Generativity

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Generativity is the human ability to know individually or collectively about the mutual dependency of the generations, to understand this as individual or collective responsibility and to take it into account in individual or collective thinking and acting . To this extent, generativity describes the ability to care , care or care for people of another generation. It contains specific potentials for giving meaning for individual or social life. Since generativity is based on social norms , the realization always depends on the extent to which changing norms limit or promote individual or collective generativity.

Collective generativity sets the framework for individual generativity, both through the norms and through the institutions of generativity ( crèche , kindergarten , school , youth welfare office , family court , old people's home, etc.). Individuals, for example, have the opportunity to take on responsibility for caring for the next generation through their own parenting or in some other way. First, generativity was related to the assumption of responsibility for people of the next generation. Recently, the opposite aspect has also been discussed, namely that younger people can individually or collectively develop an awareness of the well-being of the elderly.

Etymology and origin of the term

Etymologically, the word generativity goes back to the Indo-European language root 'ĝen-'. The words developed from it cover a wide range of meanings: create, beget, bring forth, birth, descendant, child, descendant, descent, relationship, gender, tribe, people. Generative means "generating" or generally designates the property of being able to produce something.

Generativity was coined as a technical term in ego psychology by Erik H. Erikson and his wife Joan Erikson to describe the 7th stage of their stage model of psychosocial development .

John N. Kotre (* 1940) followed up on this and pointed out that generativity is not just an individual, but also a collective phenomenon. He described this in a theory of generativity. He thus laid the foundation for making generativity a technical term in social psychology and sociology or family sociology .

Individual generativity

Generativity affects people in the age group of around 40 to 65 years and means to carry love into the future and to take care of future generations, for example raising your own children or getting involved as grandparents . Erikson is not only about fathering and caring for children, he also includes teaching, the arts and sciences, and social engagement, i.e. everything that could be useful for future generations.

Generativity stands in the interplay with self-absorption or stagnation . If you manage to reconcile generativity and stagnation, you have successfully passed this stage and acquired the ability to care without forgetting yourself.

Generativity in old age

In gerontology , the concept of generativity was extended to the post-employment phase and up to old age. According to this, generativity refers to "both the imparting and passing on of experience and competence to younger generations as well as activities through which older people make a contribution to the community. Generativity is perceived as a fundamental service for shaping life and finding meaning in old age." (See also the step model of psychosocial development ). There are four content areas of generativity.

  1. Family-related generativity in the postparental phase of life includes, among other things, acceptance of one's own children as adults, support services for adult children or grandchildren and the regulation of succession and inheritance issues.
  2. Educational Generativity. Older people are carriers and mediators of cultural traditions, e.g. B. as mentors.
  3. Historical-social generativity. This includes active engagement in favor of younger people, e.g. B. in voluntary work, a positive examination of the values ​​and ways of life of the future generations as well as the handing over of responsibility to younger people.
  4. Welfare State Generativity. Older people support the social interests of the following generations, e.g. B. sustainable ecological development. "Generativity excludes fixation on the interests of one's own age group (pensioners)."

Generativity is seen as meaningful until the end of life. In dignity therapy , a short psychotherapeutic intervention for sick people in the terminal stage, familial-relational and historical-social generativity are discussed. A "Generativity Document" is created.

Collective Generativity

John N. Kotre pointed out that generativity is also a collective phenomenon. He described four types of generativity (biological, parental, technical, cultural) that focus on different generative objects. Dan P. McAdams and Ed de St. Aubin have developed this into a multifactorial understanding of generativity, as taking responsibility for the next generation based on cultural expectations and requirements for generativity.

“Generativity is shaped and expressed by cultural norms, social movements, social institutions and social politics. Just like individuals, societies can differ dramatically in terms of the content and form of generative expression. Generativity happens in society. Until recently, psychologists and other social scientists did not think systematically about the social dimensions of generativity "

Kurt Lüscher and others propose an expanded understanding of generativity in three steps with regard to current social conditions.

On the basis of such a collective concept of generativity, parenting can no longer be seen merely as an individual process phenomenon. It can also be understood as an indispensable “social core process of generativity” through which societies guarantee their generativity. The norms, ideals and habitus of parenthood are shaped and changed by the changing social norms and institutions of generativity.

Ethical and moral aspects and power

Generativity always contains four dilemmas of responsibility :

  1. What is generatively passed on?
  2. Who will benefit from it?
  3. When can it be used?
  4. Who is investing?

How these central questions of generativity are answered depends on the distribution of power and social norms in a society . To this extent, every society has a “generative power architecture” with associated generative standards of behavior and feelings . However, this is not static, but changes. When designing generative responsibility, the following relationship axes and the associated balance of power are particularly important :

Ethics in the field of generativity

Care ethics and ethics of mindfulness also deal with ethical and moral aspects of mindfulness , care work , care and welfare , which are of central importance for generativity.

Ethics of family and parenthood are concerned with the ethical and moral aspects of generativity in the privacy of the family.

Ethics in professional areas such as education, psychology or pedagogy deal with the ethical and moral aspects of generativity in the sphere of the respective professions.

An ethics of generativity does not yet exist.

literature

  • Erik H. Erikson: Childhood and Society . Norton, New York 1985, ISBN 0-393-30288-1 (EA New York 1950).
  • Erik H. Erikson, Joan M. Erikson: The Life Cycle Completed (Extended Version) . New York 1997.
  • Laura E. Berk: Development through the lifespan. 5th edition. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, Mass. 2010, ISBN 978-0-205-68793-0 .
    • German: developmental psychology. 3. Edition. Pearson, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-86894-049-9 , p. 711 ff.
    • German: childhood and society . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-608-94212-2 .
  • John N. Kotre: Outliving the self. Generativity and the interpretation of lives. Baltimore 1984.
  • Kurt Lüscher, Giovanni Lamura, Andreas Hoff: Generations, intergenerational relationships, intergenerational politics . A multilingual compendium . University of Konstanz, Konstanz 2014, ISBN 978-3-89318-064-6 .
  • Dan P. McAdams, Ed de St. Aubin, T'ae-ch'ang Kim (Eds.): The generative society. Caring for future generations . Washington DC 2004.
  • Vera King (2013) : The Emergence of the New in Adolescence. Individuation, Generativity and Gender in Modernized Societies (1st edition 2002)
  • Désirée Waterstradt: Process Sociology of Parenthood. Nation-building, figurative ideals and generative power architecture in Germany . Münster 2015.
  • Vera King (2015): Child Dependency and Parental Generativity. Subject and cultural theory perspectives. In: Andresen, S. et al. (Ed.): Vulnerable children. A critical discussion. Weinheim: 23-43.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John N. Kotre: outliving the self. Generativity and the interpretation of lives . Baltimore 1984.
  2. ^ Dan P. McAdams, Ed de St. Aubin, T'ae-ch'ang Kim (Ed.): The generative society. Caring for future generations . Washington DC 2004.
  3. ^ Kurt Lüscher: Generations, intergenerational relationships, intergenerational politics. ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2014, p. 13. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pdfs.semanticscholar.org
  4. ^ Désirée Waterstradt: Process-Sociology of Parenthood. Nation-building, figurative ideals and generative power architecture in Germany . Münster 2015, p. 109ff.
  5. ↑ Gerhard Köbler: Indo-European Dictionary 2000.
  6. ^ Erik H. Erikson, Joan M. Erikson: The Life Cycle Completed (Extended Version) . New York 1997, p. 3.
  7. ↑ John N. Kotre: outliving the self. Generativity and the interpretation of lives . Baltimore 1984.
  8. ↑ Laura E. Berk: Developmental Psychology. 2005, p. 620.
  9. ^ F. Höpflinger: Generativity in old age. Generational sociological considerations on an old topic. In: Z Gerontology Geriatrics. 35, 2002, pp. 328-334.
  10. ↑ Harvey M. Chochinov, Thomas Hack et al: Dignity therapy: A novel psychotherapeutic intervention for patients near the end of life. In: J Clinical Oncology. 23, 2005, pp. 5520-5525.
  11. ↑ John N. Kotre: outliving the self. Generativity and the interpretation of lives. Baltimore 1984.
  12. ^ Dan P. McAdams, Ed de St. Aubin: A theory of generativity and its assessment through self-report, behavioral acts, and narrative themes in autobiography. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 62, 1992, pp. 1003-1015.
  13. ^ Translation by Dan P. McAdams, Regina L. Logan: What ist generativity? In: Dan P. McAdams, Ed de St. Aubin, T'ae-ch'ang Kim (eds.): The generative society. Caring for future generations. Washington, DC 2004, p. 27.
  14. ^ Kurt Lüscher: Generations, intergenerational relationships, intergenerational politics. ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2014, p. 13. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pdfs.semanticscholar.org
  15. ^ Désirée Waterstradt: Process theory of parenthood. Basis for reflection and disclosure of parenting concepts in research and professional practice. In: Journal for Psychology. 24 (1), 2016. Parenthood as a relational practice.
  16. ^ Kai Erikson: Reflections on Generativity and Society. A Sociologist's Perspective. In: Dan P. McAdams, Ed de St. Aubin, T'ae-ch'ang Kim (eds.): The generative society. Caring for future generations. Washington, DC 2004, pp. 51-61.
  17. ^ Désirée Waterstradt: Process-Sociology of Parenthood. Nation-building, figurative ideals and generative power architecture in Germany. Münster 2015, p. 113ff.
  18. ^ Désirée Waterstradt: Process-Sociology of Parenthood. Nation-building, figurative ideals and generative power architecture in Germany. Münster 2015.
  19. ↑ M. Betzler, B. Bleisch: Family duties. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2015.
  20. ^ N. Richards: The Ethics of Parenthood. University Press, Oxford 2010.
  21. ↑ B. Rill, C. Rummel (Ed.): Parental responsibility and generational ethics in a free society. Hanns Seidel Foundation, Munich 2001.
  22. ↑ C. Wiesemann: On the responsibility to have a child: An ethic of parenting. Beck, Munich 2006.
  23. ↑ E. Birkenbeil: Responsible action in education. A challenge for dialogic pedagogy. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 1986.
  24. ↑ Detlef Horster (Ed.): Pedagogy and Ethics. Wiesbaden 2005.
  25. ↑ Anna Felnhofer (Ed.): Ethics in Psychology. Vienna 2011.