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Information about Life History

For the biological concept, see .


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 refers to the reproductive cycle of animals and plants.[1] 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" is not 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

Main article: Life history theory


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 is 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 (i.e. `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 -- i.e. `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

  • Molles, Manuel C., Jr. (1999). Ecology: Concepts and Applications, International Edition, Dubuque: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 510pp. DOI:QH541.M65. ISBN 0-07-042716-X. 
  • Smith, Robert Leo; Thomas M. Smith (2002). Elements of Ecology, Fourth Edition, Singapore: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 567pp. ISBN 981-4119-31-8. 

References

1. ^ Smith, Robert Leo; Thomas M. Smith (2002). Elements of Ecology, Fourth Edition, Singapore: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 567pp. ISBN 981-4119-31-8. 
Qualitative Research is an academic journal published three times a year discussing qualitative research methods for use in social sciences and cultural studies.

References

  • Publisher's Description
Qualitative research
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An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.
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Sociology (from Latin: socitus, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the study of", from Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge") is the systematic and scientific study of society and societal behavior.
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Anthropology (from Greek: ἄνθρωπος, anthropos, "human being"; and λόγος, logos, "speech" lit. to talk about human beings) is the study of humanity.
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Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, "life"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), also referred to as the biological sciences, is the scientific study of life.
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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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Alternation of generations is a reproductive cycle of certain plants, fungi, and protists. The term is a bit confusing for people familiar only with the life cycle of a typical animal.
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phytoplankton — provide the food base for most marine food chains. In very high densities (so-called algal blooms) these algae may discolor the water and outcompete or poison other life forms.
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Rhodophyta
Wettstein, 1922

Possible classes
  • Florideophyceae
  • Bangiophyceae
  • Cyanidiophyceae
The red algae (Rhodophyta, IPA:
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Medicine is the science and "" of maintaining and/or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. The term is derived from the Latin ars medicina meaning the art of healing.
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In 1948, in its constitution, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" [1].
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The human body is the entire physical structure of a human organism. The human body consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs. The average height of an adult human is about 1.6 m (5 to 6 feet) tall. This size is largely determined by genes.
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Life history theory is an analytical framework widely used in animal and human biology, psychology, and evolutionary anthropology which postulates that many of the physiological traits and behaviors of individuals may be best understood in terms of the key maturational and
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Life history theory is an analytical framework widely used in animal and human biology, psychology, and evolutionary anthropology which postulates that many of the physiological traits and behaviors of individuals may be best understood in terms of the key maturational and
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For the book by E. O. Wilson, see .


Sociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines that attempts to explain social behavior in all species by considering the evolutionary advantages the behaviors may have.
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indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations
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This article has been tagged since September 2007.

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lifestyle is the way a person lives. This includes patterns of social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview.
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The word crime comes from the Latin crimen (genitive criminis), from the Latin root cernō and Greek κρινω = "I judge". Originally it meant "charge (in law), guilt, accusation.
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City of Chicago

Flag
Seal
Nickname: "The Windy City", "The Second City", "ChiTown", "Hog Butcher for the World", "City of the Big Shoulders", "The City That Works"
Motto: "Urbs in Horto
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Social Workers are concerned with social problems, their causes, their solutions and their human impacts. Social workers work with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities, as members of a profession which is committed to social justice and human rights.
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Police are agents or agencies empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimate use of force. The term is most commonly associated with police departments of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a
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society is a grouping of individuals which is characterized by common interests and may have distinctive culture and institutions. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups.
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Incarceration is the detention of a person in jail or prison. People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime. Incarceration rates, when measured by the United Nations, are considered distinct and separate from the imprisonment of political
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Chronology is the science of locating events in time. An arrangement of events, from either earliest to latest or the reverse, is also called a chronology or, particularly when involving graphical elements, a timeline or a living graph. See also Chronicle.
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digital object identifier (or DOI) is a permanent identifier given to a document, which is not related to its current location. A typical use of a DOI is to give a scientific paper or article a unique identifying number that can be used by anyone to locate details of the paper, and
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