A leader in social sciences' recent emergence of narrative approaches to the study of human lives, acclaimed psychologist and author Dan P. McAdams served as the featured speaker for both the Wittenberg Series-sponsored Opening Convocation and the IBM Endowed Lecture in the Sciences, Aug. 30.

McAdams, professor of psychology and professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University, discussed "The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By," in his convocation keynote address and subsequent lecture.

Based on his book by the same name, McAdams, author of more than 150 articles and chapters, and 14 books, is charting a new psychology of American identity as expressed in cultural and historical American texts and images, and in the life stories of caring and productive American adults in their midlife years.