Scientific Method Matrix Essay

Social problems are issues and situations that directly or indirectly affect people and are fairly serious problems that require collective efforts to overcome them.
Suicide, as a social problem of society, is a relevant theme of investigation since suicide is one of the perennial and global problems of humanity. Is suicide a destructive force or a way to solve the problem and attract somebody’s attention?
Thus, this paper introduces the information on a social problem that is called suicide. It presents and observes the concept of suicide, its main characteristics and risk factors that are connected with the risk of suicide.
For purposes of this study, suicide is a person’s self-destructive behavior that is directed at an intentional deprivation of his or her life. Suicidal behavior is a broader concept and includes suicide attempts and manifestations.
Durkheim emphasized that “the suicide rate is a social fact that can be interpreted as an indicator of social solidarity within a society. One striking feature of the social suicide rate is its stability over time, from year to year showing less variance than the mortality rate” (as cited in Bearman, 1991, p. 501).
The major types of suicides can be divided into two classes: true and demonstrative. The first one is usually a well-planned event, the purpose of which is to take own life, regardless of opinions and reactions of relatives, friends, etc. As a rule, a person commits a demonstrative suicide in an affective state. It is a person’s attempt to attract somebody’s attention to his or her actions or problems, etc.
This is a well-known fact that there are a lot of risk factors and reasons that cause suicide attempts and behaviors.
The main ones include the following:
Physical abuse (rape, assault), loss of meaning in life, financial problems, health problems (euthanasia), mental illness, religious fanaticism (usually common in cults), ritual suicide, drug addiction, imitative suicide (after similar deaths of famous personalities or literary characters), alcohol, unrequited love, desire to start life all over again (for those who believe in reincarnation), suicide to save his own honor (hara-kiri), socio-economic factors, etc.
Furthermore, it is not superfluous to mention that suicidal behavior is also related to a common symptom of adolescent crisis. In many European countries, the risks of youth suicide are very common and are the second or third leading cause of death in this age.
Youth suicide is a very serious problem within our community. Every day more than 1000 young people try to commit a suicide. According to various observations, during the last decade the frequency of suicides among young people has significantly increased. One of the major research designs for collecting and analyzing research data and information on the problem is questionnaire surveys. Surveys conducted in various countries show that up to 80 percent of teenagers are regularly thinking about how to commit a suicide.
Therefore, proper risk assessments and suicide prevention efforts are extremely important and essential. There are many approaches to suicide prevention, and it is very important to choose one or other of them individually.
The psychiatrist’s main task is to understand the patient, recognize why he or she wants to die, and find something that will help him or her not to consider suicide to be the only way out of the situation.
Taking the above-mentioned information into consideration, it is possible to draw a conclusion that suicidal behavior, as a manifestation of suicidal activity: thoughts, intentions, statements, threats, attempts, is an extremely serious problem all over the world. A large number of suicide attempts point to interpersonal issues and different problems within society. Researcher’s information showed that “…in highly integrated societies, where there appeared to be strong social bonds and a high degree of social cohesion, suicide rates were low” (Dorling & Gunnell, 2003, p. 443). That is why all collective efforts should be aimed at preventing and reducing the risks and incidences of suicide