Dimensions of Human Behavior: The Changing Life Course
Sixth Edition
Learning Objectives
- Compare one’s own emotional and cognitive reactions to three case studies.
- Summarize the relevance of the life course perspective for social work competencies.
- Identify some of the theoretical roots of the life course perspective.
- Summarize five basic concepts of the life course perspective (cohorts, transitions, trajectories, life events, and turning points).
- Critique six major themes of the life course perspective (interplay of human lives and historical time, timing of lives, linked or interdependent lives, human agency in making choices, diversity in life course trajectories, and risk and protection).
- Evaluate the strengths and limitations of the life course perspective.
- Recognize where themes of the life course perspective are consistent with eight other major theoretical perspectives on human behavior.
- Apply basic concepts and major themes of the life course perspective to recommend guidelines for social work engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation.