After studying and writing about America's highly generative adults for more than two decades, Dan McAdams discovered a whole new perspective on his work almost by accident.
McAdams, professor of human development and social policy with a joint appointment in the department of psychology, was presenting his research at a scientific conference in the Netherlands in summer 2000. As he was describing how almost all the life stories of especially caring, productive adults he'd heard had emphasized a theme of suffering and redemption, he received an unexpected comment.
"Professor McAdams," observed a woman in the audience, "this is very interesting, but these life stories you describe, they seem so, well, American."
McAdams was taken aback. He had assumed that highly generative people in many different societies would tell similar stories in their efforts to form identities and make sense of their lives. But after a while he decided that the woman was onto something. He realized that his research might not apply totally to people in other societies. Eventually he concluded that the life stories of highly generative American adults reveal as much about American society as about the individuals themselves, that in fact they exemplify many cherished ideas in American heritage. He came up with a name for the story that highly generative Americans tell about their lives: "the redemptive self."
The refrain of redemption
Five years later, McAdams looks forward to the publication in September of his new book, The Redemptive Self: Stories American Live By, by Oxford University Press. In the book McAdams shows how the motif of redemption, which he defines as "deliverance from suffering to a better world," distinguishes the life stories of those Americans he calls "generativity superstars" - adults who give their all in tending to the well-being of future generations - from those of their less generative counterparts. He traces the redemptive motif to several influences in American history. Along the way he asserts that the idea of the redemptive self, while not perfect, is important in promoting psychological health and maturity in Americans. Simply put, McAdams posits that while generativity is universal, the redemptive self is characteristically American. "Psychologically, generativity is a basic thing," McAdams explains. "Adults in all societies have to care for the next generation; otherwise, society would go to hell in a hand basket. They raise children, pass on family traditions, vote and participate in the political process - things that aren't glamorous. In all societies generativity is hard work, and people need a good story that supports their generativity.
"But the redemptive self is a particular story that is told by particularly generative American adults," he continues. "They have this sense of privilege, of being special. They also hold the belief that bad things will happen, but still have this hopeful, optimistic view of the future."
"Our most admirable, mature and caring adults make sense of their lives through a story that's a powerful redemptive narrative, and we would do well to borrow those themes and appropriate them into our own life stories."
Studying stories Americans live by
Research that McAdams presents in The Redemptive Self came from life-story interviews of hundreds of adults ages 35 to 65 that he and research assistants have conducted since the late 1980s. At first, subjects were told to think of their lives as a book and discuss each chapter, then asked to focus on particularly memorable scenes. Afterward McAdams searched for examples of redemption sequences in the transcribed interviews and then calculated scores based on those redemption sequences.
"What makes our research unique is that we use objective content analysis in studying the texts," McAdams says. "Quantifying the data and using statistics to rate the results is an important part of the research, even though it's behind the scenes." According to McAdams, the research shows that highly generative adults differ from less generative ones in several ways. They are likely to report having an advantage in childhood, such as being mother's favorite, possessing an extraordinary gift or just being lucky. They recall being moved by the suffering of others at a young age and internalizing an unwavering core set of values by the time they reached adolescence. They tend to express a strong need for both power and love, which can lead at times to internal conflict. They imagine the future as offering even more chances for continued growth.
Most importantly, they tell of negative life events that give way to positive outcomes. They may speak of redemption in different terms, such as atonement, emancipation, upward mobility, recovery, enlightenment and psychological development, but they almost always speak of it.
McAdams tracks the American idea of the redemptive self all the way back to the first Puritan settlers. Having experienced persecution for their religious beliefs in Europe, they looked to America as a land of redemption. He found another crucial influence in personal accounts given by African-American slaves, who mixed indigenous folk beliefs with Christian stories and images.
McAdams cites other influences, including Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Horatio Alger's short novels about hard work, perseverance and upward mobility. Race and religion also play an enormous role in shaping the redemptive life stories of Americans. He makes a convincing argument that the redemptive self continues to enjoy great, if unrecognized, popularity in contemporary American culture, from Oprah to People magazine, from self-help books to the country's response to the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
Recognizing the redemptive self
By recognizing and describing the redemptive self, McAdams hopes to encourage people to make use of their own capacities to be highly generative. "Our most admirable, mature and caring adults make sense of their lives through a story that's a powerful redemptive narrative, and we would do well to borrow those themes and appropriate them into our own life stories," he notes.
Yet at the same time McAdams acknowledges the dark side of the redemptive self. "It has shortcomings, especially the feeling of entitlement and arrogance that people can fall prey to," he says. "There's an unquestioning, unwavering conviction that 'I'm right.' There's also a failure to understand that while suffering can give people's lives meaning, not all suffering can be redeemed."
I think it's a very compelling story, and I like it mainly, but I don't like it one hundred percent," he concludes.
McAdams's research on the redemptive self grows out of a longstanding interest in both psychology and literature. He combined the two in his undergraduate major at Valparaiso University and went on to get his PhD in psychology and social relations at Harvard University. His early books downplayed cultural and social factors and focused mainly on the psychology of life stories. But The Redemptive Self shifts the emphasis to what life stories say about American society, and the book includes a critique of American society.
"My work continues to reflect my interests in psychology and literature. Psychology is more quantitative, and I do believe we're doing science here. The humanities bring the appreciation for great texts, be it Moby Dick or the Bible or someone's story, which are at a basic level words that people are using. I analyze them in ways that are psychologically relevant. In essence, I do a social science of life stories."
McAdams has come to believe that heightening Americans' awareness of the pervasive, redemptive self in the culture and in their own lives can benefit us all. "This is not a self-help book," he asserts, "but there's a sense in which I'm hoping that people read it and see something of themselves in the redemptive self. I'm not in the business of changing people's lives, but maybe giving them some self-insight."
Lisa Stein is a freelance writer.