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Definition
A theory in personality and developmental psychology that construes identity as an internalized and evolving narrative which provides a person’s life with a sense of meaning, coherence, and te.mporal continuity.
Introduction
McAdams (1985) introduced the idea that identity might be construed as an integrative life story that people begin to develop in their late-adolescent years. What is now often referred to as narrative identity, the story is an internalized and evolving narrative of the self, reconstructing the past and imagining the future so as to provide life with some semblance of unity, purpose, and continuity. McAdams’s life-story model has evolved significantly over the past 30 years and has stimulated a wide array of empirical studies and theoretical developments in psychology and related disciplines.
Original Conception
Drawing on the psychoanalytic writings of Erik Erikson, the personological tradition of Henry A. Murray, and emerging...
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References
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McAdams, D.P. (2017). Life-Story Approach to Identity. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_530-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_530-1
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