The Forum: Interview with Tyrone S. Pitsis

A shortened version of the interview on this page appeared in the Fall, 2002, issue of The Forum, SPSP's student newsletter. The interview is with Jerome S. Pitsis, a second-year graduate student at the University of New South Wales in Australia. His area of study is Social Psychology and Cognition, and his faculty advisers are Drs. Meg Rohan and Joe Forgas.

	Why did you choose to attend graduate school in social psychology?
	It was an area most closely aligned to my research interest and contained researchers most capable of supervising my Ph.D. But most of all, it was because psychology, and especially social psychology, has always fascinated me. I think I've read everything to do with psych beginning with works of the Ancient Greeks (I know it was more philosophy than psychology, but they were pretty close), William James, Wilhem Wundt, Mead, Allport, and so on through to modern works like social loafing by Kip Williams and Joe Forgas' work on emotion, etc., etc.
	What was it about social psychology specifically that attracted you?
	I have always viewed research and theorizing in social psychology with great interest and wonder. I think it is amazing how our interactions with others so profoundly affect our emotions, behaviors, and cognition. More recently I have really gotten into Positive Psychology. I think the domain of research, and its theorizing, will make one of the greatest contributions to psychology in the modern era. The works of Deci and Ryan, Schwartz, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, Myers and many others are inspirational.
	Please describe the program you attend (size, research v. teaching focus, etc.).
	I would say compared to the U.S. you would not call it a massive program, but it definitely has a research focus. A great thing is that there appears to be a bit of support in training grad students for teaching. Of course it varies across subjects, but most have a strong commitment to equipping grad students with teaching skills. But primarily we are a research faculty -- I think we are humorously referred to as the "Rats and Stats" school -- but this belies the fact that we have some great Social Psych research being done here, not just by academics but also by students.
	How many graduate schools did you apply to, and how did you decide which ones?
	I was actually doing a Ph.D. in Management but felt I wanted a postgrad degree that was more specialized. So really, I only applied to one, UNSW, which really is the premier research school in psychology in Australia.
	What were the major criteria you used to decide which school you attended?
	The calibre of researchers, research interests, campus life, prestige of the university, and it is close to home.
	What do you feel are the major strengths of the program you are currently attending?
	The support for students. We get offices, dedicated computers, and the staff are collegial (maybe not always with each other, but definitely with post grad students). I also think the weekly colloquia and seminars are great because we are informed about what each student is researching, but we also get to meet some of the big names in psychology through guest presentations.
	What are your research interests? If you can, tell us a little about how you got interested in this area.
	"The interaction effects of emotion and decision making in relationship breakdown in the workplace." I had to think hard about the topic I was interested in. This actually took me a while, and at one point I began to panic because I could not find a topic that was "doable" or practical. I could do all this grand theorizing but for the life of me I could not turn it into anything that could be measured. So I stood back for a minute, and one day I went to a big park near my home and sat by the water with a pen and pad. I wrote all day, not letting myself go back and correct or review anything I wrote; I just kept writing. I probably wrote 12 pages of notes. I started with questions like, "What excites me?" "What, in my undergrad [training], were my key areas of strength?" "What subjects, what topics, was I strongest in?" Slowly, in those notes my topic emerged. I knew I was interested in relationships between people, and even more so, in the breakdown of relationships. Also, I have always been quite an emotional person -- I think mainly through growing up in a household of four neurotic women -- and so I have always been ruled by my emotions, which has got me into a bit of trouble at times. Emotions are amazing things, and they make us do some pretty bizarre things, yet there is a dearth of research on how emotions affect decision making. You hear anecdotal stuff like "never send an email in anger, because you always end up regretting it," but there is a lack of empirical work in the area. Also, I am a little disappointed with some of the mainstream theories like the opponent process theory of emotion, Cannon-Bard, James-Lange, etc. Don't get me wrong, the ideas and central tenets of these theories are interesting but I cannot help feeling something is missing. So there is my inspiration -- I hope that answers your question.
	What kind of career do you plan to pursue and why?
	This is difficult for me to answer. I definitely love the research side and I have recently had a couple of hits in tier one journals. I like teaching, but I don't know. Yeah, I really can't answer that one at the moment.
	What do you like most about being a graduate student?
	Colleagues, definitely. I have made some great friendships.
	What do you like least about being a graduate student?
	The constant feelings of guilt if I have not worked on my thesis -- and that's got more to do with working smarter rather than working harder. But what's even worse, your thesis follows you everywhere. At 3:00 AM I wake up with an idea. I jump out of bed and write it in my notepad because I never remember it in the morning. You just can't get away from it; it's like one of those "Baby Preparation Programs" that you see on TV sitcoms, where you carry an egg around for a week so you get some idea of what having a baby is about. Except the thesis follows you everywhere, even on the toilet, and it continues for years.
	If you could give young graduate students one piece of advice, what would it be?
	Never, ever give up -- work hard! Have a great supervisor! Have fun! And make sure what you are doing interests you, because if it does not, you probably will not finish. Also I strongly advise you get your hands on previous dissertations in your area of interest to have some kind of script about how to set your work out.
	Is there anything else about you or your department you'd like to let us know about?
	About me: Well, I was elected the Chair of the New Doctoral Student Consortium at the American Academy of Management for 2002/2003. This is a great event for early Ph.D. students where they get critical advise about starting, doing, and completing the Ph.D.'s by some of the biggest names in the field (people like Ed Locke, Denise Rousseau, etc., etc.) So if you’re a Ph.D. student doing research in O.B. or Management, I highly recommend you attend. It will be in Seattle between August 1-6, 2002 (see AOM's page for the New Doctoral Student Consortium).