Download Studying a person`s life

Studying a person’s life
• Life span—the theoretical maximum length of
life. People who actually lived until 120.
• Life expectancy—how long people are expected to
live from their birth moment an cohort; how long
they actually live. Average today about 70
something (sex differences?); average in less
developed countries about 40 something—same as
U.S. at beginning of 20th century
Perspectives
• Biological perspective looks at the physical body
(genes, hormones, sickness) and what affects it
(diet, exercise, work, environment)
• Psychological perspective looks at the person’s
personality and their interpretation of what is
happening to their lives—focus is on the
individual except in social psychology which
overlaps with sociology
• Sociological perspective looks at how social
organization and institutions affect the individual
in society (role of family, social change, economy,
politics, etc.)
Life course
• Defined as a progression through time.
(Clausen, Chap. 1)
• Aging is the chronological age a society
gives a person which is tied to society’s
definitions of biological maturation
Time Frames
• Social time—the set of norms that tell us what
society defines as life
transitions/accomplishments. Can be laws and
customs. Example: legal time--your birth date
determines when you go to public school, get a
driver’s license, drink alcohol, etc.; customary
time—when do you get married?
• Historical time—historical events, cultural eras,
generational cohorts, economic transitions.
Biology
• Genes—give us evolutionary inheritance
with abilities to be susceptible to or fend off
disease; longevity genes?
• Biology/environment interaction
• Biology affects appearance, sexual
maturation, energy levels, etc.
Society and Culture
• Culture defined as the set of beliefs, values, and
practices that are shared by society at any given
time.
• Culture includes language, diet, religion,
interactional styles
• Socialization is the process where you learn your
society’s culture—get our sense of identity/self,
goals, skills
• Intergenerational transmission means different
generations experience culture differently
• Age norms—society/culture define when one is
child, adult, old
• Social institutions and biology mean perpetuation
Historical Time and Cohorts
• History affected by technological developments
and social change
• Cohort—group that moves through the life course
and experiences historical events at the same time.
Originally used by sociologists of
population/demographers to designate all persons
born in a given time period.
• Labelling of cohorts—Baby boomers, Gen-Xers,
millenials
• Cohort historical time and events tell us about
opportunities and constraints cohorts experiences
Life course outcomes
• Individual attributes: temperament/personality,
intelligence, health
• Socialization experiences—kinds of childbirth,
family, peers
• Opportunities presented in life (privileges)
• Obstacles presented in life (war, economic
depression)
• Effort individuals exert and mobilization of
resources by them/family/supporters
Methods of life course studies
•
Qualitative methods
1. Autobiography—tell your story from your perspective
2. Self ethnography—tell your story from your
perspective with others’ perspectives included
3. Biography—someone else tells your story
•
•
Quantitative methods—use of census data to see
where individual fits into group; survey data on
public opinions to see where individual fits into
beliefs/opinions
Longitudinal studies: view individuals over
entire life course
Methodological issues
• Memory problems—people do not always remember
events as they happened. “Memory is primarily
reconstructive in nature” we “recreate many…memories
from bits and pieces that we recall” (Aronson, p. 145)
• Retrospective bias: memory can bias historical accounts—
people “do not possess a God’s eye view of the world—a
perspective that is all knowing and free of bias” (p.121)
• Example: mother’s reports of children when in preschool
and then later—later recollections strongly influenced by
current relationship not previous one (Clausen, pp. 12-13.)
• Frames of reference, information ordering, amounts of
information given, nature of relationships/interactions,
mental stereotypes, points of view
Importance of life course studies
• It is through the construction of a life story
that self and memory are intertwined and
represented in language. Only in this
construction and re-construction do we
understand the person’s eye-view of their
world.
Sources
• John Clausen, The Life Course, Chapter 1.
• Eliot Aronson, The Social Animal (1995)