Generativity Development: Its Impact on Psychological Well-Being

In the “Psychological well-being in mid to late life: The role of generativity development and parent-child relationships across the lifespan”, Jeong Shin An and Teresa Cooney found that “adult psychological well-being was significantly related to generativity development” and “remember pre-adult family experiences and those occurring currently with one’s own adult offspring were related to well-being”. In the movie “Beginners”, Hal Fields failed in “the ability to develop true care” for his family which suggested that he might not achieve generativity and psychological well-being. Hal failed to provide true care for his son- Oliver Fields because he was busy working in the museums when Oliver was young. He also failed to “become a giving person” in his marriage with his wife- Georgia, and this might due to his homosexual orientation that prevents him to fully commit to his family and show affection to his wife, which young Oliver noticed and once asked was something wrong between them. Hal’s failure to

In the movie “Beginners”, Oliver were having difficulties in forming an intimated relationship with Anna, a girl who he met at a party and fell in love with. Oliver could not develop a sense of trust due to the lack of parental affection linked to his mother’s concern and sensitivity and thus contribute to his development of mistrust. When they spent more time together, Oliver still wasn't able to trust Anna and felt that she would have left him like his parents did. His mistrust built up and once broke the intimated relationship with Anna. Using the classifications in class, I will classify him in the intermediate which he is physically well but psychosocially unwell at that moment, and in the happy-well category when he chased Anna to New York and reestablish the relationship with