What then, in essence, is deep caring? We have proposed in these essays that deep caring, as manifest in an act of generativity, is about extending time and space. Deep caring is more than a single act of generosity. As McAdams and his colleagues have proposed, deep caring and generativity are more than an orientation toward altruism: “Generativity, unlike simple altruism or general prosocial behavior, involves the creation of a product or legacy in one’s own image, a powerful extension of the self.” (McAdams, Hart and Maruna, 1998, p. 25)
More than altruism, which involves doing something good in the world for its own sake, generativity involves sustained “good works.” Generativity provides opportunities for mentoring and motivation. It involves organizing a parade that is intended to be a yearly event or building a monument that will endure for many centuries. It involves leading a community project that impacts many people, directly and indirectly. One of our Sage leaders describes the impact of generativity as it is manifest in several different ways that extend both time and space beyond the single act of good will:
Nurturing writers and then seeing them get published has given me much meaning and satisfaction. There is also nothing more rewarding than seeing a single-parent family getting a house for the first time after spending hundreds of hours working on a Habitat site to realize that dream.
We have proposed, furthermore, that deep caring is more than just a narcissistic desire to extend and outlive ourselves. Immortality is a part of the generative incentive, but not the entire soulful nature of generativity and deep caring. There is something more that resides at the heart of generativity and that is enhanced by one’s residence in a generative society. We identify this something more as a virtue — the virtue of deep caring.
Conclusions
Carol Gilligan (1982) is one of the developmental theorists who have built upon the foundation established by Erik Erikson—but has expanded and modified Eriksonian theory in several important ways. First, Gilligan has sought to capture a portrait of adult development that is more often aligned with women (and many nonwestern cultures) than with men. She writes about women finding their voice, rather than just expressing themselves through more masculine action. In many ways, Gilligan has placed greater emphasis on the communal side of the generative than on the agency side. Gilligan also describes a contextual process of reasoning and decision making that moves beyond the emphasis placed by Erikson (and many other developmental theorists) on the capacity for abstraction and consistency in decision-making processes and outcomes irrespective of the context. In this re-envisioning of the reasoning process, Gilligan seems to align with a model of generativity that emphasizes diversity of generative roles and engaging generative roles within the context of a larger play and a more generative society.
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