A sociological theory is a theoretical framework that can be used by sociologists to analyze how social processes, structures and action are created and work[1]. Also known as social theories, they are used to understand society and for social research. There are a few different developed theories, but they are similarly based on moral, metaphysical or epistemological premises. Understanding social action and giving causes for its effects and course is at the root of sociological theory. Some theories include; macro-sociology (study of society as a whole), micro-sociology (study of individuals within society), structuralism (how society shapes individuals), social action (individuals create society as they act and react in socially meaningful ways), positivism (study of social facts in which and ways in which society influences the behavior of the individual), phenomenology (in which individuals interpret and create their social world) as well as such theories as feminist theory (how male dominance shapes social life), rational choice theory (as the interaction or utility maximizing individuals), social justice (as the concern of social exploitation and/or oppression),ethnomethodology (as the way people make sense of life while living within that life), social constructionism (as social happenings develop in social contexts), and structural functionalism (as various social elements perform within the social system) amongst others.
Sociological theory differs from psychological theory in that sociology studies groups of people (communities, societies, nations, countries) and the ways they work and are affected by outside sources, while psychology studies the way people behave individually and how their brain functions and their actions. Sociologists will study folkways, populations, families and society, while psychologists study the human mind, behaviors, and relationships.
Sociologists use many different methods of understanding the social world. The two main types include qualitative (group discussions, groups tests, interviews, etc) and quantitative (network analysis, statistics, evaluation research, etc) methods. They can use and analyze books, the Internet, archived records, surveys, observation/participant observation, genealogy, longitudinal studies, and experimental research. Each methods focuses on a specific approach to research depending on what the researcher is studying or trying to ascertain. Different methods can be combined for a more fuller and complete understanding of the subject/s. One interesting example was done by Frances Heussenstamm in 1971. He wanted to see whether or not prejudice impacted the way police responded to every day life events. He conducted a field experiment with 15 students, all possessing exemplary driving records and placed a Black Panther bumper sticker on each car. Although the students followed their normal driving patterns, within 17 days, the 15 drivers had amassed 33 traffic citations[2].
Suicide had long been considered a individual and pathological event. Emile Durkheim's theory of suicide proposed that any case of death, that resulted from the acts of the individual, whether positive or negative, is considered suicide if the individual knew that the act could cause death[3]. He used this theory to determine accidental deaths vs true suicides. He set out to collect suicide statistics from several European nations and found specific tendencies toward suicide. Emile proposed three different categories of suicide based on moral regulation and social integration. These categories include egotistic suicide, altruistic suicide, and anomic suicide . Egoistic suicide focused on people who lacked social bonds or felt that they were alone in the world (single people), Altruistic suicide focused on people intrinsically linked with others and self-sacrificing or martyr suicide (religion, military), and Anomic suicide focused on a persons unhappiness or their needs not being met (economy, widowed people, poverty, job stress). He did explore a fourth type known as fatalistic suicide, but he considered it rare and not of much importance to his study. It consisted of people with over-regulated and/or unrewarding lives, like new husbands, childless married women, and slaves. One fact he did agree on was that suicide crossed all boundaries of class, race, sex and ethnicity. Emile's work was considered by many to be important because it was the first sociological theory that also used empiricism to explain a social phenomenon.
Emile's theory brings up a lot of questions, especially when he says that positive or negative acts of the individual that cause death is suicide. Does this mean that parachuting,bungee jumping, race car driving, skiing, etc are all considered suicide if the person dies? Many people do consider these suicidal pastimes and the people who participate in these pastimes are well aware of the possibility of their death. Additionally, I would place more importance on fatalistic suicide than I think Emile did,particularly where is pertains to certain cultures, such as African American slaves, and Muslim women. In other aspects, I do agree with Emile's theories on suicide, as they are broken down in explainable contexts and gives me a better understanding of the sociological reasoning behind them.
References
1. The Fundamental Concepts of Sociology, n.d. - http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/PRELIMS/Theory/weber.html
2. Methods of Sociological Research, 2008 - http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/010/method.html
3. Social Facts and Suicide, 1999 -