Life Course Perspective Sociologist Glen Elder Jr. first wrote about the Life Course Perspective over fifty years ago (Hutchinson, p. 10). In his studies, he first noticed the effects history had on the development of individuals and families. He then looked into developmental theories that looked into how historical events not only effect microsocial groups, individuals and families, but how it affected macrosocial groups, education and work roles (Hutchinson, p. 10) The Life Course Perspective is the understanding of the relationship between human behavior and how it develops over an individuals’ life span. It identifies a person’s biological, psychological, and social factors and the importance these factors played in their growth (Hutchinson, …show more content…
A life event is any major change that happens to one’s circumstance, they occur throughout a person’s lifetime. These changes can have a profound effect on a person’s behavior and their life course trajectories; these can be positive or negative changes but are significant and may have long lasting effects. The change an event has on a person depends on the type of life event one experiences. The more dramatic or abrupt change the more stress one will experience, for example the death of a spouse or divorce are major stress factors. (Hutchinson, p. …show more content…
David Levinson’s (Hutchinson, p. 276-277 & 320-321) life structure theory characterizes adulthood as a period of instability with great stress, especially in the young adulthood, as important decisions are being made during this time. He describes those who are seventeen to twenty-two are in a novice phase. In the novice phase, personalities are still developing and they find themselves separating from their families. This phase is where ideas start to form and initial decisions are made in regards to families, relationships, and careers. Transition into adulthood happens around age thirty, when significant changes in life trajectory happen. The life structure theory illustrates how a person’s being is influenced by their social and physical environment. Their socioeconomic status, parental expectations, adult role models, and community impact decisions on whether they finish high school, enter the trade work force, join the military, go to college, or get married and have children at an early
Furthermore, they usually highlight the bad features of society and juxtapose them to the family’s worth, so the elders give the younger generation coping strategies to function in society the best way they know (385). These three factors have an impact on people’s personalities and their futures because how a person assesses a situation leads to opportunities. Both authors
These immense differences between youth and adulthood helps to contribute to the the main theme of this story:
The Human Development/Family life cycle theory is more about the belief that individuals evolve over time as they react to certain universal developmental challenges. For example, from my understanding it’s more about taking care of one’s self and their personal experiences shaping them into who they become rather than the family having that effect on them. A similarity they might have is that both theories have a huge impact on the people with these beliefs. Both of these theories shape the individuals in a certain way. There’s a couple of different family types; there’s a family of orientation, procreation, nuclear, blended, and extended families.
Arnett has provided enough detail about the stage and how it is successful in some cultures compare to the other. This article has also shown how emerging adulthood stage helps prepare adolescence for better future and help them explore their identity while getting them ready for adulthood. This comes with the disadvantage because some young people can take longer till they fully contribute to society. This is a type of a luxury that can’t be afforded by everyone.
Transitioning high schools my freshman year was a major eye opener. It does not seem like a big deal, for almost everyone has transitioned to a different school, however, I transitioned from going to class everyday and always being told what do, to doing my course work online and creating my own school schedule. I used to go to a public school called Houston High School, located right next to my house in Germantown, Tennessee. I would go to school everyday, and then do my favorite activity after school, which was riding horses. I have a tremendous passion for riding and competing horses, and it is what led me to transitioning to my online high school, the University of Miami Global Academy.
Middle Adulthood During this stage in life, Erikson describes individuals in the generativity vs. stagnation stage (Capp, 2004). Individuals between the ages 40 to 65 have generally married, have a career and have their own families. Erikson refers to generativity as a concern of the next generation by guiding and establishing them.
Life is not about the major events such as birthdays, weddings, and other celebrations. Life is characterized by the ordinary everyday events such as getting out bed or eating breakfast. Every second in life is significant not just the milestones. The thirty minute drive to work is valuable. The two hour wait at the airport is valuable.
They feel that they are not ready to fulfill the responsibilities and expectations to be an adult. However, one cannot avoid entering adulthood for
Theories, Key Concepts, Principles, and Assumptions Two theories that will be discussed in this paper is Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development and John Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment. Erikson’s theory is considered psychosocial, emphasizing the importance of social and cultural factors within a lifespan, from infancy to later adulthood. Erikson’s theory is broken down into eight consecutive age-defined stages. During each stage, a person experiences a psychosocial crisis that contributes to their personality development.
A child’s growth from childhood to adulthood can be measured in many different ways. One way a kid’s growth could be measured is through their change in emotions. As a kid grows up they may have stronger emotions for different people or things. Another way a child’s growth could be measured is the way they interact with their friends. Along with acting differently towards their friends, a kid may act differently towards their family.
Theories of late adulthood development are quite diverse in later adulthood than at any other age. They include self-theory, identity theory and stratification theory. The self-theory tries to explain the core self and search to maintain one’s integrity and identity. The older adults tend to integrate and incorporate their various experiences with their vision and mission for their respective community (Berger, 2008). Also, the older people tend to feel that their attitude, personalities and beliefs have remained in a stable state over their lives even as they acknowledge that physical changes have taken place in their bodies.
The principle of development and aging as a continual process of life is the understanding that a person’s behavior cannot be attributed to one time during a person’s life course and that all areas of a person’s life course have an impact (Schmalleger, 2012). One of the central organizing principles of the perspective is the link between human lives and social relationships with friends and family across a person’s life span. These relationships have considerable influence on a person’s life course (Schmalleger,
Everyone's story alway starts from the day you are are born. Throughout life, changes can create some of the most terrifying experiences we can go through. Starting school, stressing about are grades, graduating, finding a job, moving out on our own, finding someone to share our life with, all create life changing events that will force us to look outside of our comfort zone. To get out of our cave and strive for more wisdom, so that it may help us overcome every obstacle that comes our way.
Life course perspective helps social workers look at people from a holistic stand point versus from just one perspective. It was created from “micro, messo, and macro system vantage points” (Hutchison, 2005) Life course perspective examines a person, their environment, and the time. These categories can be broken down further into subcategories such as the location, life events, age and much more. Micheal Rutter stated that there are three types of life events that serve as turning points in a life course perspective.
DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY: REFLECTIVE ESSAY In life of an individual there are several developmental changes or events which occur as continuity of span of life. Some of life developmental stages include infantile, adolescence, maturity, and adulthood. These phases have biological, social, psychological and physiognomic reasons to which an individual completed the course of life. Psychological analysis upon the developmental stages include the focus on characterization, demarcation and the social interaction of individual’s life (Baltes & Schaie, 2013).