Lifestyles and ways of thinking

 Lifestyles and ways of thinking

The approach that interprets lifestyles primarily as ways of thinking has its roots in the soil of psychoanalysis. In the beginning, Beginning with Alfred Adler, lifestyle has been understood as a personality style, the guiding values ​​and principle frameworks an individual develops during the first years of life that ends up defining a system of judgments that informs their actions. Lives. Later on, especially in the work of Milton Rokeach; Arnold Mitchell's VALS research and Lynn R. Kahle's LOV research; Lifestyle analyzes emerge as profiles of values, leading to the assumption that different scales of values ​​can be identified; It matches the population sectors. Then, with Daniel Yankelovich and William Wells, we discuss attitudes, To move on to an approach called AIO, which defines interests and opinions as components of basic lifestyles; Analyzed from both synoptic and diachronic perspectives and interpreted on a socio-community basis. cultural trends in a given social context (as in the work of Bernard Cathelat, for example). Finally, Another development is the so-called profile-and-trends approach; At its core is the analysis of relationships between psychological and behavioral changes. Note that socio-cultural trends influence both the spread of various lifestyles. Various patterns of interaction between thought and action emerge within a population.

Lifestyles are activity patterns.

The analysis of lifestyles as activity profiles is characterized by the fact that it no longer considers the level of activity as a simple derivative of lifestyles, or at least as their collateral, but as a constitution. In the beginning, This perspective focuses on consumer behavior and sees products as objects that express the individual's self-image on board and how they perceive their position in society. Later on, Focusing on writers such as Joffre Dumazedier and Anthony Giddens; The latter perspective has broadened, particularly in trying to study the interaction between leisure time use and the dynamic dimension of choice. and the degree of routine and structure that characterizes that level of activity. Finally, some authors, such as Richard Jenkins and A. J. Veal, have suggested an approach to lifestyles that is considered particularly meaningful and unique by the actors who portray them, rather than an everyday analytical style.