《role of narrative in personality psychology》.pdfVIP

John Benjamins Publishing Company This is a contribution from Narrative Inquiry 16:1 © 2006. John Benjamins Publishing Company This electronic file may not be altered in any way. The author(s) of this article is/are permitted to use this PDF file to generate printed copies to be used by way of offprints, for their personal use only. Permission is granted by the publishers to post this file on a closed server which is accessible to members (students and staff) only of the author’s/s’ institute. For any other use of this material prior written permission should be obtained from the publishers or through the Copyright Clearance Center (for USA: ). Please contact rights@benjamins.nl or consult our website: Tables of Contents, abstracts and guidelines are available at © 2006. John Benjamins Publishing Company All rights reserved The role of narrative in personality psychology today Dan P. McAdams Northwestern University Over the past 25 years, narrative theories and methods have helped to revitalize the discipline of personality psychology by providing new tools and concepts for discerning the inner patterning and meaning of human lives and by helping to recontextualize personality studies in terms of culture, gender, class, ethnic- ity, and the social ecology of everyday life. This article (a) briefly traces recent historical developments in personality psychology as they relate to the increasing influence of narrative approaches; (b) describes a three-tiered conceptual frame- work for understanding personality in terms of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and life stories; and (c) illustrates one important research program on life stories in personality — studies of the redemptive self. (Personality, Traits, Life Stories, The Redemptive Self) My own scholarly work o