Durkheim

Question 1

What did Durkheim say about the difference between psychology and sociology?

Answer 1

Sociology is independent from psychology, whose subject matter is the individual mind.
Durkheim was trying to make a space in the scientific community for the study of the social world.
If sociology is an independent discipline it must have its own subject matter; society and social reality should be understood as social facts.
Durkheim laid out a theory of sociology as “the science of social facts”

Question 2

In what book did Durkheim lay out his theory of social facts?

Answer 2

The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)

Question 3

How does Durkheim describe a social fact?

Answer 3

A social fact is any way of acting that:
Is capable of exerting an external constraint over an individual.
Or:
Is general over the whole of a society whilst having an existence of its own, independent of its individual manifestations.
Durkheim (1895)

Question 4

What are some examples of social facts?

Answer 4

Family, customs, laws, moral values, religious dogmas, financial systems and suicide rates.

Question 5

What did Durkheim say about social facts and constraints?

Answer 5

Social facts constrain/coerce individuals, they limit and enforce individual actions and thought.
Our choices are constrained by what society deems acceptable.
These are conventions that people go along with without question.

Question 6

What does Durkheim say about social facts and externality?

Answer 6

Social facts are external to the individual, they exist before we are born and continue after we die.

Question 7

What does Durkheim say about social facts and personal life and sanctions?

Answer 7

Social facts penetrate individual’s inner, personal life.

Social sanction/punishment can occur if individuals deviate from the social norm.

Question 8

What does Durkheim say about the independent of individual and generality?

Answer 8

Social facts are independent of individual manifestations, they have properties distinct from the properties of individuals.
Social facts are the beliefs, tendencies and practices of the group taken collectively, not simply of all individuals generally.

Question 9

What are social currents?

Answer 9

Social currents refer to something that happens at the level of the collective, the conscience collective.
Social facts include less defined social currents.

Question 10

How should sociologists treat social facts?

Answer 10

Durkheim believed “The first and most basic rule is to consider social facts as things.”

Question 11

What is the relationship between observation and social facts?

Answer 11

We should observe social facts as data external to individual consciousness, they should be viewed empirically.
We should drop all our preconceptions and social conventions, and just see social facts as a purely scientific concept.
We should define, classify and observe social facts according to external properties.

Question 12

How does sociology distinguish between normal and pathological social facts?

Answer 12

The distinction is based on observation not preconception.
The criteria suggested by Durkheim for distinguishing normal from pathological social facts is statistical and structural, not moral.

Question 13

What are normal social facts?

Answer 13

Normal social facts are regarded as average in society, they occur in day to day life and help to keep the society integrated.
Normal social facts are the true representatives of the social collectivity e.g. marriage is regarded as a normal social fact.
They are the main controlling agencies which are operational in almost all the aspects of social life.

Question 14

What are pathological social facts?

Answer 14

Pathological facts are facts which work in abnormal social conditions and act as the main disintegrating forces.
Facts that have some abnormalities are regarded as pathological social facts e.g. divorce is regarded as pathological social fact.
Not all negative social phenomena are pathalogical e.g. crime is a normal part of functioning society.

Question 15

Describe morality as a social fact

Answer 15

For Durkheim, dominant ideas of morality were social, morality is based on laws and social norms.
Social conditions give rise to moral codes.
All morality is a product of society/collective, morality constrains the individual and imposes itself.

Question 16

What are the three characteristics of morality?

Answer 16

Discipline - individual keeps in check - inner, egotistic drives in the name of a collective interest.
Attachment - individual committed to a collective goal but committed to individuals own social being.
Autonomy - individual freely desires/wills moral agency.

Question 17

What did Durkheim observe about suicides?

Answer 17

Durkheim saw suicides as a product of the collective, suicides are not fundamentally about individuals/personal issues they are about the social.
Durkheim observed suicide rates differ among societies and among different groups in society, this is how Durkheim focuses on the negative consequences of modernity.

Question 18

How do suicide rates relate to social facts?

Answer 18

Suicides rates are social facts because they are not just personal, they are societal.
“At each moment of its history, therefore, each society has a definite aptitude for suicide” (1897)

Question 19

How has modernity contributed to suicide rates?

Answer 19

Changes in society brought by modernity have lead to higher suicide rates e.g. less communal living, more differentiation, rise of individualism.
This means it is harder for people to see how they fit in society this leads to isolation and feelings of meaningless.

Question 20

What are the 4 types of suicide proposed by Durkheim?

Answer 20

Egoistic suicide
Altruistic suicide
Anomic suicide
Fatalistic suicide

Question 21

What is egoistic suicide?

Answer 21

This type of suicide occurs when the degree of social integration is low.
When a person commits this type of suicide they are not well supported in a social group.
They feel like they are an outsider and the only people they have in this world are themselves.
They often feel very isolated and helpless during times in their lives when they are under stress.

Question 22

What is altruistic suicide?

Answer 22

This type of suicide occurs when the degree of social integration is too high.
When a person commits this type of suicide they are greatly involved in a group.
All that they care about are that groups norms and goals and they completely neglect their own needs and goals.
They take their lives for a cause e.g. suicide bomber.

Question 23

What is anomic suicide?

Answer 23

This kind of suicide is related to too low of a degree of regulation.
This type of suicide is committed during times of great stress or change.
Without regulation, a person cannot set reachable goals and in turn people get extremely frustrated.
Life is too much for them to handle and it becomes meaningless to them e.g. market crashes or spikes.

Question 24

What is fatalistic suicide?

Answer 24

People commit this suicide when their lives are kept under tight regulation.
They often live their lives under extreme rules and high expectations.
These types of people are left feeling like they’ve lost their sense of self.

Question 25

What categories do Durkheim's contributions to sociology fall into?

Answer 25

Substance Perspective and methodology Legitimacy

Question 26

What is the division of labour?

Answer 26

The establishment of specified jobs for specific people that benefits society by increasing the reproductivity and skill set of the workforce. It concerns individuals/groups in industrial production and other sectors such as agriculture, government, law and science. Durkheim observed an unprecedented degree of division of labour characterised industrial societies and it is a characteristic of all advanced life.

Question 27

What is Adam Smith's example to describe the division of labour?

Answer 27

Adam Smith Pin Making Example (1776) Specialisation of tasks - the person cutting metal rods to the correct length uses one tool and can cut hundreds of rods in a day. They are extremely specialised, repetitive tasks. Differentiation of tasks - the tasks in pin making are dissimilar but contribute to the whole. Interdependence - by working together to divide the labour, hundreds of pins are produced each day, this leads to the growing interdependence of specialised, dissimilar elements.

Question 28

What is a critique of Durkheim's causes of division of labour?

Answer 28

It is a eurocentric, myopic view. European societies are not understood as globlly interconnected, this view leaves out the issues of colonising such as the slave trade.

Question 29

What are the functions of division of labour according to Durkheim?

Answer 29

As long as people's needs remain homogeneous and similar, competition for resources will become fiercer. Durkheim states division of labour means there are more specialised functions and diverse needs so there is less fierce competition.

Question 30

What did Durkheim say about the shift in solidarity?

Answer 30

For Durkheim one of the key features of modern industrial society was a change in social solidarity. There was a shift from 'mechanical' to 'organic' solidarity.

Question 31

What is mechanical solidarity?

Answer 31

Within pre-industrial societies Durkheim believed there was a minimal division of labour. Mechanical solidarity is the social integration of members of a society who have common values and beliefs. Low levels of specialisation means there is a resemblance of individuals, groups and activities. Low levels of of interdependence between others as each person can accomplish many tasks.

Question 32

What is organic solidarity?

Answer 32

In a society characterized by organic solidarity, there is relatively greater more complex division of labour with high levels of specialisation due to differentiation of activities, individuals and groups. High levels of interdependence arises out of the need of individuals for one another’s services. This means there is a stronger link of the individual to society due to the dependence on its parts, and this dependence holds society together.

Question 33

How does Durkheim relate the physical sciences with organic solidarity?

Answer 33

In Durkheim’s view, the forces causing members of society to cooperate were much like the internal energies causing the molecules to cohere in a solid.

Question 34

How does Durkheim describe social solidarity?

Answer 34

Social solidarity are the similarities of what individuals are, do, think and feel bind people together. Everyone should resemble the same 'collective type' so the individual is linked directly to society. The individual constantly acts and feels collectively in the same way others do.

Question 35

What is the collective conscience?

Answer 35

The set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes which operate as unifying force within society.

Question 36

What is collective conscience like in mechanical solidarity?

Answer 36

There is a strong collective conscience that strengthens social cohesion. High volume - collective conscience envelops, determines and eclipses individual conscience. High intensity - individuals intensely observe and conform to collective thought patterns. High rigidity - collective ideas are clearly/sharply defined.

Question 37

What is collective conscience like in organic solidarity?

Answer 37

There is a weakening of the collective conscience. Volume diminishes - there is more room for development of individual thought e.g. alternative religious views. Intensity weakens - individuals are less strongly attached to collective thought patterns. Rigidity diminishes - collective ideas are less clearly defined; the division of labour, not collective conscience, becomes basis of social cohesion.

Question 38

How does Durkheim describe crime?

Answer 38

Durkheim saw crime as an act which disturbs/offends the collective conscience.

Question 39

What is the penal law?

Answer 39

Pre-modern society was categorised by penal law, these were repressive sanctions for those who deviate from the common law. It is the collective infliction of suffering on the perpetrator in the name of defending morality and society. This expresses strong collective conscience under mechanical solidarity.

Question 40

What is civil/commercial law?

Answer 40

Within modern, industrialised society there was a shift to civil law and reinstitutive sanctions. There was a demand for restoration/reparation with less emphasis on punishment. There are specific rules to protect the rights of individuals and groups. This suggests an absence of a strong collective conscience under organic solidarity.

Question 41

What happens to the collective conscience in modern society?

Answer 41

Within modern society the collective conscience is weakening in volume, intensity and rigidity but is not entirely disappearing. But the collective conscience is strengthened in intensity and rigidity in regards to the rights of the individual.

Question 42

What is the cult of the individual?

Answer 42

It is the collective, shared, social beliefs yet concerned with rights, dignity and worth of the individual. This social belief system attaches the collective to the individual.

Question 43

What is the negative aspect of individualism?

Answer 43

The negative aspect of this shift to individualism is we rely more on ourselves and so if we fail socially or economically its our own fault.

Question 44

What is anomie according to Durkheim?

Answer 44

Anomie is the conditions under which people lose social moral guidance. Refers to the normalessness within society.

Question 45

What is the problem of anomie?

Answer 45

Moral rules form an imaginary wall around each person, at the foot of which, human passions die without being able to go further. If these desires are contained it becomes possible to satisfy them, but if this barrier weakens the previously restrained forces pour out and find no limits where they can stop. Because there is no accepted definition of what is desirable, society produces psychological states characterised by a lack of purpose and emotional emptiness. This leads to permanent state of dissatisfaction and unhappiness and the moral equilibrium becomes unstable. Durkheim believed this was one of the main causes of suicide.

Question 46

What is an everyday example of the problem of anomie?

Answer 46

If the mutual obligations of husband and wife become less respected, the emotions ruled by this sector of morality will become unrestricted and uncontained. Powerless to fulfil themselves because they have been freed from all limitations, this produces disillusionment which manifests itself visibly in the structures of suicide.

Question 47

How does wealth contribute to the problem of anomie?

Answer 47

Through the power wealth gives us, it diminishes the power of things to oppose us. Wealth lends strength to our desires and makes it harder to hold them in check.

Question 48

What happens when moral equilibrium becomes unstable?

Answer 48

No living being can be happy, or even exist, unless his needs are adequately related to his means. If his needs require more than can be allocated to them, they will be under continual friction and can only function painfully.

Question 49

How did Durkheim link the animal kingdom to social equilibrium?

Answer 49

In the animal kingdom, this social equilibrium is established automatically because the animal depends purely on material conditions. Once the gap created by the needs of life the animal is satisfied. This is not the case for human society as most of our needs are not dependent on his body. A more developed intelligence requires a wider range of conditions and desires more demanding fulfilment.

Question 50

What did Durkheim say about fulfilling human need?

Answer 50

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness. The more one has, the more one wants and the satisfactions received only stimulate instead of fulfilling needs.

Question 51

What did Durkheim say about restraining human need?

Answer 51

Our passions and desires must be limited but since the individual cannot limit their needs themselves, they must be accomplished by a force outside of them. A regulative force must play the same role for moral needs.

Question 52

How could economics solve the problem of anomie?

Answer 52

The way to realise social peace is either to free economic appetites of all restraint or to satisfy those appetites by fulfilling them. But this is contradictory - these appetites cannot be appeased unless they are limited and they cannot be limited except by something other than themselves.

Question 53

Why would a productive economic system not help the problem of anomie?

Answer 53

Even with the most productive economic organisation with a distribution of wealth which assures abundance even for the most humble, there will always be some workers who will receive more and others less. So it is inevitable the latter find themselves inadequate compared to what other have, as a result new demands arise.

Question 54

What are collective representations?

Answer 54

Collective representations are symbols or images that have a common significance amongst members of a group in that they convey ideas, values, or ideologies. They give meaning to the world and social interactions and help humans make sense of their existence.

Question 55

What does Durkheim say about the relationship between crime and punishment, and functional society?

Answer 55

Crime and punishment are functional for society as it brings about social solidarity with most individuals being against crime and upholds the values of society.

Question 56

What criticisms might we make of this idea of empirically identifiable social facts?

Answer 56

Its nearly impossible to have a completely objective view when studying the social world, social views and prejudgements will always play a role. Harder to get a true picture of a societal issues when only looking at it on a collective level. E.g. with suicide, we can’t just look at the broader issues as it is a deeply, personal experience we need to look at the feelings and intentions of the individual. Durkheim seems to state that everyone in advanced society holds the same values universally, can lead to eurocentrism.

Question 57

What is a Durkheim quote about social facts and personal life?

Answer 57

“Pressure of the social environment which seeks to shape him in its own image." (1895)

Question 58

How did Durkheim bring substance to his sociological theory?

Answer 58

Substance - introduced an original, sophisticated yet controversial theory of understanding modern society.

Question 59

How did Durkheim bring perspective and methodology to his sociological theory?

Answer 59

Perspective and methodology - developed subject matter, methods and philosophical underpinnings of sociology.

Question 60

How did Durkheim bring legitimacy to his sociological theory?

Answer 60

Legitimacy - developed a way of understanding sociology as a distinct, independent discipline.