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Using Intersectionality to Understand How Structural Domains Are Embedded in Life Narratives
Dulce Wilkinson Westberg1, Moin Syed2, Aerika Brittian Loyd3
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.
Journal of Personality
|November 2, 2024
Summary
Young adults’ life narratives reveal how structural domains like race and gender shape identity. Meaning-making and positive affect were linked to more interconnected experiences across these domains.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Identity Studies
Background:
- Understanding how societal structures influence individual identity is crucial.
- Life narratives offer rich data for exploring lived experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how structural domains (e.g., race, gender, social class) are represented in young adults' life narratives.
- To explore the impact of these domains on identity formation using an intersectional framework.
Main Methods:
- Conducted semi-structured interviews with 177 young adults from minoritized groups.
- Collected 885 life narratives focusing on domain-general, ethnic/racial, gender, social class, and intersectional experiences.
- Analyzed narrative features including presence, connection, meaning-making, and affective tone.
Main Results:
- Ethnicity/race was the most frequently discussed structural domain.
- Meaning-making and positive affective tone were highest in self-defining narratives and correlated with the number of structural domains.
- Social class narratives showed the lowest connection to structural domains and the most negative affective tone.
Conclusions:
- Structural domains significantly manifest in young adults' narratives, influencing identity.
- The interconnectedness of these domains and their associated meaning-making processes are key to understanding identity development.
- An intersectional approach is vital for capturing the complexity of these experiences.
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