Abstract
This article presents the life course as a theoretical orientation for the study of human lives, development, and aging. In concept, the life course refers to age-graded events and social roles in life trajectories that are subject to historical change. Social transitions make up life trajectories, and they derive meaning from them. Change in the life course alters the trajectory of individual development and aging. Building on cross-disciplinary advances since the 1960s, life course theory has uniquely forged a conceptual bridge among developmental and aging processes, the life course, and ongoing changes in society; one based on the premise that age places people in the social structure and in particular birth cohorts. To clarify the meaning of the life course, this article will first take up its primary conceptual elements, such as trajectory, transition, and turning point, and review concepts that have been used interchangeably; specifically, life cycle, life history, life stage and life span. Then it will turn to the emergence of life course theory from the 1960s, with roots in the literature of social relations, age and its temporal meanings, and life-span concepts of development. It concludes with paradigmatic principles that are central to the theory; the principles of lifelong development, timing, linked lives, historical time and place, and human agency.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
