The Conflict Of Holism And Individualism Methodology In The Study Of Suicide

The conflict between holism and individualism methodology lasts for a long period.This paper researches the conflict between these two on study of sociology suicide,trying to declare and clarify the opposition and debates on them.Then representationsand causes among these two will be identified, as well as strengths and weaknesses. Atlast, this paper will explore a new way exceed the existing opposition.The introduction part makes a guiding description of methodology dispute onsuicide studies, and describes the research ideas and purpose of this paper.Chapters Iand II elaborate the holism methodology and individualism methodologyrespectively,and the exemplification on suicide also has been expounded. Chapter3analyzes the opposition between methodological holism and individualism on suicidestudies. We discover that the conflict manifestations of suicide researches betweenholism methodology, as DE SUICIDE for representation, and individualismmethodology, based on Weber’s Interpretive Sociology are reflected in the aspects ofanalysis unit, research path and attribution of suicide, and caused reason is thedifference of Ontological difference.Holism shows us a perspective from social level to explain social phenomena, telling us social factors can’t be avoided in suicide but enormous. However, thismethodology is hard to make people understood in the interpretation of suicide, becauseit’s too abstract and vague to explain both objects and reasons, and it’s difficult to beexperienced and perceived in practice. On the contrary, individualism just gives usliving pictures of suicide cases. But it emphasizes too much on individual innerexperience and assurance, bringing about exile sociology meaning and overmuchpsychology.As for the strengths and weaknesses of both in suicide studies, the author draws onGidden’s Structural Theory and Bourdieu’s Relationalism Methodology, try to achieveoverall combination and exceeding of holism and individualism, which just unleashesthe advantages of both sides. In research, suicide phenomena are supposed to be placedin a dynamic field, and be analyzed comprehensively and deeply from the perspective ofhistorical sociology.