Generativity Versus Stagnation: For Adults Only!
According to Erik Erikson, one of the primary psychosocial stages of adult development is generativity. He stressed productivity and caring is a task that every adult needs to accomplish if they possibly can. But why? In laymen’s language productivity translates into work. Most of us at some time or other have wanted to avoid work. Yet over the long run, if one develops a healthy work ethic, it contributes something to their lives. Erikson suggested that work is an effort to perpetuate ourselves by making a lasting and meaningful contribution to the world. Well, that may be a bit lofty for some of us. The truth is, most of us will be forgotten one hundred years from now or only thought about when a future relative is trying to trace back the genealogy of the family. So why work?
Work gives us a sense of identity and self-esteem. One of the first observations I made as a young man was that people who can but won’t work are often depressed and insecure. They fall into the pit of self-pity and into the twilight zone of dysfunctional dependency. At the end of the day there is something fulfilling about knowing we made a contribution. Work is not about perpetuating ourselves as much as it is making a lasting contribution for those who come after us. For example, teachers know they have transmitted knowledge, medical professionals have saved lives, and the factory worker has contributed to making something useful for others.
Work is not everything in life but is a very important part of adult development. Vocational experts Super and Havingurst may have different names for their vocational stages of life but they both include words like growth, identification, and productivity. In short, if you live a life without work you miss growth, identity, and productivity.
Erik Erikson classified it well. Adult development (ages 30-65) is a matter of generativity versus stagnation. Stagnation is not a pretty picture. I sought for a way to find some nice descriptors for it; however, Erikson didn’t leave us flowery terms to describe it. In essence, stagnation is a descriptor of someone who won’t do anything. This person may set around and become an expert on telling other people who have given their lives to work how wrong they are in their beliefs and actions. They are the epitome of self-centeredness, cynicism and self-pity. Erikson called this a state of “rejectivity”. These folks do a lot of rejecting and in the end the individuals they reject the most are themselves. Perhaps the most encouraging word that can be expressed to those in developmental stagnation is that today can be different. As long as there is life and breath you can make the change. Generativity can begin today!
So remember as you leave for the next shift, work is a good thing!
“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”
–Robert Frost