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Abstract
Thorsen, K. (2005). A life course perspective on aging. Nordisk Psykologi, 57, 1, 64–85.
The life-course perspective is gaining increasing acceptance in gerontology. It focuces on the multidimensional meaning of time; individual time (aging), cohort and historical time. Aging is interwoven in context, in a changing society, giving aging and old age different meanings and different conditions. Different cohorts are having different life-courses, their aging experiences are different. The life-course perspective includes mainly two different research traditions within different paradigms: those seeing life-course from the “outside” and those studying life-course from “within”. The first tradition is based on longitudinal surveys, the second on life histories. The article discusses both, pointing at strenghts and weaknesses. The life-course perspective underlines that psychological development is going on through the whole life-course. Old age is best understood when individual past is seen linked to the present, as development in a changing context. The life-course perpective is central both for services and support given to elderly people.