Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

of “selfing”, of narrating experience to create a modern self, where as the Me may be
viewed as the self that the I constructs.” (McAdams 1996, p. 295). He also delineates
three relatively independent levels on which modern persons may be described. Level
I is the domain of personality traits (as defined in the broad categories of the ‘Big
Five’ taxonomy: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and
openness to change). Level II subsumes contextualising developmental concerns like
goals, values and coping strategies. Level III is the psychosocial configuration of the
Me, a person’s reflexive project as is it appears in the narrative of a “life story”: A life
story is a psychosocial construction that constitute identity, an “internalized and
evolving narrative of the self that incorporates the reconstructed past, perceived
present and anticipated future.” (p. 307)
Based on the analysis of more than 200 life story interviews McAdams (1996, p. 308-
309) suggested that the structure and content of adult life stories might be understood
in terms of seven features:
• Narrative tone: a basic attitude, like pessimistic, optimistic or ironic.
• Imagery: the choice of specific images and metaphors to describe an experience
• Theme: goal-directed sequences in the narrative, like agency and communion
• Ideological setting: the establishment of some sort of moral stance (the “good”)
• Nuclear episodes: scenes that stand out as high or low points, turning points etc.
• Imagoes: idealized personifications of the self in the narrative (‘little Mes’)
• Endings (The generativity script): an ending should produce new beginnings, and
a legacy of the self should be offered to subsequent generations.
The psychosocial functions the life story are integration (the temporal integration of
the Me), entertainment (of self and others), and (pedagogical or moral) instruction.
The life story changes over time in three broad phases: 1) the prenarrative era of
childhood and adolescence is used to gather material; 2) the narrative era of young to
mature adulthood is used to create a self-defining story (including the seven features
mentioned above); 3) the postnarrative era is used to evaluate the life story, leading to
either (in Erikson’s terms) integrity or despair. McAdams suggested that modern, or
postmodern, “people are working on their life stories throughout most of their healthy
adult years.” (p. 312)
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