Life Course Perspective Essay
Life Course Perspective
Throughout the interaction between the student and the client, the life course perspective theory will be applied. The life course perspective looks at how chronological age, relationships, life transitions and social changes change a person’s live throughout their life time (Hutchison, 2011). Over the last 40 years, the life course perspective has emerged with five major concepts: cohort, transitions, trajectory, life events, and turning points (Hutchison, 2005).
Cohort
According to Hutchison (2011), a cohort is defined as, “A group of persons who were born during the same time period and who experience particular social changes within a given culture in the same sequence and at the same age”. The client identifies …show more content…
Transitions can be described as changes in roles and statuses that represent a distinct departure from prior roles and statuses. These transitions usually involve the entrance and exits of members of either a small group or a family (Hutchison, 2011). For the client, it seems that transitions can be seen since her young adult years when she first had her children changing her role to being that of a mother of both a boy and a girl and later transitioning to becoming a grandmother. Years later she found herself undergoing yet another transition when her husband passed leaving her to be a widow at a very young age to care for her children. Since then, the client has aged and become dependent on the care of others for things such as bathing, toileting, and every day activities. With her condition and age, it is evident that she has exited the role she once held of independence and now relies on others for daily help.
Trajectory
Trajectories often involve long term patterns of both stability and change in someone’s life and usually come with multiple transitions (Hutchison, 2005). Trajectories may involve things such as drug use, a person’s health or their employment (Teruya & Hser, 2010). As evidenced by the client’s health it is easy to say that her declining health may be seen as a trajectory. Due to her age, the client has faced multiple trajectories as her health issues have caused obvious changes in how she goes about doing things.
Life
Throughout the interaction between the student and the client, the life course perspective theory will be applied. The life course perspective looks at how chronological age, relationships, life transitions and social changes change a person’s live throughout their life time (Hutchison, 2011). Over the last 40 years, the life course perspective has emerged with five major concepts: cohort, transitions, trajectory, life events, and turning points (Hutchison, 2005).
Cohort
According to Hutchison (2011), a cohort is defined as, “A group of persons who were born during the same time period and who experience particular social changes within a given culture in the same sequence and at the same age”. The client identifies …show more content…
Transitions can be described as changes in roles and statuses that represent a distinct departure from prior roles and statuses. These transitions usually involve the entrance and exits of members of either a small group or a family (Hutchison, 2011). For the client, it seems that transitions can be seen since her young adult years when she first had her children changing her role to being that of a mother of both a boy and a girl and later transitioning to becoming a grandmother. Years later she found herself undergoing yet another transition when her husband passed leaving her to be a widow at a very young age to care for her children. Since then, the client has aged and become dependent on the care of others for things such as bathing, toileting, and every day activities. With her condition and age, it is evident that she has exited the role she once held of independence and now relies on others for daily help.
Trajectory
Trajectories often involve long term patterns of both stability and change in someone’s life and usually come with multiple transitions (Hutchison, 2005). Trajectories may involve things such as drug use, a person’s health or their employment (Teruya & Hser, 2010). As evidenced by the client’s health it is easy to say that her declining health may be seen as a trajectory. Due to her age, the client has faced multiple trajectories as her health issues have caused obvious changes in how she goes about doing things.
Life