7. Generativity vs Stagnation (40-65 Years)

• Key Activity: Parenting, career, community engagement.
• Virtue: Care (concern for future generations).
• Negative Outcome: A sense of stagnation can trigger self-absorption, lack of personal growth, or midlife crisis.

In mid-adulthood, individuals focus on guiding the next generation, whether through parenting, mentoring, or community involvement. Successfully contributing to others’ growth fosters generativity (the sense of productivity and accomplishment). Feeling unproductive or disconnected, by contrast, produces stagnation.