Generativity may be conceived in terms of 7 interrelated features: cultural demand, inner desire, generative concern, belief in the species, commitment, generative action, and personal narration. Two studies describe the development and use of 3 assessment strategies designed to tap into the generativity features of concern, action, and narration. A self-report scale of generative concern—the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS)—exhibited good internal consistency and retest reliability and showed strong positive associations with reports of actual generative acts (e.g., teaching a skill) and themes of generativity in narrative accounts of important autobiographical episodes. In 1 sample of adults between the ages of 19 and 68, LGS scores of fathers were higher than those of men who had never had children.

The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual and methodological framework for the scientific study of generativity. Over 40 years ago, Erik Erikson (1950) introduced the concept of generativity in the context of a life-span theory of personality development. According to Erikson, generativity “is primarily the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation” (1963, p. 267). In Erikson's stage model, the polarity of generativity versus stagnation is the psychosocial center-piece of the seventh of eight major developmental stages, the stage loosely associated with the middle-adulthood years. In the ideal Eriksonian scenario, the adult approaches the issue of generativity after resolving earlier developmental issues of adulthood: identity versus role confusion (Stage 5) and intimacy versus isolation (Stage 6). As Erikson conceived it, once the adult has consolidated a sense of who he or she is (identity) and established long-term bonds of intimacy through marriage or friendships, then he or she is psychosocially ready to make a commitment to the larger sphere of society as a whole and its continuation, even improvement, through the next generation. In generativity, the adult nurtures, teaches, leads, and promotes the next generation while generating life...