Lifecourse and Aging
Title
Lifecourse and Aging
Author
Hazan, Haim
Research Area
Social Processes
Topic
Life Course
Abstract
This essay addresses the need of peoples everywhere to think about the human life span as a series of discretely identifiable stages here characterized and analyzed as a series of fundamental dimensions around which dominant cultural beliefs are commonly organized. They include: Universality versus diversity; determinacy versus indeterminacy; social time versus experienced time; and course versus cycle. Each dimension is described and exemplified, resulting in a framework to guide future studies of aging and the life course.