Glossary of Key Concepts

A reference guide to the terms and ideas that appear across the knowledge base. Plain language first, academic context where it helps. If a concept has a research pedigree, the key source is noted.

Agency The sense of being an active force in your own life — someone who makes decisions, takes action, and shapes outcomes rather than just reacting to them. In narrative terms, agency shows up when you describe yourself as the subject of the sentence, not the object. "I chose to leave" vs "things fell apart." Correlates with self-esteem and psychological wellbeing (Adler, 2012). Agency is independent from communion — you can be high in both or low in both.

Coherence How well your life story holds together. Not whether it's tidy, but whether the parts connect to each other in a way that makes sense. There are three types: connecting events through cause and effect (causal), finding recurring themes across your life (thematic), and organizing events in time (temporal). Higher coherence is associated with greater psychological maturity (Habermas & Bluck, 2000). See the full article on coherence.

Communion The degree to which your story is organized around connection to other people — love, friendship, belonging, care, dialogue. The counterpart to agency, but not its opposite. Introduced by Bakan (1966) as one of two fundamental human motivations. High communion doesn't mean low agency; they're independent dimensions.

Contamination sequence A narrative pattern where something good is followed by something bad — and the bad overwhelms or cancels the good. "Everything was perfect, and then it all fell apart." The reverse of redemption. Higher contamination in life stories is associated with depressive symptoms (McAdams et al., 2001). This doesn't mean the bad thing didn't happen — it means the narrative gives the bad thing the last word.

Ego development A measure of psychological maturity introduced by Jane Loevinger — roughly, how complex, integrated, and nuanced your understanding of yourself and others is. People at higher stages of ego development tend to tell more coherent, more nuanced life stories. Related to but distinct from intelligence.

Life Story Interview (LSI) A semi-structured interview protocol developed by Dan McAdams for eliciting life narratives. The standard version (LSI-II, 2007) asks about key scenes: high points, low points, turning points, earliest memories, and several others. Most narrative identity research uses some version of this protocol. Our assessment questions are designed in the same tradition.

Life Story Model McAdams' framework for understanding personality as having three levels: dispositional traits (Level 1), characteristic adaptations like goals and values (Level 2), and narrative identity (Level 3). The argument is that you need all three to fully understand a person — traits alone aren't enough.

Meaning-making The process of extracting understanding from an experience — going beyond "what happened" to "what it means." McLean (2005) identified a hierarchy: no meaning (just reporting events) → lesson (a concrete takeaway) → insight (a change in how you understand yourself). Insight-level meaning-making is the strongest signal of narrative maturity.

Narrative identity The internalized, evolving story you construct to make sense of your life — to explain how you became who you are, where you're going, and what it all means. Not a story you tell at dinner parties. A deeper, often implicit framework that organizes your experience and shapes your sense of self. Formalized by McAdams in the 1990s, now a major subfield of personality psychology.

Narrative type In this product: one of ten classifications based on which narrative patterns dominate your story. Types include Architect, Phoenix, Weaver, Pioneer, and others. Each reflects a specific combination of narrative dimensions. Types are descriptive, not evaluative — there's no "best" type. They can and do change over time.

Redemption sequence A narrative pattern where something bad is followed by something good — and the good redeems, transforms, or gives meaning to the bad. "That failure was the thing that finally pushed me in the right direction." Strongly associated with life satisfaction and self-esteem (McAdams et al., 2001). The most replicated finding in narrative identity research.

Self-defining memory A memory that is vivid, emotionally intense, frequently rehearsed, and linked to an unresolved concern or enduring theme in your life. Introduced by Singer and Salovey (1993) and developed further by Singer and Blagov. These aren't just memorable events — they're the memories you keep coming back to because they capture something essential about who you are.

Three-level model of personality McAdams' framework. Level 1: traits (Big Five). Level 2: characteristic adaptations (goals, defenses, values, coping strategies). Level 3: narrative identity (your life story). Most personality assessment stops at Level 1. Narrative assessment operates at Level 3.