Among the most important stories we know are stories about ourselves, and these “life narratives” are McAdams’s third level of personality. McAdams’s greatest contribution to psychology has been his insistence that psychologists connect their quantitative data (about the two lower levels, which we assess with questionnaires and reaction-time measur

Au lieu d’endosser l’unité ou l’ordre fournis par la programmation génétique ou par les normes sociales, le défi de chacun consiste à créer l’harmonie à partir de la raison et de ses choix. Les philosophes tels Heidegger, Sartre et Merleau-Ponty ont reconnu cette tâche comme fondamentale et l’ont appelée projet de vie13, ce qui signifie, comme nous

supposed to be—based on our life experiences, our internal neuro-wiring, our career choices, and input from the people around us. Our sense of self can become distorted (either inflated or deflated), and it often doesn’t match what is real.

Do I Find It More Motivating to Achieve a Particular Outcome or to Play a Specific Role?