XNB375 - Applying McAdams' Framework: A Sport Psychology Case Study

This case study provides a personality analysis based on McAdams' integrative framework, examining the self through three levels: dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and narrative identity. The analysis incorporates the Five Factor Model to assess traits like extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. The study reflects on the author's experiences in sports, particularly rugby, cycling and swimming, to illustrate how these activities shaped their personality and adaptations over time. The narrative identity section explores significant life events and their impact on character development, using performance, discovery, and relational narratives. The conclusion assesses the strengths and weaknesses of McAdams' framework as a tool for understanding personality, particularly in the context of sports psychology, while acknowledging its explanatory constraints and potential for oversimplification. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study resources.

Running head: PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
PERSONALITY PROFILE ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK
OF Mc ADAMS
Name of the Student
QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Author Note

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
Executive summary
The analysis of the self is deemed the most challenging interpretations of the human mind. Mc
Adams has devised a method to analyse an individual in a structured method, measuring
personality on three different levels which evaluates the mental personality of the individual. The
main layer incorporates dispositional qualities, which represent the expansive textures in
individuals' conduct, thought, and feeling across circumstances and situations and after some
time. The second layer describes several adaptations that determine the objectives, goals and
values. The third layer accounts for the person's integrative biography, reflecting the
psychosocial development of an individual personality. This case study is a personal analysis of
me, where in I will evaluate myself on the basis of the framework of Mc Adams three level trait
analyses consisting of the dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and life narrative. The
research will be a parallel comparison of self with the sporting activities that I was engaged in
and will try to justify how they affected my success and the failures in my life. The report will
also be a self reflection of my life through narrative understanding of my journey which would
give an insight into the qualitative traits of the self. The justification of Mc Adams structure of
analysis will also be tried in the light of its credibility to explain mental psyche of an individual.

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
Table of contents
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Part I: Dispositional Traits...........................................................................................................4
Part II: Characteristics Adaptations.............................................................................................6
Part III: Narrative Identity...........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
Introduction
According to McAdams personality psychologists should be first and fore mostly try to
know persons. He eloquently puts two preeminent questions of the knowing of a person and what
it takes to know a person in a scientific way to understand the psyche of a person. The answer to
these questions were explained by him in his famous paper “A new Big Five: Fundamental
principles for an integrative science of personality” co-authored by Jennifer L. Pals, from the
School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University. In this research I will attempt
to analyse my personality traits on the basis of the Mc Adams three layer frameworks and create
a report that provides a sample report for a sports psychologist or a coach to analyse his / her
athletes.
Discussion
McAdams' system empowers researchers to incorporate these distinctions under a solitary
all-encompassing structure and, hence, gives a premise to more prominent rationality in the
mental toughness writing. A contemporary individual, according to McAdams, makes an identity
through a procedure which McAdams refers to as "selfing" creating one's identity and individual
story by weaving together a general self-definition. This feeling of developed personality is
special to thinking grown-ups. The following discussion will be followed by the summative
analysis of the self following the stages as described by M Adams.
Part I: Dispositional Traits
As per this point of view, qualities are parts of identity that are moderately stable after
some time, but differ over people and are generally reliable over circumstances, and impact

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
conduct. Characteristics as compared to states, which are more transient dispositions. In a few
speculations and frameworks, qualities are something a man either has or does not have, but
rather in numerous others traits are measurements, for example, extraversion versus introversion
or self preoccupation, with every individual rating somewhere along this range. The dispositional
traits is analysed on the basis of the five factors that categorize the dispositional traits. The
factors that decide the traits are categorized as openness to experience, conscientiousness,
extraversion, neuroticism and agreeableness. The openness is portrayed as the degree to which a
man is inventive or autonomous and delineates an individual inclination for an assortment of
exercises over a strict schedule. Conscientious refers to the tendency of being organized and self
disciplined, a scale of higher conscientious relates to more organized while a lower scale refers
to a less organized and careless individual. Extraversion is the nature of being either extrovert or
introvert (Guo, Klevan & McAdams, 2016). Neuroticism on the other hand reveals the quality to
be either confused or nervous as compared to being confident and bold with respect to handling
stress. Agreeableness points out to the nature of being friendly or compassionate as contrasted to
detached and reserved.
Based on the five factor model I analysed myself with the help of an online psychometric
tool (Take a personality test - Open Source Psychometrics Project, 2018) that gave an analysis of
myself on the percentile grade. The following schematic reveals my score of the five factors.
Source: Open Source Psychometrics Project, 2018

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
The above score reveals that I have 83% extroversion, 66% emotional stability which indicates
that I have lower neuroticism which is the opposite of emotional stability as stated here. My
agreeableness is 89% making me a friendly person whereas my conscientiousness is 92% which
truly states my organized behaviour. My openness to experience is referred to as Intellect or
imagination in the test, gives a median score of 59% making me a moderately opened person
(Roberts et al., 2017).
As per the results obtained they indoctrinate the fact that I have traits similar to that of an
athlete. Although it has developed over time the differences will be discussed in the other
attributes as mentioned by Mc Adams in the following sections.
Part II: Characteristics Adaptations
The second level of identity is the rank of characteristic adjustments. While dispositional
qualities portray the general conduct and traits of a man, trademark adjustments are those angles
that address specific circumstances, for example, stresses, objectives, and concerns.
Characteristics adjustments are the thought processes, interests, qualities, and dispositions, of a
man (Coulter et al., 2016). They are firmly connected to the social-subjective part of human life
and are to some degree identified with the dispositional characteristics of a man. The following
section will broadly discuss on my adaptations over the span of my life and how I coped to it and
developed my plans for future.
I was always an active and energetic boy right from my school days. I was out going and
actively participating in outdoor activities but it was during the initial years of my high school
that I started gathering interest for Rugby. It was my high school coach who inspired me to find

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
passion in this sport and cultivated the qualities that are required to excel in the sport. It was with
the same enthusiasm that I started playing the game but this was later directed to other sports and
currently I have shifted my focus to Cycling and swimming which I feel lot more relaxing and
energetic. I was gradually looking for scopes of newer adventure and growth which rugby failed
to provide and was aptly replaced by cycling and swimming. Cycling allows a more freedom in
terms of adventure and freedom so does swimming. I easily take my bike and go for a hiking or
for a long route drive. Swimming allows me to completely express my spirit of adventure. This I
feel is the transition that occurred and is the character adaptations as explained by mc Adams.
Part III: Narrative Identity
The narrative identity of an individual reflects the life story of the person and allows to
understand the various high and low incidents that shaped the individuals character. This section
will be briefly describing the various stages of my life and the way the influenced in forming
character (McAdams, 2018). The narrative is developed on the basis of three different types of
narratives which revolve around the various incidents of my life. The performance narrative, the
discovery narrative, and a relational narrative, will narrate my life stories by relating events to
each narrative (Adler et al., 2017). My performance narrative might start from the days of
playing rugby in the school and being selected in the Secondary Schools rugby league. It was
one of the most happening part of my life. I was training vigorously for the selection and gave
more than extra efforts which finally paid off by my selection in the team. It was a great moment
of joy for me. I started to feel the results of hard work. I succeeded in the 1st division league with
seven caps in the season. After the season, I planned to continue playing the sport to the next
level, but met with a back injury which took away a considerable time from my career. During
my rehabilitation, I realized the importance to accept life as it comes and discover new aspects

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
with enthusiasm. This phase of my life seems to be my discovery narrative. My rehab sessions
included cycling and swimming to develop my core muscles. After my rehab I returned to rugby
to find that there had been a change in the team and my replacement was made. I was in the
bench for the next few matches which started frustrating me. I desperately wanted to perform,
and this had started to affect my performance in the matches. I was made to sit in the bench even
after giving my best. This was the time I realized that there is more to life than just playing
rugby. I started cycling sprees which gradually increased and in the couple of months. I was
cycling distances and hiking along with it. Apart from that I was also enjoying swimming to a
great extent. I was feeling the same enthusiasm in doing these activities as I felt when I was
playing rugby for the first time in my school. This was I believe the discovering narrative
through which my transition happened (Carless & Douglas, 2017).
Conclusion
The personality levels as analysed by Mc Adams framework, it evaluates that I have the
personality traits of an athlete. My personality traits reveal my interests which have moulded me
into my current personality. With the influence and motivation from my peers and teachers I was
indulged into Rugby, which developed my initial years as a sporting personality. The several
incidents that followed in my life took me through various phases of realization and developed
traits which I have been able to evaluate through the characteristic adaptations as mentioned by
Mc Adams. With the substantial development of my qualities I explored newer horizons which I
understood through the narrative identity analysis. Mc Adams theory seems to be one of the most
reliable tool to analyse the personality traits of an individual. The three layer model allows a
more precise and accurate analysis of the personality traits of an individual. The main benefit of

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
using this framework is because it has the potential for critically understanding and assessing the
complex nature of sports persons and athletes. It takes into account the individual differences in
traits, the characteristic adaptations and life narratives which gives a holistic understanding of the
athletes.
Though the framework has been extremely useful, there are a few a drawbacks in the
framework. Firstly, the framework has explanatory constraints, which refers to the broad and
explanatory analysis of the traits. A broad and explanative analysis might be quite complex and
make it difficult to understand the trait in a more simplistic nature. There may be more attributes
in understanding an athlete or a sport person than just an explanation of the three layers as
presented in McAdams’ framework. The traditional theories are of the opinion that the
personality analysis can also been done by deducing their habitual traits their likes and dislikes,
their preferences and choices, which also add to the personality of an individual. Mc Adams
integrative framework categorizes athletes and sports person on a broader perspective.

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
References
Adler, J. M., Dunlop, W. L., Fivush, R., Lilgendahl, J. P., Lodi-Smith, J., McAdams, D. P.,&
Syed, M. (2017). Research methods for studying narrative identity: A primer. Social
Psychological and Personality Science, 8(5), 519-527.
Beidler, E., Covassin, T., & Donnellan, M. B. (2017). No Personality Trait Differences Between
Collegiate Student-Athletes With and Without a History of Sport-Related
Concussion. Journal of Athletic Training, 52(6), S198.
Carless, D., & Douglas, K. (2017). Narrative research. The Journal of Positive Psychology:
dedicated to furthering research and promoting good practice, 12(3), 307-308.
Coulter, T. J., Mallett, C. J., Singer, J. A., & Gucciardi, D. F. (2016). Personality in sport and
exercise psychology: Integrating a whole person perspective. International Journal of
Sport and Exercise Psychology, 14(1), 23-41.
Guo, J., Klevan, M., & McAdams, D. P. (2016). Personality traits, ego development, and the
redemptive self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(11), 1551-1563.
Judge, T. A., & Zapata, C. P. (2015). The person–situation debate revisited: Effect of situation
strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting
job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 1149-1179.
Kaiseler, M., Levy, A., Nicholls, A. R., & Madigan, D. J. (2017). The independent and
interactive effects of the Big-Five personality dimensions upon dispositional coping and

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PERSONALITY ANALYSIS BASED ON INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF Mc ADAMS
coping effectiveness in sport. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1-
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Kaufman, S. B., Quilty, L. C., Grazioplene, R. G., Hirsh, J. B., Gray, J. R., Peterson, J. B., &
DeYoung, C. G. (2016). Openness to experience and intellect differentially predict
creative achievement in the arts and sciences. Journal of personality, 84(2), 248-258.
Mayer, J. D. (2015). The personality systems framework: Current theory and
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McAdams, D. P. (2018). Narrative Identity: What Is It? What Does It Do? How Do You
Measure It?. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 37(3), 359-372.
McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. (2006). A new big five: Fundamental principles for an integrative
science of personality. American psychologist, 61(3), 204.
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narrative identity. In Personality Development Across the Lifespan (pp. 325-338).
Prophet, T., Singer, J., Martin, I., & Coulter, T. J. (2017). Getting to know your athletes:
Strengthening the coach-athlete dyad using an integrative personality
framework. International Sport Coaching Journal, 4(3), 291-304.
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Take a personality test - Open Source Psychometrics Project. (2018). Retrieved from
https://openpsychometrics.org/