Memorized life events and their replacement: From a survey of life events

Our life is sometimes changed largely by stressful life events, and the mem ory of the events and the experiences of coping with the events make feedba ck on the suceeding life course. Therefore, it is indispensable for the ana lysis of human life to take account of not only the short-term effects of l ife events but also their long-term feedback. To fill the gap among the lif e event study, oral life history approach and life course approach, we anal yzed the survival times and replacements of memorized life events based on a questionnaire. Marriage, death of parents, birth of children were the mos t important life events. Compared with female, memorized life events of mal es were replaced more largely by those of the succeeding life events such a s retirement. Unexpected life events were likely to have longer survival ti mes. An exploratory analysis detected the importance of war-time expereienc e. The analysis implies a potential of unified approach connecting qualitat ive and quantitative methods.