Influential Sociologists
Complete the chart below using the textbook and the Internet.
Learning Goal: I can describe the significant contributions of influential sociologists.
Read pages 97-109 individually or with a partner.
SOCIOLOGIST CONTRIBUTIONS
THEORIES
Karl Marx
(page 105)
Talcott Parsons
(page 103)
Emile Durkheim
(page 101)
Max Weber
(page 109)
Dorothy Smith
(page 107)
Refer to pages 97-109
EMILE DURKHEIM
Suicide
“Durkheim insisted that the study of society must not rely on psychological factors alone
(reductionism). Rather, social phenomenon must be considered as a different class or
level of fact. To demonstrate the power of these social facts in determining human
behavior, Durkheim studied suicide. Suicide was an action that was widely perceived as
one of the most intensely individual acts, one that is purely determined by psychological
and biographical factors.
For example, we believe we can understand why Bryan Cadwallader committed suicide
by examining the poor fellow's biography and psychology. After all, Bryan was the
youngest of eight and the baby of his family. He was improperly toilet trained. His
father and he never properly bonded. He was prone to athletes’ foot and bad breath. His
children hated him. His wife ran off with a traveling balloonist. And his dog had bitten
him the day he killed himself.
But facts like these cannot explain variations in suicide rates among different racial,
ethnic, religious, and occupational groups. Durkheim reasoned that while suicide occurs
in all societies, the suicide rate for various groups are often both different than other
groups within the same society and stable over time. These differences and stability in
group rates indicated that there was something other than psychology involved in the
decision to commit suicide. Why is it that Protestants are more prone to suicide than
Catholics? Why are there stable rates of suicide, year after year, within the same groups
and societies? Why do rates differ between age groups within the same society? It is
simply impossible, Durkheim insisted, to explain or interpret the characteristics and
behaviors of human groups on a psychological or biological basis. Much of who and
what we are, of how we behave and what we believe, is due to social forces”.
Retrieved from:
http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Durkheim/index2.ht
m
1) Explain the importance of Durkheim’s theory.
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2) Do you agree with his theory? Why or why not?
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