Themes of Self-Regulation and Self-Exploration in the Life Stories of Religious American Conservatives and Liberals Dan P. McAdams Northwestern University Kathrin J. Hanek University of Michigan Joseph G. Dadabo Northwestern University A sample of 128 highly religious (Christian) midlife American adults completed a series of attitudinal and personality trait measures and narrated 12 important autobiographical scenes in their life stories. Individuals high on self-reported political conservatism tended to accentuate the theme of self-regulation in their life stories, repeatedly describing important autobiographical scenes wherein they struggled to control, discipline, manage, restrain, protect, or preserve the self. By contrast, individuals high on political liberalism tended to emphasize the theme of self-exploration, telling stories about expanding, discovering, articulating, or fulfilling the self. Demographics and dispositional traits (especially openness to experience) showed significant asso- ciations with conservatism-liberalism, as well, but these variables did not mitigate the robust relationship between life-narrative themes and political orientation. The results are discussed in terms of a broadened understanding of personality that conceives of dispositional traits and narrative identity as comprising distinct layers and complementary features of psychological individuality, both implicated in political lives. KEY WORDS: conservatives, liberals, life stories, personality, self-regulation, self-exploration The current study examines contrasting psychological themes in the life stories of American adults as they relate to self-reports of political orientation. Whereas recent studies have shown that political conservatives and liberals show correspondingly different personality traits and goals, very few studies have examined the personal narratives that conservatives and liberals construct to make meaning in their lives. In that a person’s internalized life story may be viewed, like traits and goals, as an important feature of his or her personality (McAdams & Pals, 2006), this study of thematic differences in life narratives aims to address the intricate relationship between personality and politics from a new perspective. Political Orientation and Three Layers of Personality Contemporary research on personality and political orientation suggests that conservatism and liberalism are associated with correspondingly different dispositional traits and psychological goals. Political Psychology, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2013 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00933.x 201 0162-895X © 2012 International Society of Political Psychology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, and PO Box 378 Carlton South, 3053 Victoria, Australia