SOC 3118 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Variety Store, Socioeconomic Status, Child Protection
12 Dec 2016
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LECTURE 2 – INTRODUCTION
Key Questions:
• What are the six principles of the life course approach?
• What are examples from your own life for each aspect?
Life Course Research:
• Why did you choose to take this course?
• What have you already learned in previous courses about the life course perspectives?
Life Course Perspective:
• Examines how early events influence future decisions and events
o one’s path through life
• Explores the connections between individual lives and their contexts
• Considers complexity of processes leading to both social change and continuity
o Not only bringing this approach to questions of change (ex. Why use laptops today
and not before) also used to understand continuity (ex. Why do we continue to get
married)
Levels of Analysis:
• Micro
o Small scale of analysis, Individual, small as you can get
• Meso
o Level of analysis is a small community, interact with close ppl (fam, town, friends)
• Macro
o Large scale of analysis, big picture, larger forces combining what’s happening on the
other two levels
Life course perspective has six key aspects:
1. Socio-historical and geographic location:
• Where you are, where the subject is
• Can be connected to these 3:
o Geopolitical events
o Economic cycles
o Social and cultural ideologies
• Ex. why are 30 yr olds more invested in spending money and purchasing consumer
goods?
o Advertising, media (ideologies)
o globalization (this moment compared to before as it affects where things come from
like no dollar store before)
o Geographic location affects ppl as some countries have more money to spend
etc.(geopolitical events)
2. Timing of Lives/decisions:
• When certain decisions affect lives at a certain time
• Individual time (age)
• Generational time (cohort, generation defined by age)
• Historical time
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• Ex. comparing the previous examples to other generations at that specific age or explore
other ages
3. Heterogeneity or Variability
• Socio-economic status
• Gender
• Family structure
• Ethnicity
• Religion etc.
o Ex. birth order as middle meant the trouble maker
4. Social Ties and Linked Lives
• Networks of shared/connected relationships
o Peers, online relationships, parents jobs influence yours
5. How The Past Shapes The Future
• Links Between Early Life And Later Outcomes
o How things affect people’s future from the past
6. Human Agency
• Socialization: behaviour is shaped by environment, lifelong process where you learn how
to function in one’s society
o Agents of socialization: Peers, family, work place, institutions, media, etc.
• Agency: making choices for oneself
LECTURE 3 – KEY CONCEPTS
Key Questions
• What is the connection between life course theory and pathways?
• How is timing connected to our understanding and organization of life course events and stages?
• What are some differences between age-graded norms and sequencing norms? Where do we
learn both formal and informal norms?
Theoretical assumptions
• Social sciences can be broken down into 3 sets of assumptions
o Motivational theories
o Normative theories
o Macro-historical theories
What is a theory?
• We need to be able to see a situation from different perspectives
• Have to be able to step back and see it from a different perspective
Motivational theories
• The individual decided how and why they behave a certain way
o Rational choice theory
o Microeconomics
• Main critique - our choices are informed by benefits, consequences based off social norms
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Normative theories
• Assume social norms predict behaviours and actions
• Norms become the basis for social expectations
o Formal norms - established by an authority
o Informal norms - shared but not necessarily written down, or made laws
• Life course perspective falls under this category
o Norms are associated with age and stage of life
• Critiques: it doesn't get to how those norms come to be
▪ It could be that our social norms are a result of agency
Events
• Individuals lives are experienced as events
o Ex: birth, wedding, death
• Most life events are readily understood in that they are normative
• Events is more significant than dates
Stage
• A duration of time characterized by a particular property not present before the stage and not
present after the stage
• All stages have a beginning point that is marked by an event
o Transition event
• An ending or exit transition event marks the end of the duration of the stage
Stage transitions
• Every individual and social organization experiences transitions
•
Pathway
• At any point in life course there is always the possibility of a stage transition
• Often individuals think of their pathway as their choice
o However, historical and random factors arise to change or modify our pathways (ex: war,
depressions, natural disasters)
Institutional norms
• Are social rules consensually agreed upon by most members of a society
• Some are formal, some are informal
• This is how societies are organized
Timing of Life Events
• A subset of informal norms includes the timing of events and stages as well as the sequencing of
events
• Timing norm or age graded norm = an event or state which should occur at a certain period of life
• Sequencing norm = the order which one should experience stages or events
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Why use laptops today and not before) also used to understand continuity (ex. Social sciences can be broken down into 3 sets of assumptions: motivational theories, normative theories, macro-historical theories. What is a theory: we need to be able to see a situation from different perspectives, have to be able to step back and see it from a different perspective. Motivational theories: the individual decided how and why they behave a certain way, rational choice theory, microeconomics, main critique - our choices are informed by benefits, consequences based off social norms. Normative theories: assume social norms predict behaviours and actions, norms become the basis for social expectations, formal norms - established by an authority. Informal norms - shared but not necessarily written down, or made laws. Life course perspective falls under this category: norms are associated with age and stage of life, critiques: it doesn"t get to how those norms come to be.
