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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)