Putting Social Life into Perspective

WhyStudy Sociology?The Sociological Imagination TheImportance of aGlobal Sociological Imagination

The Development of Sociological Thinking

Early Thinkers:AConcernwith Social Order andStabilityDifferi ng Views on the Status Quo:Stability Versus Change TheBeginningsof Sociologyinthe United States

Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives

FunctionalistPerspectives Conf lictPerspectives Symbolic InteractionistPerspectives PostmodernPerspectives

The Sociological Research Process

The "Conventional" Research Model A Qualitative Research Model

Research Methods

S u rvey

Research Secondary Analysis of ExistingData Field ResearchExperiments

Ethical IssuesinSociological Research

friend William killed himself last month. . ..I don'tquite yet believe it. William was the neighborhood dogwalker. He knew all thedogs and all thedog people.... While heseemed fond of us,he

loved

our dogs, which was moreimportant. .. . William recently moved to Los Angeles.. But something went tragicallywrong. California didn't turn out to be the panacea hehad hoped. He flew to Chicago and jumped from a hotel-room window.... It wasn't that we didn't know William's history.Hehad bipolar disorder.He fought demons,both real and imagined....But few suspected the depths of his illness. I haveknown people who have committed suicide ....But I don't think any of us can understand completely.I'venever been clinically depressed.What do I know?... If only William had realized what a beautif ul sight [it was to see him walking the dogs down the street]. And how much he was loved.

-CraigWilson(2004:

Dl),

af eature writer for

U SA Today ,

explaining tonewspaper readershow saddened he was by the suicide of a manwhowas lovedbymany people and dogs

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learly, the suicide of William deeplytouched notonly journalist Craig Wilsonandhis neighbors but also hundreds of

USA Today

readers who responded to Wilson's col-umn with their own stories. For example, onewoman who works witha suicide resource centerpointed out that people, like William, who sufferfrom bipolar disorders and depression need notfeel that they are doomed to suicide: They canlive full, happy livesif their medical problem isproperly diagnosed and if they receive the appro-priate medication and therapy (Clark, 2004).We will never know the full story of William'slife; however, his suicide bringsus to a larger sociological question: Why does anyone commit sui-cide? Is suicide purely an individual phenomenon,or is it related to the social environments and so-cieties in which peoplelive?In this chapter, we examine how sociological

1 5,

theories andresearchcan help us understand the~

seemingly individualistic act of taking one's own

< 9

life. We will see howsociological theory and research methods might be used to answer complexquestions, and we willwrestle with some of thedifficultiesthat sociologists experience as they study human behavior.

Outward appearances may be deceiving:a person walking oneor more dogsmay not be as carefree as he or she appears. Studying sociology helps us understand that much more goeson in social life than we initially observe.