Examining Identity and Generativity among Middle-aged Female Activists in Two Cultural Contexts.

CHINA; UNITED States

Erikson (Identity: Youth and crisis, W.W. Norton & Company, 1968) theorized identity and generativity as predominant personality developmental tasks in adolescence and midlife (respectively). However, existing literature reveals that not only can both constructs be equally prominent for midlife women (Newton and Stewart, Psychology of Women Quarterly 34:75–84, 2010), they are also dynamically inter-related (Kroger, Whitbourne (ed), Encyclopedia of adulthood and aging, Wiley-Blackwell, 2016), although how, specifically, these two constructs are related, and what role culture and activism might play in their expression are both less well-known. The present study examined middle-aged female activists' expressions of identity in relation to generativity across two cultural contexts. Ten interview transcripts from the Global Feminisms Project (Institute for Research on Women and Gender (2002) Global Feminisms Project. Retrieved from https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/globalfeminisms/) provided by five Chinese and five American middle-aged female activists were examined. Transcript narratives were coded for themes of identity and generativity using a coding scheme based on Erikson's writings. Findings showed that female activists in both cultural contexts integrated identity and generativity by expressing themes that consisted of both constructs. However, Chinese women activists expressed their identity by integrating generativity more so than their American counterparts. These results underscore identity and generativity as inter-related constructs that overlap among middle-aged women, as well as cultural variations both within and between groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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