Glossary
Key terms and ideas critical to understanding Durkheim and his work.
Altruisitic Suicide - Suicide as a result of social bonds that are too strong or smothering. Suicide as an act of duty when an individual feels they are a burden on society at large or when they cannot cope with the demands of a society.
Anomic Suicide - Suicide as a result of weak or contradictory messages given to an individual by the social group or groups they belong to.
Anomie - The breakdown of the influence of social norms on individuals within a society. The weakening of the social bond.
Conscience Collective - Those ideas, norms, and social expectations held important in the minds of all members of a society.
Division of Labor - The increasing specialization of occupations and specific tasks within occupations. The Division of Labor becomes more evident with increasing industrialism and modernity in societies.
Egoisitic Suicide - Suicide as a result of isolation from social groups. No guidance is provided by society at all upon an individual.
Functionalism - The sociological perspective concerned with how various parts of a society or social system affect other parts within that system, and how they function in the overall continuity of that system.
Mechanical Solidarity - Social cohesion based upon the likeness and similarities among individuals in a society, and largely dependent on common rituals and routines. Common among prehistoric and pre-agricultural societies, and lessens in predominance as modernity increases.
Organic Solidarity - Social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals in more advanced society have on each other. Common among industrial societies as the division of labor increases. Though individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interests, the order and very survival of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specific task.
Social Facts (Forces) - Defined by Durkheim as "every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual external constraints." Simply put, social facts (commonly called social forces) are the influence placed on an individual by society or social institutions.
Social Norms - Expectations or rules (often unwritten) that forbid or encourage certain social behaviors.
