McAdams Receives Third Lifetime Career Award
Northwestern University psychologist Dan P. McAdams has been selected to receive the International Society for Self and Identity’s 2025 Distinguished Lifetime Career Award for his contributions to the understanding of self and identity throughout his academic career.
It’s the third lifetime career award for McAdams, the Henry Wade Rogers Professor in the Department of Psychology. In 2024, he received the Constellation Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the Distinguished Career Award from the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology.
McAdams, a professor of human development and social policy at the School of Education and Social Policy, developed the idea that people see their identity as a life story—connecting their past, present, and future. “If you could see an identity, it would look like a story,” he said. “The story would have characters, and it would talk about how you’ve developed over time, and you would use that story to explain to other people who you are.”
McAdams is the primary investigator and director of the Study of Lives Research Group, which brings together graduate and undergraduate students across disciplines at Northwestern with a shared interest in the scientific study of human lives. His research has been supported by major grants from the Spencer Foundation and the Templeton Foundation. He also directed the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern from 1997 to 2019, a project funded by the Foley Family Foundation.
McAdams, who served as interim Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy from 2022 to 2023, has authored nearly 350 scientific articles and chapters, edited numerous volumes, and written eight books. His work explores themes of power, intimacy, redemption and generativity across adulthood.
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, “The Mind of Donald Trump.” Previous titles include George W. Bush and the Redemptive Dream: A Psychological Portrait and The Art and Science of Personality Development.
- Watch: Dan McAdams on Dispatches From the Well: How Humanity Makes Its Meaning
- Read: The Stories in Our Minds