The life course as a theoretical orientation: Sequences of person-situation interaction1

The life course is proposed as a theoretical orientation concerned with the problems of describing, understanding, generalizing about, predicting, and intentionally changing the course of lives. A life course orientation provides a framework for analyzing the causal and probabilistic structure of the course of experience in individual lives, groups of lives, and lives in general. The life course can be conceptualized as a sequence of person-situation interactions, or as a sequence of behavior-determining, person-determining, and situation-determining processes. This perspective is illustrated through an analysis of the careers of heroin users, and through a critical examination of several common strategies for predicting behavior. The study of lives is distinguished from the study of personality, and the historical and theoretical background for a life course orientation is briefly reviewed.