Year: 2012
Type: review
Abstract: D URING recent years, the concept of the life course has gained considerable popularity in the social and behavioral sciences.The life course approach has become the " new wave " program for studying aging and human development as a dynamic and heterogeneous phenomenon ( O ' Rand & Krecker, 1990 , p. 248).It has been characterized variously as a " perspective " ( Elder, 1975 ), as a " paradigm " ( Elder, 1995 ), or as a " theory " ( Elder, 1997a( Elder, , 1997b( Elder, , 1999 ; ;Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2003 ;Elder & Shanahan, 2006 ).Although there appears to be some debate over whether there is such a thing as a theory of the life course ( for contrasting views, see Elder et al. [2003 ] , George [2003 ] , and Shanahan and Macmillan [2008 ] ) , it has been overwhelmingly embraced as a valuable contribution to the study of human behavior.The term " life course " is now in common use across a broad range of disciplines and specialties.In Elder ' s words, " the study of life course and human development has become a fl ourishing fi eld . . .extending across substantive and theoretical boundaries . . .(and) life course thinking now appears in most disciplines and specialty areas " (1997b , p. 939).In making these observations , Elder (1997b) gave no indication of any incompatibility between what he viewed as " life course thinking " and what others describe as the " life-span perspective." Writing some 15 years earlier, for example, Featherman (1983 , p. 2) described the " life -span perspective " on human development and behavior, which posits that " developmental changes in human behavior occur from conception to death, and arise from a matrix of biological, psychological, social, historical, and evolutionary infl uences and from their timing across the lives of individuals." Interestingly, in his massive coverage of this topic within the disciplines of sociology, psychology, anthropology , and social history, Featherman (1983) used the term " life course " sparingly, suggesting that it was embedded in the larger perspective of life-span development.These two perspectives -what Mayer (2003) characterizes as " life course sociology " and " life-span psychology "now share center stage in the analysis and interpretation of human development and behavioral change.But, are " life course " and " life -span " perspectives on development and aging the same, or are they different?And if different, how do they differ?It is not always clear from the ways in which the key concepts are used.It is increasingly common, for example, to see students of human development and aging simply use the two terms interchangeably , the term " life course " as a synonym for " life, " " life cycle , " or the " span of life " or even as a synonym for " aging " or even " human development " itself.Mayer (2003 , p. 463) argues that there are important differences between the two perspectives.He suggests that lifespan psychology " views development across the life Integrating Varieties of Life Course Concepts
Author: D. F. Alwin
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: National Institute on Aging
OpenAlex ID: W2117594011