 Stages, from birth to death, are called the

life course
 Sociological significance:
• As you pass through a stage, it affects your
behavior and orientation
 See life differently at 30 than you did at 18
• Your life course differs by social location
 Social class, race-ethnicity, gender, etc. map out
distinctive experiences
 Although childhood has special
importance in the socialization process,
learning continues throughout our lives.
 An overview of the life course reveals
that our society organizes human
experience according to age—namely,
the stages of life we know as childhood,
adolescence, adulthood, and old age.
 In earlier time periods, children were
viewed as mini-adults.
 Today, children are viewed as tender and
innocent
• Adults need to provide care, comfort, protection
 Socialclass is a major factor in a person’s
childhood
 Childhood varies from culture to culture
 Not a “natural” age division
• Social invention
Agap between childhood and adulthood
was created during Industrial Revolution
• Allowed teens to remain outside the labor force
• At the same time education because a more
important factor
 Adolescents must “find” themselves and
attempt to carve out an identity
 Develop their own subculture
 Adultresponsibilities are postponed
through extended education
• Free from parental control, but don’t support
themselves
• Some return home after college so they can
establish themselves
 Atsome point during this period, young
adults gradually ease into adult
responsibilities
• Finishing school, getting a job, getting married
• People are surer of themselves and their
goals in life than before
– Severe jolts such as divorce or being fired can
occur and mess this feeling up
• For women, it can be a trying period b/c
they’re trying to have it all: job, family,
everything
• Reality is conflicting pressures: too little time, too
many demands, etc,.
 Health issues and mortality begin to loom
• People feel their bodies change
 Reorientation in thinking: From time
since birth, to time left to live
• People attempt to evaluate past and come to
terms with what lies ahead
• Compare what they have accomplished with
what they had hoped to achieve- “Midlife crisis”
 Sandwichgeneration- caring for children
and aging parents
 Not always a stressful time
 Many find it to be the most comfortable
period of life
• Job security
• High standard of living
• Bigger houses
• New cars
• More vacations
• Children are grown