e. In periods of adverse or rapidly changing social conditions, Durkheim theorized that individuals become less integrated in society and traditional values, norms, and morals breakdown. As such, individuals lose their connection to others or disengage from society. In the absence of confusing or irrelevant norms, values, and morals, they feel little sense of connection and have little moral values or norms to guide behavior. Durkheim believed great periods of social change lead to anomie, conflict, deviance, less integration, and higher rates of suicide. As Durkheim (1951) writes, ôThe victimÆs acts which at first seem to express only his personal temperament are really the supplement and prolongation of a social condition which they express externally,ö (299).
Great social change often leads to an imbalance in autonomy, morality, and social integration or solidarity. Moral agents like religion often offset or repulse thoughts of suicide in believers. However, when social change produces an imbalance in moral
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