[Time, biography and life course].
In this contribution implications of perspectives on the past and on the future for the experience of the present and actual behavior are described. It is argued that in a retrospective look on personal history (or selected periods of personal history) people give meaning to events and processes--these events and processes can be interpreted as "knots" around which other moments and periods (that are subjectively judged as of less importance) do organize themselves. Subjectively important aspects of the past are present in actual experiences and behavior: Therefore, studying biography--subjects' interpretation of the life course--is a pre-condition of understanding actual experiences and behavior. Moreover, people are directed towards the future (e.g., in the sense of controllability vs. non-controllability). The perspectives on the past and future do constitute a human time horizon. It is shown that the development of a time horizon and the application of structure to the perception of time is a constructive performance of human consciousness. Moreover, it is argued that the perception of time is a basic antecendent of the experience of freedom. The contribution begins with the analysis of a microsituation--the results of this analysis are then transferred to the life course and biography. Life course and biography are analysed in the context of the central theoretical positions that Ursula Lehr has developed and tested empirically in her contributions to life span psychology.
Kruse
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Institut für Gerontologie, Heidelberg.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D010553:Personality Development; D013998:Time Perception