SITAR Newsletter
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    • Editors
  • Winter 2019 (19/1)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Lukowitsky
    • Award Announcements
    • The Clinical Angle - Roche
    • Expanding the Circle - Girard
    • Wiggins Award winner 2018
    • SITAR poster winner 2018
    • GSR corner - Bliton
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
  • Summer 2018 (18/2)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Wright
    • Conference Announcement – Sadikaj
    • 2018 Keynote Speaker Information
    • 2017 Keynote Speaker - Matthews
    • The Clinical Angle - Van Buren
    • Expanding the Circle - Wallace
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
    • Graduate Student Corner - Good
  • Winter 2018 (18/1)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Wright
    • Conference Announcement – Sadikaj
    • 2017 SITAR Awards Committee Announcements - Cain
    • 2017 Jerry S. Wiggins Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Researach - Girard
    • 2017 SITAR Poster Award - Schreiber
    • The Clinical Angle - Lewis
    • Expanding the Circle - Roche
    • Graduate Student Corner - Williams
  • Summer 2017 (17/2)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Zimmermann
    • Conference Announcement – Wright
    • The Clinical Angle - Dombrovski
    • Expanding the Circle - Dimoff & Sayette
    • Graduate Student Corner - Pennings
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
  • Winter 2017 (17/1)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Zimmermann
    • Conference Announcement – Wright
    • The Clinical Angle - Silva & Van Orden
    • Expanding the Circle - Pinter
    • SITAR Wiggins Award Winner - Gallrein
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
  • Summer 2016 (16/3)
    • A Message from the SITAR Past President - Cain
    • Keynote Speaker - Brakemeier
    • The Clinical Angle - Newman
    • Expanding the Circle - Thomas
    • Poster Award - Franzen
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
    • Graduate Student Corner - Dawood
    • Pictures from the Conference
  • Spring 2016 (16/2)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Cain
    • Conference Announcement – Zimmermann & Wright
    • The Clinical Angle - Roche
    • Expanding the Circle - Stein
    • Graduate Student Corner - Dawood
  • Fall 2015 (16/1)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Cain
    • Conference Announcement – Zimmermann & Wright
    • Keynote Speaker - MacDonald
    • The Clinical Angle - Levendosky & Hopwood
    • Expanding the Circle - vanDellen
    • SITAR Wiggins Award Winner - Dermody
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
    • Newsletter Committee Announcements
  • Summer 2015 (15/3)
    • A Message from Outgoing SITAR President - Hopwood
    • Keynote Speaker - Hollenstein
    • The Clinical Angle - Sharp
    • Expanding the Circle - Gazzillo
    • Graduate Student Corner - Thomas
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
    • Newsletter Committee Announcements
    • Photos from the 18th Annual SITAR Meeting - Toronto, CA
  • Spring 2015 (15/2)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Hopwood
    • Conference Announcement – Cain
    • The Clinical Angle - Ruiz
    • Graduate Student Corner - Dogwillo
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj & Erickson
    • Newsletter Committee Announcements
  • Fall 2014 (15/1)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Hopwood
    • Conference Announcement – Cain
    • Conference Keynote Speaker - Downey
    • The Clinical Angle - Westerman
    • 2014 SITAR Wiggins Award Winner – McDonald
    • Expanding the Circle - Yalch
    • Graduate Student Corner: New Faces – Oltmanns
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Erickson
    • Newsletter Committee Announcements
  • Summer 2014 (14/3)
    • A Message from SITAR Past-President - Sodano
    • Photos from The 17th Annual SITAR Conference June 6-7 in New Haven
    • Keynote Speaker: It is the Relationship Stupid - Kenny
    • A celebration of the work of Professor Sidney J. Blatt - Zuroff
    • The Clinical Angle - Anchin
    • 2013 SITAR Wiggins Award Winner Runner-up* - Cundiff
    • Expanding the Circle: You are what you speak - Thomas
    • Graduate Student Corner - Thomas
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Sadikaj
  • Spring 2014 (14/2)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Sodano
    • Conference Announcement - Hopwood
    • 2013 SITAR Wiggins Award Winner Runner-up - Thomas
    • Expanding the Circle - Lukowitsky
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Ayearst
    • Graduate Student Corner - Klahr
    • Announcements - Strack
  • Fall 2013 (14/1)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Sodano
    • Conference Announcement - Hopwood
    • 2013 SITAR Wiggins Award Winner - Roche
    • Expanding the Circle - Lukowitsky
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Ayearst & Leising
    • Graduate Student Corner - Thomas
    • Member Announcements - Cain
  • Summer 2013 (13/3)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Ansell
    • Photos from the 2013 annual SITAR conference in Park City, Utah
    • A Tribute to Lorna Smith Benjamin - Skowron
    • Graduate Student Corner - Roche
    • Expanding the Circle - Vermeren, Redeker, de Vries
    • The Fifth Annual Jerry S. Wiggins Student Award
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) – Ayearst, Leising, & Roche
  • Spring 2013 (13/2)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Ansell
    • Looking Ahead to the Sixteenth Annual SITAR Conference - Sodano
    • Special Event in Honor of Prof. Lorna Benjamin - Smith
    • 2012 SITAR Wiggins Award Honorable Mention Winner - Roche
    • Graduate Student Corner - Cain
    • Expanding the Circle - Zimmerman
    • Update from the Membership Committee - Wright & Sadikaj
    • Announcement from the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) - Ayearst, Leising, & Roche
  • Fall 2012 (13/1)
    • A Message from SITAR President - Ansell
    • Conference Announcement by SITAR Vice President - Sodano
    • 2012 SITAR Keynote Speaker - Baldwin
    • 2012 SITAR Wiggins Award Winner - Milyavskaya
    • Graduate Student Corner - Rappaport
    • Expanding the Circle - Cain and Thomas
    • Member Announcements - Hopwood
  • June 2012 (12/3)
    • Announcement about moving online - Editors
    • President's Message – Markey
    • Strack Tribute
    • Invited Paper – Daffern
    • GSR corner – Lukowitsky
    • GSAC – announcing Wiggins award winners
    • Expanding the Circle – Cain
  • Past Newsletters

Graduate Student Corner - Williams

PictureTrevor Williams
University at Buffalo

Agency and Communion in Professional Identity


Trevor Williams
University at Buffalo

When Sindes asked me to write a piece for the graduate student corner, I thought that it might be nice to write about the role SITAR and interpersonal theory have played in my professional life. Despite this goal, I ended up tumbling down a rabbit hole of more general self-reflection on my professional identity. Now you get to read about it.

I am currently a fifth year doctoral student working with Dr. Len Simms in Buffalo, where we study quantitatively informed models of personality and psychopathology. Len is a wonderfully autonomy-granting advisor and has pushed me to pursue ideas and projects that are new to our lab and that are not necessarily his area of expertise. The good thing about this is that it forces you to grapple with the direction of your personal research program and professional identity. The bad thing about this is that it forces you to grapple with the direction of your personal research program and professional identity.

In reflecting on how I have approached the freedom to choose my own professional path, I realize that at times I have made conscious decisions about my direction and other times I have made decisions without realizing it. One of the latter decisions was to join Dr. Chris Hopwood’s lab as a sophomore during my undergraduate years at Michigan State University. I had no idea what I was doing. At the time, my interest in research was vague and more along the lines of “I want to see what this is like.” Interpersonal circles sounded nice, so I applied to be a research assistant in the Hopwood lab. In working with Chris, and his (then) graduate student Kate Thomas, I was surprised by my passion for psychological research and interpersonal theory, as well as by how warm and collegial an academic environment could be.

After I transitioned to graduate school and began working with Len, I was soon told that I was the resident “interpersonal theory expert” (after Aidan Wright left, of course). This concerned me, because, as a first year graduate student, I felt like an expert in absolutely nothing. My lack of expertise, and many other factors, motivated me to decide early on that I would attend several conferences each year. Choosing which conferences and conference sessions to attend has always been difficult for me, but has often forced me to consider my development as a researcher and clinician. Sometimes this has been driven by a desire to become acquainted with new ideas and people, but equally important to me has been reconnecting with old friends. A year ago, this meant forgoing a few staple conferences so that I could attend a meeting focused on emerging personality research methods in Belgium. This allowed me to meet a European researcher who had integrated personality questionnaire and social cognitive task data in exciting ways, which I also hope to do in the future. In contrast, I have also been late to a few poster sessions because I was catching up with friends at the hotel bar. Although I am generally mindful of these decisions, what I did not fully grasp until writing this piece is that these choices in large part constitute my professional identity; they reflect what I value as a professional and likely shape how other professionals view me.

Even with this realization, it is unlikely that I could articulate the totality of what all these decisions mean. Nonetheless, deciding to attend SITAR is an important strand of my professional identity. Interpersonal theory, since undergraduate, has animated much of my thinking about my research and clinical work, to the point where faculty and students in my program just accept that I will explain things by drawing circles. SITAR meetings have taught me to draw better circles, as well as encouraged me to share my own. In short, I am looking forward to Montreal!

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