ABSTRACT

In this chapter I attempt to elucidate the “organismic foundations” of personality, that is, the human nature that we all share. What needs, propensities, and characteristics do all humans have in common? In so doing, I focus on the bottom level of Fig. 3.3 (speciestypical human nature), which I have suggested should be appended as a fourth (lowest) level of analysis within McAdams’s (1996) hierarchical model of traits, goals, and selfnarratives. Again, this four-level model can be viewed as a subhierarchy nested within the personality level of the total Fig. 2.1 hierarchy, and each level should in principle have unique explanatory status for understanding human behavior.