Invitation to the Life Course

Towards new understandings of later life

Richard Settersten

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780415784221
• eBook ISBN: 9781351843188
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Invitation to the Life Course: Toward New Understandings of Later Life discusses in depth the challenges of age, time, and social contexts for the study of aging and later life. Understanding aging (as a process) and later life (as a period) must be accompanied by serious attention to the life course. This brings significant challenges related to time, as gerontologists must describe and explain life patterns over many decades. It also brings significant challenges related to place, as gerontologists must examine how social contexts structure pathways into and through later life, and how those contexts affect the nature and meaning of experiences along the way. This book is a natural extension of the editor's previous work, ""Lives in Time and Place: The Problems and Promises of Developmental Science"" (Baywood, 1999).

PART I

On Life-Course Propositions and Controversies

CHAPTER 1

Propositions and Controversies in Life-Course Scholarship*

Richard A. Settersten, Jr.

Through the first half of the 20th century, the study of human development was largely devoted to child development. It was not until the latter half of the 20th century that developmental scientists more seriously turned their attention to adult development and aging. As they did, several important challenges surfaced (see Elder, 1998; Settersten, 1999). The concepts and issues at stake with respect to children could not simply be extended to adults. And new and difficult questions were raised about continuity and change in adult lives over time, about social settings that structure movement through those years, about connections between lives, time, and place, and how to handle these complexities in theory and research. These remain the most important challenges for developmental scholarship in the 21st century. In addition, early models were developed under very different demographic conditions, and dramatic demographic change in the past century has set new and unknown parameters on human life.

Earlier notions of the “life course,” “life span,” and “life cycle” were in principle based on holistic conceptions of human lives. Yet the dominant theme was one borrowed from biology: maturation and growth, followed by decline and regression. Only as a subtopic did the idea of lifelong growth, whether actual or potential, begin to surface (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998). While the terms “life course,” “life span,” and “life cycle” are often used interchangeably, they have different intellectual origins and concerns (for a review, see O’Rand & Krecker, 1990). Yet as these terms are commonly used, they do not carry strong assumptions but instead denote temporality in a general sense.

Most developmental scientists view the term “life cycle” as problematic. Strictly defined, “life cycle” refers to “maturational and generational processes driven by mechanisms of reproduction in natural populations” (O’Rand & Krecker, 1990, p. 242). That is, these models posit the life movement through a fixed sequence of irreversible stages, some part of which is tied to sexual reproduction. These are cyclical in that they assume that phenomena repeat themselves from one generation to the next, that the organism regularly returns to certain states or circumstances throughout life, or that the organism ends life in the same state or circumstance in which it began life. Many early “stage” theories in psychology exemplify this spirit (e.g., Erikson, 1980; Freud, 1923). Similarly, “family life cycle” models, popular from the post-war years through the early 1960s, construed family life as a fixed sequence of discrete stages. These stages were marked by “courtship, engagement, marriage, birth of the first and last child, children’s transition in school, departure of the eldest and youngest child from the home, and marital dissolution through the death of one spouse” (Elder, 1998, p. 945).

“Life cycle” models seem largely inappropriate in contemporary times. Marriage and parenting are often independent of one another; family size has shrunk; a period of cohabitation may occur before marriage; “non-traditional” family forms are prevalent; divorce occurs in record numbers; children return to the nest; and the joint survival time of spouses has lengthened. In the modem world, these models seem too deterministic and leave little or no room for deviation. Indeed, few developmental scientists today value models proposed as fixed and universal. These models ignore the ways in which lives are self-regulated and variable. In addition, models that explicitly tie human development to reproduction cannot be applied to individuals who do not, or cannot, parent.

This chapter introduces propositions and controversies about human development and the life course that are emerging across academic disciplines. The first part of the chapter outlines some central principles that underlie and guide developmental theory and research, drawing especially on advances in life-course sociology and life-span developmental psychology. The life-span orientation in psychology emphasizes “intra-psychic” (or interior) phenomena and changes in these phenomena over the span of individual lives. In contrast, the life-course perspective in sociology emphasizes external social forces, changes in those forces over time and, ultimately, how they shape the development of individuals and larger groups. Though the term “life course” is associated with the discipline of sociology, this chapter does not equate life-course scholarship as the exclusive terrain of sociology. Instead, this chapter and others equate life-course scholarship with “developmental science” (Carolina Consortium on Human Development, 1996; Settersten, 1999)—a synthesis of central concepts, propositions, and methods pertaining to human development that cuts across disciplines and life periods. Table 1, which appears at the conclusion of the chapter, outlines the most central of these propositions and controversies at-a-glance.

EMERGING PROPOSITIONS IN LIFE-COURSE SCHOLARSHIP

Development as Multidimensional and Multispheral

Individual development is multidimensional, occurring along biological, psychological, and social dimensions. It is also multispheral, occurring in family, work, education, leisure, and other spheres. Life-course scholarship seeks not only to address multiple dimensions and spheres, but also to link dimensions together and to link spheres together—experiences in one dimension or sphere carry significant implications for experiences along other dimensions or spheres. For example, psychological or social well-being are tied to physical well-being (and vice versa), just as educational or work-related experiences are conditioned by family matters (and vice versa).

Life-Course Scholarship as Multidisciplinary or Interdisciplinary

Given the orientation just described, life-course scholarship is inherently multidisciplinary. At the very least, it requires contributions from anthropology, biology, economics, history, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines. Ideally, life-course scholarship also aspires to be interdisciplinary, moving in directions that transcend disciplinary boundaries and actively integrate disciplinary perspectives.

Development as Multidirectional

Individual development is also multidirectional, characterized by differing levels and rates of change across dimensions of functioning. In fact, development involves the simultaneous occurrence of both gains (growth) and losses (declines) within and between areas of functioning. Indeed, in life-span developmental psychology, one of the most common approaches to defining “successful” development is to view it in terms of maximizing or promoting gains and minimizing or managing losses (Baltes, 1997). Gains and losses may be permanent (irreversible) or impermanent (reversible), and they may be more or less beneficial or costly depending on when they are experienced (Uttal & Perlmutter, 1989).

Development as Lifelong

A fundamental premise of life-course scholarship is that individual development is lifelong (Baltes et al., 1998). Development does not stop in adulthood, but extends from birth to death. Even in later life, development need not only be about decline, but may also involve psychological, social, and biological gains.

All life periods are understood to involve unique and important developmental experiences, and no single age period is taken as more important than any other. Few would contest the former point, though the latter may be questionable, given that gains during the later years surely pale in comparison to those early in life, just as losses in the early years surely pale in comparison to those later in life. In advanced old age, the balance between gains and losses becomes less positive, if not negative (Baltes, 1997). In addition, the “plasticity” (or malleability) of human potential decreases with age, and the optimization of development becomes increasingly difficult as life extends to its maximum biological limits (Baltes & Smith, 1999).

Given the lifelong nature of development, specific life periods (e.g., adolescence, adulthood, old age) cannot be adequately understood in isolation from other periods. While development during a specific life period may be unique, it is experienced within the context of the past, present, and anticipated future. As a result, the life course becomes “an endogenous causal system” (Mayer & Tuma, 1990). However, experiences early in childhood are no longer viewed as determining subsequent pathways through adolescence and adulthood. While early experiences set the stage for later experiences, these experiences need not be viewed as so constraining that individuals cannot move beyond them. Of course, even early conditions and experiences that are positive may carry unintended or unforeseen consequences.

Life-course scholarship takes a long view of development, one that incorporates the whole of life into theory and research. From this standpoint, it is important to consider how specific developmental sequelae play out over time. Developmental scientists who concentrate on different life periods must not only work together, but they must integrate theory and research on multiple life periods. As Baltes and colleagues (1998) have noted, there is significant need to generate theory and conduct research that “has as its primary substantive focus the structure, sequence, and dynamics of the entire life course” (p. 1034, emphasis added). Ultimately, these points emphasize the need to take time and change seriously in research designs and sampling, data collection and organization, and analytic strategies (for an overview, see Giele & Elder, 1999; Settersten, 1999).

Continuity and Discontinuity

The theme of continuity and discontinuity throughout adult life is one of the great themes of developmental scholarship. Some developmental processes are continuous and extend across life, while others are unique to certain periods and discontinuous over time. (“Discontinuity” may refer to a notable shift in levels of functioning or the emergence of qualitatively distinct forms of functioning.) However, explicit theoretical or empirical models for understanding continuity and discontinuity are seldom offered in the literature. In fact, Chiriboga (1996, p. 174) notes that developmental scientists “have long decried the lack of theoretical guidelines for investigating continuity and change over time.”

However, Gergen’s (1977) three underlying models of adult development are a useful way to frame questions about continuity and discontinuity. These are the developmental stability model, the orderly change model, and the random change model. (For a classic introduction to models and theories of human development, see Reese and Overton, 1970). The stability template emphasizes the stability of “behavioral patterns” (and presumably traits, attitudes, and the like) over time. In the stability framework, “whatever exists tends to endure” (Gergen, 1977, p. 141). The template of ordered change emphasizes change over time, but change that is patterned, fixed, and forward-moving. In contrast, the aleatory change template takes little about development to be “preprogrammed.” Our biological and psychological makeup establishes the limits or range of our activities, but not the precise character of the activities themselves” (p. 148, emphasis added). Of course, social systems do this as well. At the same time, some disadvantages may also be transcended. This makes the course of development contingent on many factors in both the individual and the environment, and therefore highly variable.

Twenty years ago, Gergen argued that the aleatory template was significantly less developed than the stability or ordered change templates. Nearly 25 years later, most developmental scholarship advocates a position in line with the aleatory template, though more in principle than practice. Many theoretical and methodological challenges come with identifying “continuity” and “discontinuity.” But once continuities and discontinuities have been identified, we can explore their short- and long-term effects and the processes and mechanisms that bring them about.

The Salience of Age in the Life Course

Age is important from the perspectives of individuals, groups, and society. In fact, every society has unique ways of approaching the meanings and uses of age. Sociologists, historians, and anthropologists...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction Invitation to the Life Course: The Promise
• Part I On Life-Course Propositions and Controversies
• Part II Promises for the General Study of Aging and Later Life
• Part III Promises for Understanding Aging and Later Life in Specific Spheres
• Part IV Promises for Social Policy
• Part V Promises for Understanding Successful Aging
• Part VI Further Promises for Scholarship on Aging and Later Life
• Contributors
• Author Index
• Subject Index