LIFE COURSE THEORY

Prepare an essay that offers a critical discussion of the strengths and Critical discussion of the strengths and limitations of life course theory as a foundation for social work practice with individuals whose development is rooted in ethnic, cultural or religious traditions other than your own.

Life Course Theory

Introduction to the Theory

In its simplest sense, the life course theory may be defined as the “duration of a person's existence” (Linnell, 2003). Life course theory evaluates the events that an individual encounters throughout his early life, and studies possible consequences of those vents on his long-term health. Life course theory defines how individuals go through life's events and how those events influence their health in profound ways. It aims to create a challenging situation for public health research and preclusion, in order to speculate healthy effects of the theoretical underpinnings (Heckman, 2006). Our course of life is not simply just time and experiences that are taken together, rather life is about different phases that expose the individual to a range of events for his own development over time. Life consists of certain socially constructed events that aim to differentiate our lives from that of others (Vans, 2004). These experiences expose the human mind and body to different situations that have an impact on his sociological, biological, psychological and cultural presence. These events tend to influence the ways in which individuals participate in the society and acquire different attitudes over time. Thus, life course theory is an important theory that forms a multidisciplinary intellectual movement (Barnes, 2003) . According to Elder (1985), life course perspective theory is based on four premises that are defined as follows: (Barnes, 2003).

Ageing is a phenomenon that must be taken in the perspective of human development, which occurs throughout the life of the individual (Linnell, 2003).

Life consists of different trajectories that interconnects, and have reciprocal effects on the life span of the individual (Linnell, 2003) (Linnell, 2003).

Social and historical situations affect human development.

Interventions to improve or maximize the discourse of human development can only be successful if they customize to the capabilities of each phase of an individual's lifetime (Elder, 1985).

Life Course Theory as a Foundation for Clinical Social Work Practice

Life course researchers have studied the trajectories of life from three distinctive perspectives: biological, psychological and social. Each perspective has different interpretations according to the influence of life course perspective on human development, human interactions and human participations. Life course theory can easily be evaluated as a foundation for social work practice. It gives meaning to social work principles and reinforces the theme of social work. According to this theory's perspective, events in childhood and adult age greatly influence the human health in old age phase. Hence, if we intervene childhood behaviors and adult actions in a positive manner, we can improve the old age of the individuals. Hence, if an individual faces impairments in early childhood, it is likely that he will have a tougher old age phase than his fellows (Duncan ...