In my reading related to life course approach, I have noticed that the authors refers to this approach sometimes as "theory" and others as "perspective". Is life course approach a theory, a perspective or something else? Why?
Dear professor Noriko Cable:
Could you give more details about what means "reproducible"?
Hi Damian, I am gerontologist and aging expert Jan Vinita White, PhD. There are so many variables! Life course perspective is also life course approach or life course theoretical perspective. It is often abbreviated as LCT or life course theory. I know, it gets confusing!
Sharing with my fellow philosophers and social scientists arrived at the conclusion that perspective are ways of interpreting a theory. For example, the theory of development has very different perspectives: economic and neoliberal perspectives. If this is correct, the next question is: What is the theory that the life course approach is a perspective? Could it be the theory of everyday life related to the Chicago School? Is another theory?
In your research, you will need to discuss the similarities and differences of the Life Course Development Framework and Life Course Approach which includes LCT and LCP. I suggest not following the philosophers and social scientists, follow the theory developers, as you will need to cite them in your research. There are tons of scholarly sources for these approaches. Gerontologist and aging expert, Jan Vinita White, PhD
Life course is inideed not "theory". Theory starts from statements at a high level of generality, followed by mid-level hypotheses, which are operationalised in terms of observable phenomena. So we might say Marx's theory of dialectical materialism led to (amongst many other things) a concept of social change involving conflicting social classes. Classes can then be defined in terms of relations to the means of production, and the ongoing conflicts can be documented. One could take a life course perspective on this and analyze the ways in which membership of different social classes over time affects the life chances, health, wellbeing etc. of individuals. This is enormously oversimplified! And a bit off the top of my head. But your question is a good one.
Hi Damien, coincidentally, this article was just forwarded to me from Dr. Harry "Rick" Moody, one of the most prolific thinkers and writers in the field of aging and philosophy . I hope you find this useful for your research. Thank you. Dr. Jan Vinita White, Gerontologist
SOCIOLOGY AND LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
Can ideas about the life course be linked to lifespan development
psychology? Read Gilleard and Higgs article "Connecting Life Span Development
with the Sociology of the Life Course: A New Direction" at:
http://soc.sagepub.com/ content/early/2015/05/12/ 0038038515577906.full
http://soc.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/12/0038038515577906.full
You are more than welcome, Damian. Good luck with your research. If I find more articles on this topic, I will place them here.