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Studies of the life course address the fundamental issue of social sciences – understanding the social change, its directions, reasons and perspectives, the interaction of micro- and macro levels of social reality. Studies of life course developed independently in different social sciences and scientific traditions cover a broad range of topics, issues and methodological approaches. These variety of studies were grouped into few major research frameworks: psychological within the studies of personality development; longitudinal sociological focused on life course of different cohorts and comparative studies of generations, social groups, countries and regions; domain-based – studies of trajectories in different life domains; demographic studying the timing of life events; studies of stability and transformation of values and biographical research. The multiple methodological approaches to study the life course are suggested to group in two main categories – concurrent and retrospective which differ by the time distance between the occurrence of an event and the reporting about the event. Concurrent approach is characterized by relatively high reliability of the measurement, but low flexibility in selecting research indicators, long time for the organization of data collection and large financial investments. Retrospective approach provides high flexibility in organization and design of the survey, allows free selection of indicators to test research hypotheses, but the reliability of the data is hampered by the memory errors and context effect. None of these approaches alone can satisfy the needs and requirements of studying the life course and collecting dynamic multi-level data. The possible solution is to design and test the multimodal approach combining the advantages of different research methods and mitigating their drawbacks. The new long-term longitudinal project “Life course, values and expectations of the generation of 1990s” (G90) included the test of an autobiographical method of data collection for random samples of the general population in quantitative design. The testing revealed high sensitivity of the method to the format (handwritten, printed or oral), high differentiation between respondents in completeness of information and the selection of events included in the autobiography. Supplementing autobiographies by in-depth interviews increased the data standardization, completeness and comparability. The drawbacks of this method found during the survey are high demand for resources for data analysis, individual approach to each autobiography, low respondents’ cooperation in highly demanding tasks, and ethical issues. The future of the life course studies can be found in the convergence of different research frameworks, multidisciplinary research projects, and the application of mixed-model integrated methodology.

Colorism, like whiteness is capital, is rooted in the institution of slavery and has resulted in the preference of light skin. Because colorism is part of the historical construction of whiteness, the consumption of whiteness is commodified through various markets. Current manifestations of racialized beauty, that is, skin bleaching and photo editing apps such as FaceTune and Snap Chat reinforce colorism and impact conceptualizations of beauty. This literature review surveys how colorism and racialized beauty are reproduced to reinforce whiteness as a form of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life course has become a topic of growing interest within the social sciences. Attempts to link this sub-discipline with life span developmental psychology have been called for but with little sign of success. In this paper, we seek to address three interlinked issues concerning the potential for a more productive interchange between life course sociology and life span psychology. The first is to try to account for the failure of these two sub-disciplines to achieve any deepening engagement with each other, despite the long-expressed desirability of that goal; the second is to draw attention to the scope for enriching the sociology of the life course through Erik Erikson’s model of life span development; and the last is the potential for linking Eriksonian theory with current debates within mainstream sociology about the processes involved in ‘individualisation’ and ‘self-reflexivity’ as an alternative entry point to bring together these two fields of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]