Seth Abrutyn is Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, where he studies Sociological Theory, Youth Suicide and Mental Health, Emotions, Social Psychology, and Culture.

His theoretical and empirical work focuses on the interplay between individuals and their local structural and cultural milieu. His has authored work in journals like the American Sociological Review, Sociological Theory, Journal for Health and Social Behavior, and Social Science & Medicine, in addition to Oxford University Press.

He is the co-editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Sociological Theorizing (OUP), as well as the editor of Springer’s Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory and co-editor of Springer’s Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory.

Research Topics

Sociological Theory; Adolescent Suicide and Suicide Clusters; Social Psychology and Emotions; Institutions

Research Interests

My current research is centered on understanding and explaining why and how some places, such as a high school, are sites of enduring suicide problems when others that look similar are not. My collaborator, Dr. Anna Mueller (Indiana University), and I in the midst of a large scale mixed-methods comparative case study of 10 high schools in two communities. Using in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observational methods, this work is breaking new ground in understanding and explaining how community-level structure and culture can shift from protective and healthy to problematic for youth and, potentially, adults. In addition to the focus on the community and its culture, this work has begun to delve into the role identity, status, and emotions play in learning to believe suicide is an option and to potentially choose suicide.

Books

Abrutyn, Seth. 2014. Revisiting Institutionalism in Sociology: Putting the “Institution” Back in Institutional Analysis. New York: Routledge.

Abrutyn, Seth, ed. 2016. Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory. New York: Springer.

Abrutyn, Seth and Omar Lizardo, eds. 2021. Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory. New York: Springer.

Abrutyn, Seth and Jonathan H. Turner. 2022. The First Institutional Spheres in Human Societies. New York: Routledge

Mueller, Anna S. and Seth Abrutyn. 2024. Life Under Pressure: The Social Roots of Youth Suicide and What to do About Them. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.

Selected Peer-reviewed papers:

Abrutyn, Seth. 2026. “Imagining an Affective Sociology.” Sociological Theory DOI: 0.1177/07352751261440890.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2026. “An Outline of a Theory of Play.” Symbolic Interaction.

Abrutyn, Seth, 2025. “Theorizing Affective Motivation: Motives, Seeking, and the Mundanity of Pleasure.” Sociological Theory 42(2): 91-114.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2024. “The Roots of Social Trauma: Collective, Cultural Pain and its Consequences.” Society and Mental Health 14(3): 240–256.

Abrutyn, Seth and Omar Lizardo. 2024. “Wanting, Liking, and a Theory of Motivation.” Sociological Forum 39(2): 173-188.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2023. “Toward a Sociological Theory of Social Pain.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 53(3): 351-371.

Mueller, Anna S., Seth Abrutyn, Bernice Pescosolido, and Sarah Diefendorf. 2021. “The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention.” Frontiers in Psychology 31: doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621569.

Abrutyn, Seth and Omar Lizardo. 2020 “Grief, Care, and Play: Theorizing the Affective Roots of the Social Self” Advances in Groups Processes. 37.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2019. “Toward a General Theory of Anomie: The Social Psychology of Disintegration.” European Journal of Sociology 60(1):109-36.

Abrutyn, Seth, Anna S. Mueller and Melissa Osborne. 2019. “Rekeying Cultural Scripts for Youth Suicide: How Social Networks Facilitate Suicide Diffusion and Suicide Clusters Following Exposure to Suicide.” Society and Mental Health DOI: 10.1177/2156869319834063.

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2018. “Towards a Cultural-Structural Theory of Suicide: Examining Excessive Regulation and Its Discontents.” Sociological Theory 36(1):48-66.

Mueller, Anna S. and Seth Abrutyn. 2016. “Adolescents under Pressure: A New Durkheimian Framework for Understanding Adolescent Suicide in a Cohesive Community.” American Sociological Review 81(5):877-99.

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2014. “The Socioemotional Foundations of Suicide: A Microsociological View of Durkheim’s Suicide.” Sociological Theory 32(4):327-51.

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2014. “Are Suicidal Behaviors Contagious? Using Longitudinal Data to Examine Suicide Suggestion.” American Sociological Review 79(2):211-27.

Abrutyn, Seth and Kirk Lawrence. 2010. “From Chiefdom to State: Toward an Integrative Theory of the Evolution of Polity.” Sociological Perspectives 53(3):419-42.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2009. “Toward a General Theory of Institutional Autonomy.” Sociological Theory 27(4):449-65.

UBC Killam Faculty Research Prize (2026)

Lewis Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting in Sociology (2024, American Sociological Association Section on Sociological Theory)