Publications

Books:

Mueller, Anna S. and Seth Abrutyn. Forthcoming. Youth Under Pressure. Oxford University Press.

Abrutyn, Seth and Jonathan H. Turner. 2022. The First Institutional Spheres in Human Societies: Evolution and Adaptations from Foraging to the Brink of Modernity. New York: Routledge.

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

Abrutyn, Seth and Kevin McCaffree (eds.). 2021. Theoretical Sociology: The Future of a Disciplinary Foundation. New York: Routledge.

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

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

Articles:
(Underline signifies student author)

Abrutyn, Seth. 2022. “Disintegration in the Age of Covid: Biological Contamination, Social Danger, and the Search for Solidarity.” American Behavioral Scientist. doi.org/10.1177/00027642221132176.

Abrutyn, Seth and Omar Lizardo. 2022. “A Motivational Theory of Roles, Rewards, and Institutions.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. DOI:10.1111/jtsb.12360.

Vanzella-Yang, Adam and Seth Abrutyn. 2021 “Tastes, Emotions, and Social Cohesion: Toward a Cultural Theory of Social Exchange.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. 52(2):315-35. DOI: 10.1111/jtsb.12323

Abrutyn, Seth. 2021. “Re-conceptualizing the Axial Age as the Re-emergence of Transcendence: Why Religio-Cultural Entrepreneurship Matters.” Pp. 123-151 in Interpreting and Explaining Transcendence: Interdisciplinary Approaches and Beyond edited by R. Yelle and J. Ponzo. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2021. “Does Differentiation Still Matter to Sociology?” In The Handbook of        Classical Sociological Theory edited by S. Abrutyn and O. Lizardo. New York: Springer.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2021. “Beware of Fads and Fashions: A Case for Macro-Evolutionary Sociology.” In Theoretical Sociology: The Future of a Disciplinary Foundation edited by S. Abrutyn and K. McCaffree. New York: Routledge.

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2021. “Toward a Robust Science of Suicide: Epistemological, Theoretical, and Methodological Considerations in Advancing Suicidology.” Death Studies. 45(7):522-527. DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2019.1660081

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 Prevention.’ Frontiers in Psychology. 31:doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621569

Mueller, Anna S., Sarah Diefendorf, Seth Abrutyn, Katherine A. Beardall, Krystina Millar, Lauren O’Reilly, Hillary Steinberg, and James T. Watkins. 2021. “Youth Mask Wearing and Social Distancing Behavior at in-person High School Graduations during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Adolescent Health. 68(3):464-71  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.12.123

Abrutyn, Seth and Omar Lizardo. 2020 “Grief, Care, and Play: Theorizing the Affective Roots of the Social Self” Advances in Groups Processes. 37:79-108.

McCaffree, Kevin and Seth Abrutyn. 2020. “Big Gods, Socio-Cultural Evolution and the Non-Obvious Merits of a Sociological Interpretation.” Religion. 50(4):570-589. DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2020.1712666

Abrutyn, Seth. 2019. “Toward a General Theory of Anomie: A Social Psychological Account of the Disintegrative Process.” European Journal of Sociology 60(1):109-136.

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.

Bottomely, Jamison S., Seth Abrutyn, Melissa A. Smigelsky, and Robert A. Neimeyer. 2019. “Exposure to Nonfatal Suicidal Behavior: Examining Pathways to Suicide Risk Using the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS).” Journal of Loss and Trauma doi: 10.1080/15325024.2019.1565107.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2018. “Integrity, Sportsmanship, Character: Baseball’s Moral Entrepreneurs and the Production and Reproduction of Institutional Autonomy.” The Sociological Quarterly. 59(3):519-544.

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.

Bottomely, Jamison S., Seth Abrutyn, Melissa A. Smigelsky, and Robert A. Neimeyer. 2017. “Mental Health Symptomology and Exposure to Non-Fatal Behavior: Factors that Predict Vulnerability and Resilience Among College Students.” Archives of Suicide Research. DOI: 10.1080/13811118.2017.1387632

Binnix, Taylor, Carol Rambo, Seth Abrutyn, Anna S. Mueller. 2017 “The Dialectics of Stigma, Silence, and Misunderstandings in Suicidality Survival Narratives.” Deviant Behavior. DOI: 10.1080/01639625.2017.1399753

Abrutyn, Seth. 2017. “What Hindu Sati Can Teach Us About the Sociocultural and Social Psychological Dynamics of Suicide.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. 47(4):522-539. DOI: 10.1111/jtsb.12145

Mueller, Anna S., Seth Abrutyn, and Melissa Osborne. 2017. “Durkheim’s “Suicide” in a Zombia Apocaplypse.” Contexts. 16(2):44-49.

Turner, Jonathan H. and Seth Abrutyn. 2017. “Returning the “Social” to Evolutionary Sociology: Reconsidering Spencer, Durkheim, and Marx’s Models of “Natural” Selection.” Sociological Perspectives. 60(3):529-556.

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):877-899.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2016. “Why Groups Matter to Sociocultural Evolution: How Religio- Cultural Entrepreneurship Drove Political and Religious Evolution in Ancient Israel.” Comparative Sociology. 15(3):324-353.

Abrutyn, Seth, Justin Van Ness, and Marshall Taylor. 2016. “Collective Action and Cultural Change: Revisiting Eisenstadt’s Evolutionary Theory.” Journal of Classical Sociology. 17(1):369-395.

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2016. “When Too Much Integration and Regulation Hurts: Re-Envisioning Durkheim’s Altruistic Suicide.” Society and Mental Health. 6(1):56-71.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2015. “Money, Sacredness, and Love: Generalized Symbolic Media and the Production of Instrumental, Affectual, and Moral Reality.” Czech Sociological Review. 51(3):445-471.

Mueller, Anna S., Wesley James, Seth Abrutyn, and Martin Levin. 2015. “Suicide Ideation and Bullying Among US Adolescents: Examining the Intersections of Sexual Orientation, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity.” American Journal of Public Health. 105(5):980-985.

Mueller, Anna S.,*Seth Abrutyn, and Cynthia Stockton. 2015. “Can Social Ties be Harmful: Examining the Spread of Suicide in Early Adulthood.” Sociological Perspectives. 58(2):204-222.

Abrutyn, Seth and Justin Van Ness. 2015. “The role of agency in sociocultural evolution: Institutional entrepreneurship as a force of structural and cultural change.” Thesis Eleven. 127(1):52-77.

Mueller, Anna S. and Seth Abrutyn. 2015. “Suicidal disclosures among friends: using social network data to understand suicide contagion.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 56(1):131-148.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2015. “The institutional evolution of religion: innovation and entrepreneurship in ancient Israel.” Religion. DOI:10.1080/0048721X.2015.1009864

Lawrence, Kirk and Seth Abrutyn. 2015. “The Degradation of Nature and the Growth of Environmental Concern: Toward a Theory of the Capture and Limits of Ecological Value.” Human Ecology Review. 21(1):87-108.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2015. “Pollution-purification, cultural memory, and the evolution of religion: How collective trauma shaped ancient Israel.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology. 3(1):123-155.

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2014. “The Socioemotional Foundations of Suicide: A Microsociological View of Durkheim’s Suicide.” Sociological Theory. 32(4):327-351.

Abrutyn, Seth and Michael J. Carter. 2014. “The Decline in Shared Collective Conscience as Found in the Shifting Norms and Values of Etiquette Manuals.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. DOI: 10.1111/jtsb.12071

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2014. “Reconsidering Durkheim’s Assessment of Tarde: Formalizing a Tardian Theory of Imitation, Contagion, and Suicide Suggestion.” Sociological Forum. 29(3):698-719.

Abrutyn, Seth and Anna S. Mueller. 2014. “Are Suicide Behaviors Contagious in Adolescence?: Using Longitudinal Data to Examine Suicide Suggestion.“American Sociological Review. 79(2):221-227.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2014. “Religious Autonomy and Religious Entrepreneurship: An Evolutionary-Institutionalist’s Take on the Axial Age.” Comparative Sociology. 13(2):105-134. (lead article).

Abrutyn, Seth. 2013. “Reconceptualizing the Dynamics of Religion as a Macro Institutional Domain.” Structure and Dynamics. 6(3):1-21. (lead article)

Abrutyn, Seth. 2013. “Revisiting and Reinvigorating Evolutionary Sociology:
Bringing Institutions Back to Life.” Current Perspectives in Social Theory. 31:247-76.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2013. “Reconceptualizing Religious Evolution: Toward a General Theory of Macro-Institutional Change.” Social Evolution and History 12(2):5-36. (lead article)

Abrutyn, Seth. 2013. “Political Evolution, Entrepreneurship, and Autonomy: Causes and Consequences of an “Axial” Moment.” Research in Political Sociology 21:3-29. (lead article)

Abrutyn, Seth. 2013. “Teaching Sociological Theory for a New Century: Contending with the Time Crunch.” The American Sociologist 44(2):132-54.

Abrutyn, Seth. 2012. “Towards a General Theory of Institutional Ecology: The Dynamics of Macro Structural Space.” Review of European Studies 4(5):167-80.

Abrutyn, Seth and Jonathan H. Turner. 2011. “The Old Institutionalism meets the New Institutionalism.” Sociological Perspectives 54(3):283-306.

*Stephen K. Sanderson, Seth Abrutyn, and Kristopher Proctor. 2011. “Testing the Protestant Ethic Thesis with Quantitative Historical Data: A Research Note.” Social Forces 89(3):1-7.

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

*Brint, Steven G. and Seth Abrutyn. 2010. “Who’s Right About the Right?: Comparing Competing Explanations of the Link Between Conservative Protestants and Conservative Politics in the United States.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49(2):328-50.

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