When Pope John Paul II died in April 2005, he had reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years, one of the longest papal reigns in church history. Because of the ubiquity of mass media, this particular pope was observed by the world as he progressed through late middle to old age. Thus how the pope aged may be a useful index of the variety of effects of growing older and a test of the explanatory power of gerontological theory to give an account of aging.
Generativity. Typically, this term is linked with stagnation, notably via Erikson's much-cited discussion of generativity versus stagnation. As the dyad implies, generativity refers to a continuum of life-giving sensibilities in later years. Some commentators have linked generativity to persistence of the sexual impulse through and after middle age (e.g., Levinson, 1978). More generally, however, it has been linked to the ongoing development of the adult person from the stage of middle adulthood (ages 25-59) onward (Erikson, 1980). That stage can be characterized by relationship development or midlife crisis, which can prepare the way for stagnation, which basically ends life altogether. In John Paul IH's case, generativity and not stagnation appears to have taken hold as an exercise in seeing the totality of his life and those of others, in part because he assumed his office, not to mention a vital spiritual mission, just on the brink of the stage of late adulthood. Elders, in John Paul's view, should be more strongly linked to youth, who, he said, "need a stable home where they receive affection and where they learn, from the witness of their elders . . . the necessary values . . . for a harmonious life" (John Paul, 1999).
Accumulation of Knowledge. The aging process implies an accumulation of knowledge, presuming psychoemotional development does not stagnate or that the adolescent stage is not characterized by perfection of analytical competence (Erikson, 1980)....