Generativity: The Key to a Happy Life Read the followingfeatures of Generativity Versus Stagnation:
• The psychological processes that promote generativity areperson-environment interaction and creativity. Generativity relatesto the concerns of people within their community. People want tocontribute to their community through their work, parenting, andcreative efforts. Contributions improve the quality of life forcommunity members.
• The virtue or ego quality that arises out of generativity iscaring. People in the stage of generativity care about themselves,their families, their communities, and the peoples of theworld.
• Erikson believed that without generativity people stagnate.Stagnation suggests a lack of growth. Those unable to cope withlife experiences may become stagnant.
• Narcissistic people—those who care mostly about their ownsatisfaction—tend to focus on creating personal wealth oraccumulating things for themselves. They may be perfectly happy,but psychologically stagnant, which puts them at risk fordifficulties as they face old age and death.
• Chronically depressed people have difficulty promotinggenerativity , because they fail to see the worth of their work andbehavior. • The psychological pathology that arises from stagnationis rejectivity—that is, to reject or refuse to embrace others,which may lead to hostility toward others. This hostility may betoward individuals in the family, or other families, or othercommunity groups, or other cultural groups. Erikson was concernedthat a high level of rejectivity within a society promotes societalstagnation, which may in turn cause groups to dominate or promote adesire to annihilate other groups.
QUESTION: Generativity is threatened for many people when thereare large economic downturns and job losses. Do you think there aresocial structures that could prevent societal stagnation?
