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Generativity Versus Stagnation

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences
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Synonyms

Growth; Midlife; Midlife crisis; Productivity

Definition

Generativity versus Stagnation is the seventh stage of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development which was thought to occur during middle adulthood. This stage includes such important tasks as bearing and raising children, increasing one’s influence in their chosen professional field and integrating numerous processes. It was thought to take individuals right up to the last stage of development in old age.

Introduction

Originally conceived by Erikson as a stage in midlife which knits together the aspects of skill achieved in early stages of development with the future/forward thinking of the later stages in life, Erikson posited that generativity was the counter to another aspect of developmental struggle, stagnation. Since his original publication of a psychosocial stage theory of development in 1950, Erikson elaborated on eight stages (increased to nine stages in his last writings and carried forward by his...

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Correspondence to Carrie Nantais .

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Nantais, C., Stack, M. (2017). Generativity Versus Stagnation. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_589-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_589-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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