However, Vaillant (2012 p. 165) is critical of Erikson’s Generativity Two because he believes his analysis is too restrictive in setting the stage for Generativity Three: “Erikson sometimes fails to distinguish between the care that characterizes Generativity and the wisdom that characterizes Guardianship and which he ascribed, I believe incorrectly, to Integrity (one of Erikson’s other stages of life.)”
The Grant Study: It is here where Vaillant offers significant insights into the stage of generativity and contributes to how we define our third role of generativity. Building on results from the Grant Study, George Vaillant, (2012, p. 165) writes about the Harvard men he was studying during the latter third of their lives who became generative and provided deep care by serving as Guardians of traditions, heritage and culture: “Guardians are caretakers. They take responsibility for the cultural values and riches from which we all benefit, offering their concern beyond specific individuals to their culture as a whole; they engage a social radius that extends beyond their immediate personal surround.”
Much as Generativity Two is an expansion of care beyond our immediate family and our special projects, Generativity Three moves us past deep care about specific people to deep care about an entire set of values and an abiding and important history. In the case of Generativity Three, the expansion has to do with broadening concerns for a much larger group of people (an entire society or culture) and also going backward in time to honor the past. (We will see yet another shift as we move to Generativity Four, an expansion in space – a direct and tangible expansion of care with regard to an entire community.)
In the case of both Generativity Three and Generativity Four it is a matter, as Vaillant indicates, of both care and wisdom:
“Generativity has to do with the people one chooses to take care of: Guardianship entails a dispassionate and less personal world view. It is possible to imagine care without wisdom, but not wisdom without care—and indeed, in adult development, the capacity to care does precede wisdom. Wisdom requires not only concern, but also the appreciation of irony and ambiguity, and enough perspective and dispassion not to take side.” [Vaillant, 2012, p. 165]
We will have more to say about the interplay between wisdom and care as we turn to insights offered by our own mid and late-centurion men and women of the Nevada County, CA, Sage Leadership Project as they reflect on their third and fourth role of generativity. At this point, we merely want to express our view that wisdom is to be found in early adult years as we learn how to become caring parents to our children and to our special projects. A considerable amount of wisdom is also needed to be an effective Generativity Two mentor, motivator, mobilizer, monitor, and mediator. We wish to honor George Vaillant’s work and build on it by moving forward with our own exploration of the third role of generativity. In short, we wish to emulate the very notion of Generativity Three as a bridge between that which has already existed and that which moves forward into the future.
Extending Generative Legacy in Time
As we shift from a focus on Generativity Two (which is about leaving a tangible legacy within an organizational setting) to Generativity Three (which is about ensuring that legacy is sustained in heritage), we are moving from extending space to extending time. As professional coaches, we can assist our client with this extension by offering probing questions regarding our client’s shifting prospectives and expanding values. We can encourage our client to trace out the implications of these shifts and expansions—rather than being overwhelmed by these implications. We can reassure our client that this shift and expansion is appropriate as a common feature of ongoing adult development. A pathway to continuing generativity has appeared—a pathway that leads beyond Generativity Two to Generativity Three
