Unit 11 The life course

1. How do sociologists view the life course?

Sociologists examine how individuals and age groups both reflect and affect society as they live their lives and interact with the larger social world. Age cohorts, such as the baby boom cohort, share essential aspects of the society in which they live. Such cohorts become a product of their particular time and place. Each age cohort experiences the various stages in the life course, the collective biography of groups of people as they move through life. The life course involves a series of generally predictable changes that people experience. The sociological approach is distinguished from the psychological and other approaches by emphasizing how growth and aging are shaped by and help to shape social structure and historical circumstances.

All societies classify individuals into age groups, known as age grading. They also rank members according to age and establish timetables for major life events. Societies vary, however, in the number of stages recognised, how the stages are defined, where the boundaries are drawn between the stages, and what responses are appropriate for each stage. The most fundamental distinction or transition is between childhood and adulthood. In most societies, this transition yields more power and privilege. Age generally contributes to social status, but the degree to which it does so varies from one society to the next. For example, some societies use age as the basis for a formal system of social stratification. In other societies, age is only one of many sources of social identity and social status. Even in such societies, however, the distribution of certain social opportunities and obligations is age-linked to some extent. Even without formal age grading, norms regarding age-appropriate behaviour are common.

Movement from one stage in the life course to another must involve a transition, a point at which people relinquish a familiar role and assume a new role. Each major life event requires a transition. Rites of passage have marked the transitions for generations; these rites publicise the passage from one stage to another with socially approved ceremonies and rituals. In societies where the stages of life are defined clearly and tied closely to age, the transitions and the rites of passage are less ambiguous and more meaningful than in more complex societies. In fact, contemporary societies are marked by rapid change in the meanings associated with the transition from stage to stage. The timing of events all along the life course has become more variable, and age norms have loosened.

Changes in the life course are both the cause and the effect of wider social change. As new roles continue to develop and as expectations continue to change in response to changing societal views, individuals experiencing transitions must become increasingly adept at responding to such changes.

Sociologists focus on groups of people, known as birth cohorts, who were born close to the same time and who thus share a similar historical experience. Such an emphasis on people sharing a particular period in history helps us to recognise the substantial impact of historical circumstances on people at every stage of life. Particular economic, political, and social conditions represent each cohort's frame of reference and help develop a similar set of attitudes and beliefs within the cohort. Over time, the number of people at each stage of the life course (the age structure) changes.

2. What characterises childhood as a stage in the life course?

Social definitions of childhood have not been uniform over time. Childhood was not considered a special or important stage of life before the sixteenth century; instead it was seen as a biologically necessary prelude to the socially important business of adulthood. The idea that childhood is a special stage in life dates from the Renaissance. By the eighteenth century, childhood came to be seen increasingly as a time to learn, explore, and play. Ideas on what governs development during childhood also have changed over time. Research over the last 50 years has yielded three con­clusions. First, there is a genetically programmed timetable for physical maturation. Second, some aspects of a child's development are controlled primarily by genes, while others are less dependent on biological factors. Third, the environment is crucial in the socialisation process.

Erik Erikson, who pioneered the analysis of stages of the entire life span, proposed a psychosocial theory of lifelong development that includes eight stages. He believed that at each stage the individual faces a conflict between one of his or her predominant needs and society's ability to satisfy it; this conflict creates a crisis. The way in which each individual resolves each crisis will affect self-image, identity, social relations, productivity, and all other aspects of development. In his analysis of childhood, Erikson focused on environmental influences but acknowledged biological drives in the role of physical maturation.

According to his theory, the infant faces the issue of basic trust vs. mistrust. In situations of inadequate or poor child caring, infants come to view the world as a harsh place where they must fend for themselves. Toddlers face a crisis of autonomy vs. shame and doubt in their quest for independence and their desire for parental protection. The early childhood crisis is initiation vs. guilt. This crisis begins at the age of about four or five, when children extend their mastery over their own bodies to the world around them. A supportive environment helps develop a strong self-image in this exploratory process. School-age children experience industry vs. inferiority as they struggle to acquire skills and information and to relate to a larger social circle. Depending on the feedback they receive, children may develop pride in what they can do or they may begin to feel inferior.

3. What characterises adolescence as a stage in the life course?

Adolescence is an even more recent invention than childhood. Near the end of the nineteenth century the period between childhood and adulthood came to be identified as a particularly dangerous and vulnerable stage in development. G. Stanley Hall, who wrote at the turn of the century, argued that young people should be given a chance to experiment and explore before being pushed into the adult world. His ideas both reflected and projected social conditions. Education was transformed from a luxury to a necessity as America became increasingly industrialised and urbanised. Adolescence took shape as an analytical concept particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, when the segregation of young people in schools fostered the development of an adolescent society or subculture with its own tastes and standards. The social events of this period helped foster this development: increased access to cars, affluence, altered legal definitions, and changing, practices in dating and other forms of social interaction.

The search for one's self is probably the predominant theme of adolescence. Erikson, in his analysis of this stage, also focused on identity as a central task of adolescence. Identity is a sense of continuity between one's past, present, and future, and between the way one sees one's self and the way one is seen by others. He labelled this crisis identity vs. role confusion.

Cultural and social factors determine when an adolescent becomes an adult. In traditional societies, the transition is clear; in modern societies, the transition is ambiguous. In addition, the timing and the significance of these transitions depend in part on race, ethnic background, and social class.

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