achievement of adult consciousness: The profound realization that we
control our own lives and must take responsibility for them; that life isnot necessarily fair and railing against injustice will not make it so; thatwe ourselves are not innocents but have a darker side; that death willcome to us as to our parents. Gould sees these insights emerging overthe first half of life in a regular sequence. But are they universal? Or is itperhaps only the open individual who sees and feels enough of life tomake these discoveries and reach the real freedom that freedom from il -
lusion allows?
The Life Narrative
Some personality psychologists have turned their attention to life narra -
tives orstories —the stories people tell about their lives (Bertaux, 1981;
McAdams, Josselson, & Lieblich, 2001). These researchers are generallynot concerned with the historical accuracy of the accounts, but ratherwith their psychological significance. Life stories may reveal innerdreams or fears that help individuals make sense of their own lives. Inthis sense, they are akin to Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories:People may project their inner needs into the story of their lives.
Although some theorists have reservations about relating life sto-
ries to personality traits (McAdams, 1996), believing each is entitled toits own research program, it is obvious to us that life narrative datamight fruitfully be analyzed in terms of enduring dispositions. Surelythe individual’s perception of his or her life as revealed in a life storywill be colored by prevailing emotions and experiential styles. For ex -
ample, one of Conley’s (1985) respondents who scored as intuitive (or
high in Openness) in 1935 assessed his life in 1980 as follows: “As longas I can do new things, see new places, and see new faces, living is fine.When I cannot do this for any reason, it will be enough and time to go.”For this person, the meaning of life, and even its desired extent, weredetermined by lifelong Openness.
For most people, a life narrative is a story they tell themselves or a
few others. But there is a whole literary genre of public life narrative,the autobiography . One of the greatest of these is The Confessions of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1781/1953). As one of the most important fig -
ures in the development of the modern world, Rousseau has been
widely studied by historians, philosophers, and political scientists. Fig -
ure 11 presents his NEO-PI-R profile, based on ratings by a political sci -Influences of Personality on the Life Course 231