide attempts across particular groups. A cross-sectional study was used to obtain the information on suicide attempt and suicidal completion. Interview was conducted to all participants to collect ethnicity and the structured interview for DSM-IV was used for the diagnosis of our patient. Patients were categorized in two groups: attempters if they attempt at least once during their life and non-attempters if they never attempt suicide during their life. At least ten different cohorts such as age, gender, diagnosis, duration of illness and a history of alcohol or substance abuse were used. Also the patients were separated by bipolar and schizophrenia disorders.

The lives of people living in the United States are influenced by factors that influence them indirectly from the social environment and factors that affect them personally. Since this is a class about Sociology we must predominately look at the social factors. The numbers of suicides in the U.S. by state follows several patterns that add up to one very large problem.

Each year, thousands of teens commit suicide in the United States. Suicide is a major problem as it is one of the leading causes of death among teenagers and young adults. Families and friends are heart-broken and greatly affected emotionally by the death of their loved one. It is unimaginable how hard it is for the parents and how they are going to cope with this most unfortunate tragedy. No parent ever imagine that this would happen to their child. Everyone, especially the parents, are often bewildered about the reason of their son/daughter for committing suicide. There are numerous possible reasons why teens commit suicide.

Teen suicide is a major problem in our society today. The adolescent suicide rate has tripled since 1960, while being the largest cause of death between the ages of 15 and 24. This is the one single age group that has seen an increase in suicides over the past thirty years. There are about 10,000 reported suicides reported annually. It is estimated however, that the true number of teen suicides is actually three to four times that number when unreported deaths are factored in.