- Myths concerning suicide
- “When someone says there going to do it, there not.”
* Suicide rates go up in the winter
- Which is more common in the U.S- homicide or suicide?
Suicide
- Does depression itself cause a person to commit suicide
No, not being able to cope with depression causes suicide
- Know the 3 varieties of suicidal experiences.
- Threateners: really want to live, but use threat as means to gain something. Very vocal.
- Attempters: not as vocal. These are really unsure if they want to live or die. Some days yes, days no. Do attempt suicide with less lethal methods such as pills, or cutting wrists. Ambiguous about life.
- Committers: very serious. Often committed suicide, everything is very planned and organized. Selected a way that’s fail proof, even though nothing is fail proof.
- Are official statistics on suicide reliable?
No, because some people disguise their suicide such as a 1 vehicle car accident.
- What is the social profile of those with higher suicide rates?
Older, white males that are non-professional and retired. Less religious
- Know the situational factors in suicide:
- Being in prison
- Adolescents
- College students
- Being diagnosed with a terminal disease such as cancer or HIV/AIDS
- Mass media
- Joining the military
- Suicide prevention centers are more valuable to whom?
More beneficial to people who are less likely to commit suicide. Less useful to people that are more likely to commit suicide.
- What is the difference between sociological theories of suicide vs. psychiatric explanations?
Psychiatric explanation- assumes that something is wrong with the individual ex: mental disorder, severely depressed etc.
Sociological explanations- do not assume there is anything wrong with individual instead there is a problem with social integration, “do you have friends do you have family?” But there is nothing necessarily wrong with the individual.
- Compare and contrast Durkheim’s theory of suicide with that of Jerry Jacobs- ESSAY
Durkheim’s Social Theory:
Major Cause of Suicide
Social integration: The degree to someone is integrated to society, family etc.
Social regulation: individuals being restrained constrained by a group of society that they are a member of.
Moderate regulations is the key: No regulation or too much regulation
Jerry Jacobs: Pg. 174- Most people must overcome social prohibitions before taking their own lives.
• Individuals find themselves faced with unexpected, intolerable and unsolved problems.
• They believe that death is the only way to solve these problems.
• Defining suicide as the necessary solution they do not have the choice not to kill themselves thereby freeing themselves from a sense of guilt and responsibility for their impeding suicide.
• Finally, just to make sure that they will not be punished in the afterlife, they pray to god for forgiveness or leave a suicide note requesting the survivors to pray for their souls. Then they decisively kill themselves.
