Dulce Wilkinson Westberg

I am interested in how individuals navigate social structures and the implications of such structures for personality and identity. In my research, I examine variations in life narratives around race, ethnicity, gender, and social class, in relation to psychosocial adjustment and identity. Life narratives are the internal constructions of who the person is, was, and will become that provide one with a sense of meaning, purpose, and continuity. Through my work in this area, I aim to reveal how systems of power and oppression guide and constrain personality. I use both qualitative and quantitative approaches to advance understanding of the person in relation to social structures. I recently examined variations in life narratives among racially and ethnically diverse young adults, finding that men told more positive stories around structural domains relative to women and participants who mentioned more structural domains across their narratives made more meaning of their experiences (see https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tvcfz).

Westberg, D. W., & Syed, M. (2024). Integrating personality psychology and intersectionality to advance diversity in the study of persons. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12956 Loyd, A. B., Westberg, D. W., Williams, L., Humphries, M., Meca., A., Rodil, J. C. (2023). “I just want to be me, authentically”: Identity shifting among racially and ethnically diverse young adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.