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Unit 1 Sociological Perspectives
Secondary Analysis: A Model for Research
Emile Durkheim was the first person to be formally recognized as a sociologist. (See pp. 16–17 for more on this pioneer.) He was also the most scientific of the pioneers. Durkheim conducted a study that stands as a classic research model for sociologists today. His investigation of suicide was, in fact, the first sociological study to use statistics. In Suicide (1964, originally published in 1897), Durkheim argued that some aspects of human behavior—even something as personal as suicide— can be explained on the societal level, without reference to individuals.
To carry out his secondary analysis, Durkheim used precollected data from the government population reports of several countries. Much of it was from the French government statistical office. He collected data for approximately 26,000 suicides and classified them by age, sex, mar- ital status, whether there were children in the family, religion, location, time of year, method of suicide, and other factors. (And all this before there were computers!) As he gathered his data, he continually refined and adjusted his hypotheses.
Durkheim wanted to see if suicide rates were related to how socially involved individuals felt. He identified three suicide types in his study: egoistic, altruistic, and anomic.
He hypothesized that egoistic suicide increases when individuals do not have sufficient social ties. For example, he proposed that adults who never married and were not heavily involved with family life were more likely to commit suicide than married adults.
Map A—Suicide Rates for the Year 1997
Source: National Vital Statistics Reports, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999.
Deaths per 100,000 Population
Above average: 14.4 or more Average: 10.5 to 14.3
Below average: 10.4 or fewer