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Measuring Prosocial Attitudes for Future Generations: The Social Generativity Scale

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Abstract

Erik Erikson’s theory of human development defines generativity as the concern for the continuation of life after an individual’s death. According to the theory, such a concern has a wide spectrum that ranges from the desire to procreate to the willingness to contribute for the sake of generations that have yet to come, and is thus closely related to concepts of social responsibility and agency. Although this is a well-known aspect of the theory it is only marginally measured in the common quantitative measures of generativity—e.g. the Loyola Generativity Scale. In this study we present the Social Generativity Scale (SGS), which is focused on responsibility for future generation. Correlational analysis showed that the SGS is more consistently linked to future orientation than other generativity measures (i.e. measured with consideration of future consequences), inclusiveness, and political engagement, and negatively related to social dominance orientation and prejudice. The results suggest that the SGS better captures the social responsibility dimension of the generativity concept than previous measures, and for this reason it is complementary to those scales that comprehend generativity as the concern for personal continuation after death and desire of parenting.

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Notes

  1. Complementarily to the LGS, McAdams and de St. Aubin (1992) designed also the generative behavior checklist, a 50-item act-frequency checklist to tap behavior, which alike the original version of the LGS is too long to be implemented in large surveys.

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Acknowledgments

This manuscript has been developed within the framework of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES, which is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The authors are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for its financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Davide Morselli

  2. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Stefano Passini

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  1. Davide Morselli
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  2. Stefano Passini
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Correspondence to Davide Morselli.

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Morselli, D., Passini, S. Measuring Prosocial Attitudes for Future Generations: The Social Generativity Scale. J Adult Dev 22, 173–182 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-015-9210-9

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