For a discussion of intimacy and
generativity see Erik H. Erikson, Childhood and Society (New York: W. W. Norton, 1963), pp. 263 - 268.
Erik Erikson (who coined the term
generativity)
sees the development of
generativity as the central life task and challenge in these years: «In this stage, a man and a woman must have defined for themselves what and whom they come to care for, what they can do well, and how they plan to take care of what they have started and created.»