Love is the ability to put aside differences through "mutuality of devotion-, this can include the love we find in a good marriage or the relationship between co-workers. So as a young adult, we strive for a long-lasting relationship that will carry us on to a successful life in marriage, and if successful we develop love that will give us strength to ensure that we do not become to promiscuous or exclude ourselves from society. .
The middle-aged adult generally has two objectives in mind, to have a proper balance of generativity and stagnation. Generativity is the love one has for the future generations. It can be seen as less selfish than the intimacy described in a young adult, the love between lovers and/or friends. Of course we think that the love we give is usually unselfish but it is not true love unless we receive love in return. However, with generativity, the expectation of returned love does not exist; our love is given freely without any consideration for something in return. Stagnation, on the other hand is the act for caring for no one, and becoming an unproductive part of society. It is hard to imagine that we should have any stagnant people in our lives, but Erikson believed that this was caused by overextension. Some people become so generative that they lose time for themselves, or for rest and relaxation. Overall, too little generativity and too much stagnation result in rejectivity where one no longer contributes or participates in society. Furthermore, the "meaning of life- is how we participate and what we contribute because this directly affects our attitude and our emotional well-being. This area of adult development is commonly referred to as the "mid-life- crisis, where adults panic about their age and regret not experiencing or have accomplished things that they thought they would in their youth. A well know side effect to this issue is adults trying to recapture their youth by buying new clothes, or hanging our at singles bars, or generally trying to act younger.
