Durkheim and MicroCase
Exploring Durkheim's Ideas with Data

Please Remember: If you want a review of testing a hypothesis using MicroCase, I recommend viewing: Online Tutorial for Social Stratification and Sociological Theory MicroCase Exercises Part 1 (3 1/2 minutes) and Part 2 (6 1/2 minutes). Requires Windows Media Player 9 or higher. You will be asked to sign an "Affirmation of Independent Work" at the end of this exercise. Your work must be your own. If you have access to MS Word, please click here to open and then save this assignment as a Word document. You can then type in your answers directly. Otherwise you may print out this webpage and put your answers on it. Please use full sentences and write legibly.

This exercise is meant to be done in conjunction with the readings we will be doing in the section on Durkheim. It will ask you to reflect on Durkheim's likely responses to the data on the basis of the broader understanding of his views that the readings and lectures provide.

"There can be no sociology unless societies exist, and ..societies cannot exist if there are only individuals." Emile Durkheim, Preface to Suicide: A Study in Sociology

Between Marx's day and Durkheim's, statistical data and tools of statistical analysis increased greatly. While Durkheim would marvel at what a program like MicroCase can do, he would instantly comprehend it. His Suicide: A Study in Sociology is full of tables, and an appendix includes coded maps that look much like those generated by MicroCase and GIS software.

In the quotation above and throughout his work, Durkheim insisted that society constituted a reality in itself ("sui generis"), and could never be reduced to individuals. Hence the proper focus of sociology was not the individual, but social facts. Social facts for Durkheim deal with attributes of society, not of individuals. So let's begin by using MicroCase to explore this concept.

"We thus arrive at the point where we can formulate and delimit in a precise way the domain of sociology." Emile Durkheim, Rules of the Sociological Method

Open MicroCase CP (found in the statistics folder in the public labs). The first thing you always have to do is to open a data file. Click on File Management and then Open File. Then go: Archive>Trend>US>USTrend.mc4. Click open. Now click on Basic Statistics>Historical Trends. Click on Search, type in "suicide" and click OK. Click on the right arrow to select the variable and change the date range from 1950 to 2000. Click OK. Click on V at the top of the screen to see the variable again and answer the following question:

1. The suicide rate is the number of suicides per ____________ people in a given year.

Now examine the graph to answer the following questions.

2. Between 1950 and 2000, the suicide rate ranged between a low of about _____ and a high of about ______.

3. Durkheim argued that if acts like suicide were purely individual in nature, they would fluctuate wildly from year to year. Social facts in contrast would be far less likely to exhibit such wide fluctuations, because societies seldom change that rapidly. Let's assume a "wild fluctuation" to be an increase or decrease in the rate of 50% or more from one year to the next. Does the suicide rate show wild fluctuations defined this way in the graph? Explain your conclusion.

 

 

 

4. In stressing the relative stability of social facts, Durkheim did not deny that they could in some cases exhibit long-term trends. Has there been a trend in the past ten years? What has it been?

 

 

 

Now click on the back arrow, then full list, and choose variable #73, the homicide rate. Select it and click OK.

5. Which rate has had a wider range, the suicide rate or the homicide rate? Explain below.

 

 

 

6. Given the definition of "wild fluctuation" we used in Question 3, has the homicide rate showed wild fluctuation from one year to the next ? Explain below.

 

 

 

 

7. Would Durkheim consider the homicide rate a social fact? Explain below.

 

 

 

Return to File Management>Open File>Archive>Ecological>States, Cities and Counties>States06.mc4. Read the file description and open the file. We will use this file for the rest of the exercise.

8. Why is this data file more appropriate for exploring Durkheim's ideas than a General Social Survey (GSS) data set of the sort we used in parts of the Marx and MicroCase Exercise? Explain below addressing the question of the appropriate unit of analysis for testing Durkheim's ideas.

 

 

 

As you know from our discussion of class, Durkheim's famous study of suicide actually took suicide rates as its dependent variable. Durkheim argued that two central variables--social integration and normative regulation--were independent variables that explained variation in suicide rates. In the rest of this exercise, we will explore whether this same argument applies to other forms of deviance. You therefore will be asked to test the following hypothesis by Durkheim, by operationalizing each of the two variables:

The higher the level of social integration, the lower the level of deviance.

Level of social integration (independent variable)

Level of deviance (dependent variable)

Click on Basic Statistics>Univariate. Explore the variable list in States06.mc4 and choose a variable (but not one used above) measuring deviance that you think fits Durkheim's conception of what is a social fact. (If you are not sure what deviance is, review the Durkheim quotes on crime.)

9. Provide the following information for the dependent variable you chose.

Variable # ______________ Label: ______________________

Variable Description: ________________________________________________

 

10. Explain why you think the variable you chose is a social fact.

 

 

 

11. Following Durkheim, now let us take social integration as our independent variable. Drawing on the reading and class discussion, explain below what Durkheim meant by social integration.

 

 

 

 

12. You now need to operationalize social integration. Explain what it means to operationalize a variable like "social integration."

 

 

 

Explore the variable list in States06.mc4 to find a variable that might measure social integration. There are a wide range of possibilities. In choosing a variable, keep in mind the following assumptions that you could plausibly make on the basis of Durkheim's concept of social integration:

Explore the variable list (you can search for key words from the assumptions above if you wish) and choose one that you think is a good measure for social integration. Remember that you must operationalize your independent variable independently of your dependent variable; you must not, for example, use a measure of deviance for both your independent and dependent variable. The variables must be operationalized independently.

13. The variable number I have chosen for the independent variable is _________.

14. The variable description is ___________________________________________________

15. Explain below why you think the variable you have chosen is a valid way to operationalize the concept of social integration. Be explicit about why you think that the variable you have chosen is a good measure of social integration.

 

 

 

 

16. State your hypothesis about the relationship between the two variables you have chosen (which should be consistent with Durkheim's thinking) below . In doing this be sure: 1) to state the hypothesis in proper format, as discussed in the Marx and MicroCase exercise; 2) to state your variables properly, so that the reader understands precisely what the variables actually mean; 3) to start with the independent variable and end with the dependent variable.

 

 

 

17. Now run a scatterplot with your two variables, being careful to ensure proper placement of the independent and dependent variables. Click on regression line. Print out the scatterplot and attach it to this exercise. Papers will not be accepted withiout this.

18. Examine the Pearson's r for the following attributes (circle one in each set; use the department's Table and Graph Format Page at http://sociology.camden.rutgers.edu/curriculum/format.htm to assess the strength of the relationship).

postive statistically significant	none	negative statistically insignificant
weak		moderate	strong

19. Was your hypothesis supported? Discussing only the data and associated statistics, explain why you draw the conclusion you do.

 

 

 

 

20. Now go beyond the data a bit: If your hypothesis was supported, speculate on what causal connection might exist between your independent and dependent variable. If your hypothesis was not supported, speculate on why that might be so. Might it be a problem in the operationalization of your variables? Was your hypothesis misguided in terms of what Durkheim would argue? On balance, do your findings support Durkheim's theory? Discuss below.

 

 

 

 

Affirmation of Independent Work

Submission of this assignment constitutes a statement on your part that apart from technical help, you completed this assignment on your own. Plagiarism can result in expulsion from the University.

Your Name: _____________________________

Signature: __________________________

Note: Please print your name on the first page as well. Don't forget to attach the printout from question 17.