Aging and the Life Course
Title
Aging and the Life Course
Author
O'Rand, Angela M.
Research Area
Social Processes
Topic
Life Course
Abstract
This essay reviews major elements of aging and life course research, its foundations, frontiers, and research challenges. This research examines how human lives are organized and manifested across the life span in different environments. The first foundation of life course research is the historical observation of the institutionalization of the life course; that is, how it became standardized in industrialized contexts through the operation of work, family and state institutions and how it is increasingly destandardized in the new global economy. The second foundation is the examination of the life course as a process that is manifold and cumulative: manifold because it consists of intertwining roles and events over time and cumulative because it consists of sequentially contingent transitions and path‐dependent processes. The third foundation is the recognition of the formative and enduring impact of exposures to severe life conditions or major sustained macro events such as wars or disasters. The stress process is the fourth foundation that addresses how stresses over the life course shape its trajectory. Finally, cognition and emotion over the life span serve as a foundation for the major psychological experience of aging. Three frontiers of life course research are highlighted: the individualization of the life course and the devolution of risk; cumulative advantage and cumulative disadvantage as major processes of life course inequalities; and biological processes and the life course. The essay ends with consideration of life course data and methods and the challenges of interdisciplinary research.