Dan P. McAdams

Biography

Dan P. McAdams, one of the nation’s foremost researchers in the field of narrative psychology, served as the interim dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University from Jan. 2022 through May 2023.

McAdams, the Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Psychology and professor of human development and social policy, is most well-known for formulating a life-story theory of human identity.  Modern adults, McAdams says, give their lives a sense of unity and purpose by constructing and internalizing self-defining life stories or “personal myths.”

A leader in the recent emergence within the social sciences of narrative approaches to studying human lives – approaches that place stories and storytelling at the center of human personality – McAdams has been funded by major grants from The Spencer Foundation and the Templeton Foundation. He directed the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern University from 1997 to 2019, a project funded by the Foley Family Foundation.

The author of nearly 300 scientific articles and chapters, numerous edited volumes, and eight books, McAdams specializes in personality and lifespan developmental psychology. His theoretical and empirical writings focus on concepts of self and identity in contemporary American society and on themes of power, intimacy, redemption, and generativity across the adult life course.

His most recent books include The Person: A New Introduction to Personality Psychology and The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning, which grew out of his cover article in The Atlantic magazine, “The Mind of Donald Trump.” Previous books include George W. Bush and the Redemptive Dream: A Psychological Portrait, and The Art and Science of Personality Development.

The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By integrates 15 years of research he collected with students and charts the new psychology of American identity as expressed in cultural and historical American texts and images and in the life stories of caring and productive American adults in their midlife years. The book won the 2006 William James Award from the American Psychological Association and the 2007 Association of American Publishers Award.

McAdams won the 1989 Henry A. Murray Award from the American Psychological Association for research on personality and the study of lives, the 2006 Theodore Sarbin Award for contributions to theoretical and philosophical psychology, and the 2012 Jack Block Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology for career contributions to personality psychology. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 8) and the Association for Psychological Science, has served on the executive committee of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and is a founding member of the Association for Research in Personality (ARP), for which he served as president 2016-17.

His work has been featured in many national publications and media outlets including CNN, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, Psychology Today, Self magazine, and Good Morning America.

Education

• PhD, Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University, 1979
• BS, Psychology and Humanities, Christ College, Valparaiso University, 1976

Selected Awards and Honors

• 2015: American Psychological Association Master Lecturer
• 2012: Jack Block Award for career contributions to personality psychology, from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology
• 2012: Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Basel
• 2008: Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, Valparaiso University
• 2007: Association of American Publishers Award for Excellence in Professional and Scholarly Publishing in the area of Psychology and Cognitive Science for The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By
• 2006: The William James Book Award from Division 1 of the American Psychological Association for. best general-interest book in psychology across all subfields, for The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By
• 2006: Theodore Sarbin Award from Division 24 of the American Psychological Association for contributions to theoretical and philosophical psychology
• 2005: Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award, Gerontological Society of America
• 2004 G. Stanley Hall Lectureship, American Psychological Association
• 2003: Second annual award for teaching excellence in psychology, Undergraduate Psychology Association, Northwestern University

Selected Publications

McAdams, D.P. , Dunlop, W.L. (2022). The Person: A New Introduction to Personality Psychology, Sixth Edition

McAdams, D. P. (2020). The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning<

McAdams-Shiner-Tackett (2019).  Handbook of Personality Devlopment. New York: Guilford Press

McAdams, D. P. (2015). The Art and Science of Personality Development . New York: Guilford Press.

McAdams, D. P. (2011). George W. Bush and the Redemptive Dream: A Psychological Portrait. New York: Oxford University Press.

McAdams, D. P., Trzesniewski, K., Lilgendahl, J. L., Benet-Martinez, V., & Robins, R. W.  (2021).  Self and identity in personality psychology.  Personality Science, 2, e6035.

<Cowan, H. R., Mittal, V. A., & McAdams, D. P.  (2021).  Narrative identity in the psychosis spectrum:  A systematic review and developmental model.  Clinical Psychology Review, 88, 102067./p>

Reischer, H. N., Roth, L. J., Villarreal, J. A., & McAdams, D. P.  (2021).  Self-transcendence in late-midlife adult life stories:  Validity of the narrative approach.  Journal of Personality, 89, 305-324.

McAdams, D. P.  (2021).  Narrative identity and the life story.  In O. P. John and R. W. Robins (Eds.), Handbook of personality:  Theory and research (4^th Ed., pp. 122-141).  New York:  Guilford Press.

McAdams, D. P.  (2020).  Psychopathology and the self:  Human actors, agents, and authors.  Journal of Personality, 88, 146-155.