Nic M Weststrate
Biographic Data
| ID | 139073 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nic M Weststrate |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nic M |
| FAMILY NAME | Weststrate |
| SIGNATURE | WESTSTRATE N M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5272-472X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Coming into a queer education: Lessons from intergenerational LGBTQ + dialogues
This article examines an intergenerational, community-engaged LGBTQ + educational project that supports participants ‘coming into’ queer knowledges, histories, and practices. Amid curricular inclusion efforts and backlash in U.S. education, the project brought together LGBTQ + people aged 19–82 over six years for sustained intergenerational dialogue. Grounded in queer, feminist, and trans theories and informed by ethnographic and anecdotal approa…
“We need it, just like we need air”: Harmonies and tensions in LGBTQ+ intergenerational engagement
Navigating cultural change together in an LGBTQ+ intergenerational community in Chicago
Over the past several decades, the social, cultural, and political landscape framing the possibilities for LGBTQ+ lives has changed significantly in the United States. These shifts have produced distinct generations of LGBTQ+ people. In 2019, we developed The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project to bring together LGBTQ+ generations for dialogue, storytelling, artmaking, and shared meals. Each year, 15 youth (ages 18–30) and 15 elders (60+) m…
Seeking medical wisdom: Development of a physician‐defined practical model of wise competence
Letters from Queer Elders: Transmitting Intergenerational Wisdom in LGBTQ+ Communities
Intergenerational relationships have been established as a critical locus of psychosocial development, meeting needs of identity development for youth, generativity for elders, and connection and belonging for both. However, intergenerational relationships are both rare in the LGBTQ+ community and sorely needed as a buffer to the discrimination and harm that those within the community experience from systemic and structural oppression. Focusing o…
Growing together, knowing together: Dynamics of interracial parenting of mixed-race children
ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to understand how interracial couples collaboratively describe and make meaning of co-parenting their mixed-race children.BackgroundParenting for interracial couples has become more complex as matters related to race have been pushed to the forefront of public discourse. Existing research often focuses on individual parents' retrospective accounts of co-parenting mixed-race children, with findings that vary …
Narrative processing of anti-LGBTQ+ victimisation: Exploring themes of redemption and meaning
Intergenerational Storytelling in China: Teachings About Family, Life, and Society Amidst Cultural-Historical Change
Pathways to queer thriving in an LGBTQ+ intergenerational community
LGBTQ+ people and communities continue to survive and thrive within the context of complex and unrelenting personal, structural, and collective trauma. Psychological research has examined this adaptive capacity through frameworks of resilience and posttraumatic growth. Through multidisciplinary engagement, we have identified limitations of these frameworks when they are applied to LGBTQ+ communities. In the first half of this article, we reconcep…
Intergenerational Storytelling as a Developmental Resource in LGBTQ+ Communities
LGBTQ+ people continue to be threatened by systemic censorship and erasure in public spaces and discourses, making community-based resources for positive development crucial. In this study, we examined one such developmental resource-LGBTQ+ intergenerational storytelling about cultural-historical events. LGBTQ+ adults (N = 495) ranging in age from 17 to 80 years (M = 39.22, SD = 19.89) responded to an online survey about LGBTQ+ intergenerational …
Thirty Years of Psychological Wisdom Research: What We Know About the Correlates of an Ancient Concept
Psychologists have studied the ancient concept of wisdom for 3 decades. Nevertheless, apparent discrepancies in theories and empirical findings have left the nomological network of the construct unclear. Using multilevel meta-analyses, we summarized wisdom’s correlations with age, intelligence, the Big Five personality traits, narcissism, self-esteem, social desirability, and well-being. We furthermore examined whether these correlations were mod…
“You gotta give them hope”: A structural psychobiography of Harvey Milk (1930–1978)
OBJECTIVE: In this psychobiographical study, we examined the life and times of social change agent Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay public officials in the United States. Milk is remembered as a gay hero who fought for the rights of marginalized people, often by invoking the importance of hope. Milk was assassinated less than 1 year after his election. METHOD: We adopt a structural psychobiographical approach, foregrounding social, cultur…
Broadening our understanding of adversarial growth: The contribution of narrative methods
After adversity, individuals sometimes report adversarial growth - positive changes in their identity, relationships, and worldviews. We examined how narrative methods enhanced understanding of adversarial growth compared to standard questionnaires. Participants (N = 411) from college and community samples reported on their well-being, wrote a narrative about a highly challenging experience, and answered questionnaires on adversarial growth. Resu…
Rainbows and Mud: Experiments in LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Care
While an increasing awareness of the economic, legal, emotional, social, and physical precarity of LGBTQ+ people has sparked new laws, policies, and medical and social services, their epistemic needs are just as urgent. For many decades, young people growing up in the United States have been systematically denied access to LGBTQ+ histories, knowledges, and older adults through homophobic and transphobic gatekeeping within education, community, an…
Looking Beyond Linear: A Closer Examination of the Relationship Between Wisdom and Wellbeing
There has been some controversy about the relationship between wisdom and constructs of the well-being complex. Some wisdom researchers argue that the ability to maintain a high level of well-being, even in the face of very negative experiences, is a core characteristic of wisdom. Other researchers argue that the willingness of wise people to reflect on the darker sides of life might jeopardize well-being. Studies mostly found moderate positive c…
Protest, panic, policy, and parades: Memory for cultural–historical events and psychosocial identity in the LGBTQ+ community
Scholars have increasingly called for the centering of cultural-historical forces in research on psychosocial identity, particularly when that research seeks to understand development among marginalized groups.Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the content of cultural-historical events considered important to members of the LGBTQ+ community and examined the association between event internalization and psychosocial identity.Participants …
Interracial couples’ experiences with coparenting school-aged mixed-race children
This research has exposed the unique needs of mixed-race families in the context of a rapidly shifting sociopolitical climate and period of racial reckoning. The perspectives of these families need to be understood to ensure the provision of culturally sensitive, competent, and affirming practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Embracing queer heartache: Lessons from LGBTQ+ intergenerational dialogues
In this article, we reflect on the role of heartache during the first 2 years of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. The project—a partnership between an LGBTQ+ community center, an art and design college, and a public research university—brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ young (18–26 years old) and older adults (62–81) for dialogue, creative collaboration, and shared dinners. The project…
Protest, Panic, Policy, and Parades: Memory for Cultural-Historical Events and Psychosocial Identity in the LGBTQ+ Community
Scholars have increasingly called for the centering of cultural-historical forces in research on psychosocial identity, particularly when that research seeks to understand development among marginalized groups. Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the content of cultural-historical events considered important to members of the LGBTQ+ community and examined the association between event internalization and psychosocial identity. Participant…
The Science of Wisdom in a Polarized World: Knowns and Unknowns
Interest in wisdom in the cognitive sciences, psychology, and education has been paralleled by conceptual confusions about its nature and assessment. To clarify these issues and promote consensus in the field, wisdom researchers met in Toronto in July of 2019, resolving disputes through discussion. Guided by a survey of scientists who study wisdom-related constructs, we established a common wisdom model, observing that empirical approaches to wis…
More on the More Life Experience Model: What We Have Learned (So Far)
We have all had difficult times and challenges in our lives, and most of us feel that we learned something from those experiences. At the same time, few people actually become wise in the course of their lives - while most of us become (or remain) well-adapted and happy, generally satisfied, or even bitter or depressed. Why is it that some people, but not others, grow wise over time by learning from life's challenges (Linley & Joseph, 2004)? In t…
It was the best worst day of my life”: Narrative Content, Structure, and Process in Wisdom-Fostering Life Event Memories
This study emphasizes the role of both persons and environments in the development of wisdom, and highlights the importance of self-reflection as a mechanism through which wisdom is constructed from life experience
Wisdom and Meaning in Emerging Adulthood
Wisdom and meaning are important developments in emerging adulthood. In two studies, we investigated the relationship between wisdom and meaning using self-report measures (Study 1; N = 298) and narrative coding (Study 2; N = 271). Study 1 supported the hypothesis that the search for and presence of meaning in life were both positively correlated with wisdom. The presence of meaning partially mediated the relationship between wisdom and positive …
Hard-earned wisdom: Exploratory processing of difficult life experience is positively associated with wisdom
Laypersons and experts believe that wisdom is cultivated through a diverse range of positive and negative life experiences. Yet, not all individuals with life experience are wise. We propose that one possible determinant of growth in wisdom from life experience is self-reflection. In a life span sample of adults (N = 94) ranging from 26 to 92 years of age, we examined wisdom's relationship to self-reflection by investigating "why" people report r…
Hard-earned wisdom: Exploratory processing of difficult life experience is positively associated with wisdom
Laypersons and experts believe that wisdom is cultivated through a diverse range of positive and negative life experiences. Yet, not all individuals with life experience are wise. We propose that one possible determinant of growth in wisdom from life experience is self-reflection. In a life span sample of adults (N = 94) ranging from 26 to 92 years of age, we examined wisdom's relationship to self-reflection by investigating "why" people report r…
Embracing queer heartache: Lessons from LGBTQ+ intergenerational dialogues
In this article, we reflect on the role of heartache during the first 2 years of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. The project—a partnership between an LGBTQ+ community center, an art and design college, and a public research university—brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ young (18–26 years old) and older adults (62–81) for dialogue, creative collaboration, and shared dinners. The project…
Intergenerational Storytelling as a Developmental Resource in LGBTQ+ Communities
LGBTQ+ people continue to be threatened by systemic censorship and erasure in public spaces and discourses, making community-based resources for positive development crucial. In this study, we examined one such developmental resource-LGBTQ+ intergenerational storytelling about cultural-historical events. LGBTQ+ adults (N = 495) ranging in age from 17 to 80 years (M = 39.22, SD = 19.89) responded to an online survey about LGBTQ+ intergenerational …
It was the best worst day of my life”: Narrative Content, Structure, and Process in Wisdom-Fostering Life Event Memories
This study emphasizes the role of both persons and environments in the development of wisdom, and highlights the importance of self-reflection as a mechanism through which wisdom is constructed from life experience
Letters from Queer Elders: Transmitting Intergenerational Wisdom in LGBTQ+ Communities
Intergenerational relationships have been established as a critical locus of psychosocial development, meeting needs of identity development for youth, generativity for elders, and connection and belonging for both. However, intergenerational relationships are both rare in the LGBTQ+ community and sorely needed as a buffer to the discrimination and harm that those within the community experience from systemic and structural oppression. Focusing o…
Pathways to queer thriving in an LGBTQ+ intergenerational community
LGBTQ+ people and communities continue to survive and thrive within the context of complex and unrelenting personal, structural, and collective trauma. Psychological research has examined this adaptive capacity through frameworks of resilience and posttraumatic growth. Through multidisciplinary engagement, we have identified limitations of these frameworks when they are applied to LGBTQ+ communities. In the first half of this article, we reconcep…
Interracial couples’ experiences with coparenting school-aged mixed-race children
This research has exposed the unique needs of mixed-race families in the context of a rapidly shifting sociopolitical climate and period of racial reckoning. The perspectives of these families need to be understood to ensure the provision of culturally sensitive, competent, and affirming practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Rainbows and Mud: Experiments in LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Care
While an increasing awareness of the economic, legal, emotional, social, and physical precarity of LGBTQ+ people has sparked new laws, policies, and medical and social services, their epistemic needs are just as urgent. For many decades, young people growing up in the United States have been systematically denied access to LGBTQ+ histories, knowledges, and older adults through homophobic and transphobic gatekeeping within education, community, an…
Protest, panic, policy, and parades: Memory for cultural–historical events and psychosocial identity in the LGBTQ+ community
Scholars have increasingly called for the centering of cultural-historical forces in research on psychosocial identity, particularly when that research seeks to understand development among marginalized groups.Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the content of cultural-historical events considered important to members of the LGBTQ+ community and examined the association between event internalization and psychosocial identity.Participants …
Wisdom and Meaning in Emerging Adulthood
Wisdom and meaning are important developments in emerging adulthood. In two studies, we investigated the relationship between wisdom and meaning using self-report measures (Study 1; N = 298) and narrative coding (Study 2; N = 271). Study 1 supported the hypothesis that the search for and presence of meaning in life were both positively correlated with wisdom. The presence of meaning partially mediated the relationship between wisdom and positive …
Hard-earned wisdom: Exploratory processing of difficult life experience is positively associated with wisdom
Laypersons and experts believe that wisdom is cultivated through a diverse range of positive and negative life experiences. Yet, not all individuals with life experience are wise. We propose that one possible determinant of growth in wisdom from life experience is self-reflection. In a life span sample of adults (N = 94) ranging from 26 to 92 years of age, we examined wisdom's relationship to self-reflection by investigating "why" people report r…
More on the More Life Experience Model: What We Have Learned (So Far)
We have all had difficult times and challenges in our lives, and most of us feel that we learned something from those experiences. At the same time, few people actually become wise in the course of their lives - while most of us become (or remain) well-adapted and happy, generally satisfied, or even bitter or depressed. Why is it that some people, but not others, grow wise over time by learning from life's challenges (Linley & Joseph, 2004)? In t…
It was the best worst day of my life”: Narrative Content, Structure, and Process in Wisdom-Fostering Life Event Memories
This study emphasizes the role of both persons and environments in the development of wisdom, and highlights the importance of self-reflection as a mechanism through which wisdom is constructed from life experience
The Science of Wisdom in a Polarized World: Knowns and Unknowns
Interest in wisdom in the cognitive sciences, psychology, and education has been paralleled by conceptual confusions about its nature and assessment. To clarify these issues and promote consensus in the field, wisdom researchers met in Toronto in July of 2019, resolving disputes through discussion. Guided by a survey of scientists who study wisdom-related constructs, we established a common wisdom model, observing that empirical approaches to wis…
Looking Beyond Linear: A Closer Examination of the Relationship Between Wisdom and Wellbeing
There has been some controversy about the relationship between wisdom and constructs of the well-being complex. Some wisdom researchers argue that the ability to maintain a high level of well-being, even in the face of very negative experiences, is a core characteristic of wisdom. Other researchers argue that the willingness of wise people to reflect on the darker sides of life might jeopardize well-being. Studies mostly found moderate positive c…
Protest, panic, policy, and parades: Memory for cultural–historical events and psychosocial identity in the LGBTQ+ community
Scholars have increasingly called for the centering of cultural-historical forces in research on psychosocial identity, particularly when that research seeks to understand development among marginalized groups.Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the content of cultural-historical events considered important to members of the LGBTQ+ community and examined the association between event internalization and psychosocial identity.Participants …
Interracial couples’ experiences with coparenting school-aged mixed-race children
This research has exposed the unique needs of mixed-race families in the context of a rapidly shifting sociopolitical climate and period of racial reckoning. The perspectives of these families need to be understood to ensure the provision of culturally sensitive, competent, and affirming practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Embracing queer heartache: Lessons from LGBTQ+ intergenerational dialogues
In this article, we reflect on the role of heartache during the first 2 years of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. The project—a partnership between an LGBTQ+ community center, an art and design college, and a public research university—brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ young (18–26 years old) and older adults (62–81) for dialogue, creative collaboration, and shared dinners. The project…
Protest, Panic, Policy, and Parades: Memory for Cultural-Historical Events and Psychosocial Identity in the LGBTQ+ Community
Scholars have increasingly called for the centering of cultural-historical forces in research on psychosocial identity, particularly when that research seeks to understand development among marginalized groups. Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the content of cultural-historical events considered important to members of the LGBTQ+ community and examined the association between event internalization and psychosocial identity. Participant…
Thirty Years of Psychological Wisdom Research: What We Know About the Correlates of an Ancient Concept
Psychologists have studied the ancient concept of wisdom for 3 decades. Nevertheless, apparent discrepancies in theories and empirical findings have left the nomological network of the construct unclear. Using multilevel meta-analyses, we summarized wisdom’s correlations with age, intelligence, the Big Five personality traits, narcissism, self-esteem, social desirability, and well-being. We furthermore examined whether these correlations were mod…
“You gotta give them hope”: A structural psychobiography of Harvey Milk (1930–1978)
OBJECTIVE: In this psychobiographical study, we examined the life and times of social change agent Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay public officials in the United States. Milk is remembered as a gay hero who fought for the rights of marginalized people, often by invoking the importance of hope. Milk was assassinated less than 1 year after his election. METHOD: We adopt a structural psychobiographical approach, foregrounding social, cultur…
Broadening our understanding of adversarial growth: The contribution of narrative methods
After adversity, individuals sometimes report adversarial growth - positive changes in their identity, relationships, and worldviews. We examined how narrative methods enhanced understanding of adversarial growth compared to standard questionnaires. Participants (N = 411) from college and community samples reported on their well-being, wrote a narrative about a highly challenging experience, and answered questionnaires on adversarial growth. Resu…
Rainbows and Mud: Experiments in LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Care
While an increasing awareness of the economic, legal, emotional, social, and physical precarity of LGBTQ+ people has sparked new laws, policies, and medical and social services, their epistemic needs are just as urgent. For many decades, young people growing up in the United States have been systematically denied access to LGBTQ+ histories, knowledges, and older adults through homophobic and transphobic gatekeeping within education, community, an…
Narrative processing of anti-LGBTQ+ victimisation: Exploring themes of redemption and meaning
Intergenerational Storytelling in China: Teachings About Family, Life, and Society Amidst Cultural-Historical Change
Pathways to queer thriving in an LGBTQ+ intergenerational community
LGBTQ+ people and communities continue to survive and thrive within the context of complex and unrelenting personal, structural, and collective trauma. Psychological research has examined this adaptive capacity through frameworks of resilience and posttraumatic growth. Through multidisciplinary engagement, we have identified limitations of these frameworks when they are applied to LGBTQ+ communities. In the first half of this article, we reconcep…
Intergenerational Storytelling as a Developmental Resource in LGBTQ+ Communities
LGBTQ+ people continue to be threatened by systemic censorship and erasure in public spaces and discourses, making community-based resources for positive development crucial. In this study, we examined one such developmental resource-LGBTQ+ intergenerational storytelling about cultural-historical events. LGBTQ+ adults (N = 495) ranging in age from 17 to 80 years (M = 39.22, SD = 19.89) responded to an online survey about LGBTQ+ intergenerational …
Seeking medical wisdom: Development of a physician‐defined practical model of wise competence
Letters from Queer Elders: Transmitting Intergenerational Wisdom in LGBTQ+ Communities
Intergenerational relationships have been established as a critical locus of psychosocial development, meeting needs of identity development for youth, generativity for elders, and connection and belonging for both. However, intergenerational relationships are both rare in the LGBTQ+ community and sorely needed as a buffer to the discrimination and harm that those within the community experience from systemic and structural oppression. Focusing o…
Growing together, knowing together: Dynamics of interracial parenting of mixed-race children
ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to understand how interracial couples collaboratively describe and make meaning of co-parenting their mixed-race children.BackgroundParenting for interracial couples has become more complex as matters related to race have been pushed to the forefront of public discourse. Existing research often focuses on individual parents' retrospective accounts of co-parenting mixed-race children, with findings that vary …
Coming into a queer education: Lessons from intergenerational LGBTQ + dialogues
This article examines an intergenerational, community-engaged LGBTQ + educational project that supports participants ‘coming into’ queer knowledges, histories, and practices. Amid curricular inclusion efforts and backlash in U.S. education, the project brought together LGBTQ + people aged 19–82 over six years for sustained intergenerational dialogue. Grounded in queer, feminist, and trans theories and informed by ethnographic and anecdotal approa…
“We need it, just like we need air”: Harmonies and tensions in LGBTQ+ intergenerational engagement
Navigating cultural change together in an LGBTQ+ intergenerational community in Chicago
Over the past several decades, the social, cultural, and political landscape framing the possibilities for LGBTQ+ lives has changed significantly in the United States. These shifts have produced distinct generations of LGBTQ+ people. In 2019, we developed The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project to bring together LGBTQ+ generations for dialogue, storytelling, artmaking, and shared meals. Each year, 15 youth (ages 18–30) and 15 elders (60+) m…
Psychology (18 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Identity, Memory, and Therapy (10 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Aging and Gerontology Research (8 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Lesbian (8 works) · Narrative (8 works)