Everything about Life History totally explained
The term
life history has been given many meanings in several scientific fields. It can refer to a variety of methods and techniques that are used for conducting
qualitative interviews, especially in the fields of
sociology and
anthropology.
Biology
In
biology the
life history of an organism is sometimes used to refer to the reproductive cycle of
animals and
plants. However, many biologists strongly prefer the tem "life cycle" for such events and reserve the term life history strictly for the study of "life history evolution," the coevolution of the traits of age-specific survivorship probability, age at first reproduction, clutch/litter size, and reproductive frequency.
Some use the term "
alternation of generations" when referring to
algae, however as there are in many cases, especially the
Rhodophyta, three stages the term "alternation" isn't appropriate.
Medicine
In
medicine, a life history may refer to a general health assessment or standard medical history. In seeking to identify certain
health patterns, the interviewer may conduct a thorough interview. This form of interview can be utilized to find various kinds of sources for effects on the
body and general health.
Psychology
Life history theory is an analytic method of
sociobiology for understanding reproductive behaviors in animals and people.
Ethnography
In sociological and anthropological research, a life history refers to the overall picture of the informant's or interviewee's life. The purpose of the interview is to be able to describe what it's like to be this particular person, that is, the one being interviewed.
Background
The method was first used when interviewing
indigenous peoples of the Americas. The subjects were native American leaders. One interviewed them, and the subjects were asked to describe their lives as such, what it was like to be that particular
person. The purpose of the interview was to capture a living picture of a disappearing (as such) people/
way of life.
Later the method was used to interview
criminals and
prostitutes in
Chicago. The subjects were asked to tell about their lives. The interviewers also looked at
social- and
police-records, and the
society in general in which the subject lived. The result was a report in which one could read about (i) Chicago at that particular time; (ii) how the subject viewed his own life (for example `how it was like to be this particular person') and (iii) how society looked upon the subject what the consequence of this was for that particular person -- for example `social work'/-help,
incarceration etc.
Technique
In both cases, the one doing the interview should be careful not to ask "yes or no"-questions, but to get the subject to tell "the story of his or her life", in his or her own words. It is common practice to begin the interview with the subject's early childhood and to proceed
chronologically to the present.
Bibliography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Life History'.
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