This book illustrates how Life Positioning Analysis can be used as a theoretical and methodological approach to sociocultural psychobiography. Life positioning psychobiography studies lives as they unfold within a world of interactivity. It recognizes and portrays us as social beings embedded and developing within our life relationships and circumstances and striving to make something of our lives. Here, Jack Martin presents both single-subject and dual-subject studies of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, existential humanist Ernest Becker, American heiress and child advocate Dorothy Burlingham and her life partner, renowned psychoanalyst Anna Freud, and indigenous athlete Jim Thorpe and his college coach Glenn “Pop” Warner. These case studies provide vividly memorable demonstrations of how we are positioned by circumstances and others, and come to position ourselves as socioculturally constituted, psychological persons. In so doing, they offer a systematic framework for studying the lives of people that shows sociocultural and social psychological development without resorting to mentalistic theories, concepts, and interpretations. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in areas related to sociocultural and developmental psychology, the psychology and sociology of personhood, theoretical psychology, qualitative methodology, and social science and life writing more generally.

The self-descriptive title, A Universal Template For Research Position and Life Experience Papers, implies that there is a position that writers take in even the simplest of essays. As such, Template provides an opportunity to accomplish two tasks at once: consider the definitive differences between Research, Position, and Experience papers, and explore the issues that impound and empower contemporary urban education. Dale Benjamin Drakeford provides an interactive workshop to guide student writing on any social science subject. Agreeing with many scholars that public and free pedagogy is indispensable, the author also argues that there is no wrong or right in scholastic debate, only correct presentation of objective thoughts or non-objective attitudes. This the author says, is what is sometimes forgotten in the heat of getting ideas on paper. Hence, Template provides structure for planning papers, and in-process cues for staying on task to complete them with proper formality.

This introductory book provides an insight into sociological life course research and informs about its theoretical assumptions, analytical concepts and main results. Sociological life course research - like biographical research - has developed into an independent and fruitful field of research since the end of the 1960s. It is true that half a century earlier, in their famous study of "The Polish Peasant in Europe and America" (1918-20), Thomas and Znaniecki had already used life records to examine the connection between social change, social structures, and the life histories of individuals. However, such a research perspective was supplanted by other methodological-conceptual approaches to empirical social research for over fifty years. It was not until the 1960s that sociological interest in life course and biographical theoretical issues reawakened. Today, life course research is considered one of the most important conceptual innovations in sociology in recent decades. The content The life course as a social construction - What is "life course research"? - The life course as an institution - Collective life courses: generations, cohorts and social change - Structures of the life course - Life course research - a conceptual perspective - Life course research, quo vadis? The author Prof. Dr. Matthias Wingens teaches sociology at the University of Bremen, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS).

"This book sculpts a new direction for sociolinguistics inasmuch as it incorporates lifespan studies. . . .into the realm of language and context. It makes us realize that our senses of "who we are" is a conglomerate of several different dimensions: temporal, social, linguistic." --Studies in Second Language Acquisition "The editors of this volume have successfully put together a group of articles which address the role of language in creating our developing self, by attempting to answer how our identity is achieved across the lifespan through the use of language in relationships. --Language in Society "The volume's strengths include clear illustration of the role of discourse in constituting self, especially with regard to aging; evidence overturning the hegemony of rigid 'life-stage/cycle' models for understanding lifespan development; and presentation of innovative methods for lifespan research. . . . The volume offers insightful contributions to discourse studies of the lifespan." --Discourse & Society "This is a fascinating book in the Sage Language and Language Behavior series. . . . Although it is written primarily for researchers and theoreticians in sociology and linguistics, there is application to child and adult development, gerontology, oral history, and even family systems theory. . . . This introduction to lifespan sociolinguistics is both clear and compelling." --Clinical Gerontologist How are social development, maturation, aging, stability, and change reflected in human interaction and in social contexts? How, where, and when does age surface as a theme in everyday talk? What social rituals endorse our accepted views of "coming of age," "turning forty," "entering retirement," or generally "acting our age"? What can language achieve for us? A multidisciplinary cast of contributors answers such questions through empirical studies and theoretical interpretations. Provocative and accessibly written, this volume explores discursive practices in which age-related identities are formulated, challenged, or consolidated. From mother-daughter relationships to marital communication, Discourse and Lifespan Identity takes a dynamic view of lifespan development in today's culture. Discourse and Lifespan Identity offers valuable information to students and professionals of interpersonal communication, speech communication, social psychology, developmental psychology, aging, and sociology.

This Handbook presents a broad overview of the current research carried out in environmental psychology which puts into perspective quality of life and relationships with living spaces, and shows how this original analytical framework can be used to understand different environmental and societal issues. Adopting an original approach, this Handbook focuses on the links with other specialties in psychology, especially social and health psychology, together with other disciplines such as geography, architecture, sociology, anthropology, urbanism and engineering. Faced with the problems of society which involve the quality of life of individuals and communities, it is fundamental to consider the relationships an individual has with his different living spaces. This issue of the links between quality of life and environment is becoming increasingly significant with, at a local level, problems resulting from different types of annoyances, such as pollution and noise, while, at a global level, there is the central question of climate change with its harmful consequences for humans and the planet. How can the impact on well-being of environmental nuisances and threats (for example, natural risks, pollution, and noise) be reduced? How can the quality of life within daily living spaces (home, cities, work environments) be improved? Why is it important to understand the psychological issues of our relationship with the global environment (climatic warming, ecological behaviours)? This Handbook is intended not only for students of various disciplines (geography, architecture, psychology, town planning, etc.) but also for social decision-makers and players who will find in it both theoretical and methodological perspectives, so that psychological and environmental dimensions can be better taken into account in their working practices.

An examination of the relationship of Indian women to education, the professions, and philanthropy.