Paul McGarrah
Stan Ingman
AGER 4800
Term Paper
5/4/15

The Life Course Perspective: Understanding The Cummulative Life Experience

The life course perspective is an interdisciplinary paradigm approach for the research of individuals lives to identify socioeconomic and ethnocultural factors that influence the individuals behavior and status. This perspective focuses on the network between individuals and the context of their progression. A life course is a sequence of events that define an individual and the effect it has on their socioeconomic status. This chain of events establish a cummulative value of an individuals lifetime experience. The life course perspective is characterized by seven fundamental principles. They are socio-historical, …show more content…
Major events in society such as elections, war; economic conditions such as recessions and sociocultural ideologies form the mold for an individual’s perception. This affects the individual’s decision making which functions as a determining factor in that individual’s personal development. Because of this, an individual’s choices and behavior do not occur in vacuity due to the nature of familial interaction inside a sociohistorical timescape. Understanding the geographical and historical contexts of an individual assists experts in the gathering and analysis of circumstantial data that affects the individual's life course. (Clarke, P., Marshall, V., House, J., & Lantz, P., 2011, p. 1291) For example an elderly individual living in the Kalahari desert will not receive the same health care treatment as a wealthy individual in the United States. The consistency of diet is greatly different, as well as pathogen exposure and climate. As a result the two individuals will have vastly different states of health, and the individual living in the Kalahari will more than likely expire at a much younger …show more content…
There are three categories of time that are fundamental to the life course theory. Individual time, historical time and generational time. Individual time is attributed to the number of years that an individual has lived. One assumption is that life stages such as childhood, adolescence, adulthood (early, middle and late), societal roles, family roles, freedoms, and influence are largely based on culturally shared interpretations. Historical time is attributed to environmental changes such as socioeconomic change, technological advancement, or international conflict. Generational time is attributed to generational groups such as “the lost generation”, “the greatest generation” or “ generation x”. Time can be interpreted as a sequential transition of events and influences that come into effect over a timespan. Transition is an adjustment within an array of related states in a socially explicit behavior. Transition typically associated with cultural formalities such as weddings, funerals or religious worship. Transitions are short term adjustments within a long term trajectory regarding developmental trends in establishments such as work, familial or educational. (Giele, J. 2009, p.10) Life course theory places much attention to the means in which transition are socially structured. Most importantly, the outcome of transition is