McAdams Takes the Helm

Dan P. McAdams, one of the first researchers to grasp the transformational power of life stories, has been named SESP’s interim dean, succeeding David Figlio, who stepped down in May to become provost of the University of Rochester.

McAdams, the Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Psychology and a professor of education and social policy, developed the life-story model of human identity, which argues that people derive meaning and purpose in their lives by creating stories or “personal myths.”

The story patterns can “enhance or undermine our psychological and social well-being,” McAdams says.

From 1997 to 2019, McAdams directed the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern, a center of research on personality development and personal biographies. The Foley Center’s mission lives on at McAdams’s current center, the Study of Lives Group.

A prolific writer and sought-after media commentator, McAdams has written cover articles for magazines such as the Atlantic. He has authored more than 300 scientific articles and chapters and eight books, including The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning (2020) and The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (2005).