What Determines Young Academics’ Choice of Research Topic? The Role of Values, Beliefs, Self-Actualization, and the Subconscious Mind

Denial

The denial initially proposed by Anna Freud (1936) involves blocking out external events from conscience. The person simply refuses to experience a situation that is just too extreme to withstand. This is a primitive and hazardous defense, as it is irrational to disregard reality. Smokers, for example, may refuse to admit that smoking is bad for their health. Smokers, as an instance, may fail to acknowledge that smoking is detrimental to their health.

Regression

Our behaviors often become more childish or primitive when we are troubled or scared. Our behaviors often become more childish or primitive while we are disturbed or fearful. A child might start sucking his thumb or wetting the bed when they ought to spend some time in the hospital. Or, as an example, when adolescents enter a social situation involving the opposite gender, they can giggle uncontrollably.

Rationalization

This is the cognitive distortion of facts and realities to reduce the threat of an event or impulse (A. Freud, 1936). We do this usually on a relatively conscious level when we come up with excuses. But for many individuals, with delicate egos, making up excuses is so easy that they're never really aware of it. To put it another way, many of us are quite willing to believe our lies.

Reaction Formation

A person goes well beyond denial and behaves the opposite direction he or she thinks or feels (A. Freud, 1936). The Id is satisfied by using the reaction formation as it keeps the ego in ignorance of the real motives. Conscious feelings and urges are the unconscious's opposite. Loveland hatred, Shame and disgust and moralization are reaction formation opposing sexuality. Typically a reaction formation is delineated by showiness and compulsiveness.

Freud, for instance, believed that men who discriminate against homosexuals make a defense towards their own homosexual urges by fostering a strict anti-homosexual mentality that enables them to convince themselves of their heterosexuality. Another example can be the dutiful daughter who loves her mother is actually responding to her (Oedipus) hatred towards her mother. Anal fixation, another example, often leads to viciousness, but sometimes a person may (unconsciously) respond to this by being overly generous.

Psychoanalytical thinking, although prominent in contemporary psychology, has been vehemently criticized, and arguable assumed as pseudo-science (Hoffmann, 2015). Two types of criticism questioned the conception of psychoanalysis as a science. One is that Freud fell prey to a "scientific self-misunderstanding"(Habermas 1971). Habermas contended that Freud's project is not a natural science, but instead it is, hermeneutics of self in general. However, from another perspective, Freud was seen through the methodological paradigm of modern phenomenology (post-structuralism) by other proponents who had a different philosophical reinterpretation of Freud's works (Ricœur 1965). This argument is no menace to psychoanalysis as a science if “interpretive pluralism" is taken into consideration and allows that Freud's theory to be used as a starting point for both a distinguishable project in the field of the hermeneutical philosophy of consciousness and as a scientific project as well. Putting aside exegetic questions, this can be a perfectly logical presumption that remains true for many theoretical projects (e.g. ancient atomism, a theoretical source for both nature philosophy and modern chemistry).

The second prevalent criticism targeting Freud's theory comes from neo-positivism and addresses the question of “falsifiability” (Popper, 1965). Popper claimed his falsificationism is solely based on deductive inference and according to this viewpoint, empirical theories must be falsifiable, that is, it must be possible that the theory's assumptions come into conflict with observational data. "Any `good' theory of science is a ban: it prohibits certain things from happening. The better it is, the more a theory prohibits "(Popper, 1965). Popper asserts that he started to think about what could be wrong with Marx's theory of history, Adler's individual psychology, and Freud's psychoanalysis as early as 1919, when he became acquainted with Alfred Adler. He suspects that the problem with these theories is that they "forbid" nothing to happen, that is, each sequence of events is consistent with these theories and can be explained by them. The explanatory potential of these theories makes them appealing and suggestive which can also explain their popularity. However, because of their lack of falsifiability, their explanatory success is simply an illusion, as it is impossible to test the theories against reality. Thus, according to Popper, psychoanalysis is not a science, but a sort of psychological metaphysics.

The argument proposed by Popper was widely debated and ultimately was deemed to be unsuccessful, since it faces two serious problems. The first problem is Popper's conception of falsifiability, which in contemporary philosophy of science is considered almost unanimously insufficient to delineate the line between science and non-science. Popper perceives falsification as two extremes with one theory in one place and observational evidence in the other. However, as Imre Lakatos (1978) has credibly shown, in order to ascertain the scientific designation of a theory, we must also take into consideration that scientific theories do not exist in isolation, but partake with other alternative theories in a scientific discourse and are diachronically engrained in a process of theoretical revisions and reformulations. Lakatos developed a more complex and reasonable picture of the falsifiability of theories as a three-place relation between observational evidence and two (or more) rival theories.

As it is evident from the literature on Freud's theory of human behavior, there are numerous arguments and counter arguments from both proponents and opponents. However, according to Westen (1998), whose study includes both systematic experimentation and empirical evidence, five core principles can be deduced from psychodynamic theory.

1. Much of our mental life is unconscious; that includes thoughts, feelings, and motives.

2. Mental processes, such as affective and motivational mechanisms, work in parallel that is why individuals may have ambivalent feelings towards the same person or situation, pushing them in opposing directions and usually leading to compromise solutions.

3. Stable personality patterns start developing in childhood, and childhood experiences play a pivotal role in the development of personality.

4. Mental representations of the self, others, and relationships guide people's interactions with others and impact how they become psychologically symptomatic.

5. Personality development includes not only learning to better regulate sexual and violent feelings, but also it develops from an immature socially dependent state to and interdependent one (Westen, 1998).



Research Design and Sample

In this study 10 students of social psychology master's program at HSE (2018-2020) are interviewed with 19 questions (Appendix 1). These questions are based on Holland codes, Schwartz values, Maslow's self-actualization and Freudian psychoanalysis.. An announcement regarding participation in the study and a brief explanation was given in What's App group of the students. The ones who were interested (23) were assigned to a number. Ten of the assigned numbers were chosen randomly by online random selector from the website https://www.textfixer.com/tools/random-choice.php

After handing in the consent forms Interviews (semi-structured) were conducted and reordered via What's App application audio calls and each lasted approximately around 20 to 30 minutes. Once data were collected, one interview was interpreted, using thematic analysis, by a colleague (appendix 2) and considered by the researcher to reduce subjectivity. Then data was coded and three themes were detected: later experiences and challenges in life, personality traits and value preference, and childhood experiences. It is imperative to mention in order to protect the participants' privacy their research title is paraphrased, their age is not shown and pseudonyms were selected for each of them.

To expand more on how data was processed. The first phase in thematic analysis is coding. A code is a word of interest in the interview; therefore, every time you see something interesting in the data, you write down a code. In this study codding is done based on how related the data was to Holland codes, Schwartz values, Maslow's self-actualization and unconscious motives. For example, in the case of Ameila, one of our interviewees, the terms “childhood”, “authoritarian father” and “school” were chosen as our codes with consideration of our interest. The same coding process was applied to other interviews.

Next step in thematic analysis is to put together the codes under one theme which can satisfy your research interest and express some sort of links between the codes and bring them together under one name or in our case one “theme”, for example “childhood experiences” is considered to be a good theme for the codes “childhood”, “authoritarian father” and “school”.

The same process is applied to the rest of the interviews and consequently three extracted themes were found: later experiences and challenges in life, personality traits and value, and childhood experiences.

As it is already mentioned one interview was interpreted by another colleague to reduce subjectivity in addition all the interviews and interpretations were supervised by Dr. Boehnke. However, there is always a chance of subjectivity lurking into a qualitative research.



Results

Name: Aiden

Paraphrased Research Topic: Host country language learning as social capital

Theme: Later experiences and challenges in life

As an international student to Russia he seemed to be bothered by the new language he had to learn. Therefore it prompted him to take action. "I came up with this idea because this topic is interesting to me when I came here I had some problems learning Russian language. I thought this would be very useful for other students to study."

And apparently his own current concerns about learning Russian language has occupied his mind to the extent that his research topic is affected by it." Because I'm concerned about learning Russian. If I do this research I will learn a lot about learning a language, foreign language learning motivation to learn languages and different techniques to adopt a foreign language."

Name: Amelia

Paraphrased Research Topic: Religiosity and fear of death

Theme: Childhood Experiences

When her childhood was discussed she mentioned that her father was a religious bigot and forced her and the other two sisters of hers to attend religious practices. “But my family my dad was very religious, my dad forced me to go to church.” And she continues “when I was a teenager It was quite difficult, I mean I had two younger sisters, we all had problems with my dad, because my dad was super authoritarian at that time, so he was acting very strictly expecting very much regarding school and whatever, putting a lot of pressure on us regarding what we wanted to become.”

Also, aside from the fact that her father put a lot of emphasis on religiosity of his children, the very fact that he was expecting too much regarding school is a form of greedy behavior which she likes to understand by doing research on both religiosity and greedy behavior. “I think greed is something like I'm personally extremely interested in, because greed, you have a lot specially in way that keeps you motivated, I don't know... I think people look at it in different ways at greed”.” But I have been raised catholic. Like, because religion and why people believe in it. And like how people behave differently because of their religion. It's also something I'm very interested in.”

Theme: Personality and Values

Moreover, she mentioned that she was the one who was trying to protect and save her two other sisters from her dad's authoritarian attitude. “I was the one who was fighting the most with my dad, my little sisters they did not fight that much, but I was trying to protect them and try to handle issues my dad had with my sisters so...”.

Also to answer whether her research topic has anything to do with her current concerns she says “I see it like 100%, as I said greed has been connected to a lot of environmental problems, finance crises, greed has been connected to over fishing, over pollution and whatever, I think these are one of the most important topics today because we are all living In the same planet, and we only have one and I mean In the end I want to have children but I don't want to have them a world that goes down.”

The above mentioned quotations highlight the fact she wants to be a protector not only of her own sisters against the greedy behavior of her dad, but also of the greedy behavior of human race who is destroying the planet on which she wants to raise her children.

Name: Angelika

Paraphrased Research Topic: Environmental action at the work place

Theme: Later experiences and challenges in life

She couldn't find any links between her childhood and her choice of research topic, however when she moved to Moscow and the "context" changed she began to think about environment. "People were more interested in ecology in an ecological problems and I started to think about it more. Interested in scientific world and Society around me and some social factors."

Theme: Personality and values

In addition she also says that one of the things she cares about is harmony, and harmony not only in relationships and friendships but also harmony with nature. "...also I want to add about your question about values and harmony because Harmony is not only about myself and others but also it is about nature and from this perspective it is really related." In her case there were two important determinants shaping her research topic. One of them is the new environment she lives in, and the other is the harmony as a value which extends to harmony with nature as well.

Name: Aria

Paraphrased Research Topic: Conflict resolution in cross-cultural comparison

Theme: Childhood experiences

Early on in her childhood she faced conflicts and its consequences in the family. She was a victim of divorce which put her in a not much caring family atmosphere. "My parents divorced when I was 2. Our world it's not close to my parents that much. I was living with my mom but she was busy she was tired and doing other stuff." and she continues "... my father would just give me some presents for my birthday for the new year we didn't talk and know each other much even now not much communicating."

Therefore, it is important to recall her research topic is about finding strategies to resolve conflicts.

Theme: Later challenges and experiences in life

She was asked about what her life would look like in her 40s and 50s and she responded. "I hope that I'm not lonely. Friends I will have for sure. But in romantic sphere ah I want to add something about my research topic these conflict resolutions will be dedicated to romantic relationships as well. In forties or fifties I hope I'm not alone. With romantic partner. Because sometimes I feel so separated in my career and some other things. I keep in mind that I need to classify everything."

Again the same pattern can be seen here, she wants her research topic to be used to amend romantic relationships which would possibly stop her from being alone.

Name: Caden

Paraphrased Research Topic: Learning styles and academic performance

Theme: Personality and Values

According to him he is an introvert who sometimes needs extra help from the world outside. “I think because I'm kind of an introvert person so for me it's very good to have the support from the peers and the teacher if I don't have any support I will drop out in the middle of the course."

Moreover he had experienced such problems in his school days which rendered him feel somewhat ostracized. “It was kind of confusing because as I said I'm an introvert person but that's always and I like to be heard for my opinion if there is no space for that chances are I feel isolated or some sort of ostracized."

His own experience with the process of learning was problematic because of introversion and lack of enough attention to his problems. Therefore, such experience can to a great extent have influenced his choice research topic which facilitates learning.

Name: Jackson

Paraphrased Research Topic: Which approaches to leadership foster work engagement

Theme: Later experiences and challenges in life

Jackson has 8 years of back ground in construction and has an interest to find the best leadership styles for his country. "I'm Interested In leadership styles In general and I have more than 8 years of experience in management. I was always interested in how to engage more employees and how to get them satisfied how to reduce the disengagement. So I was Interested in this about finding the best leadership style that could fit the culture In Jordan or the organizations and the culture so to have work engagement."

Besides, his experience with poor leadership styles and prevalent dissatisfaction among employees in his field of work had propelled him to do something about it. "There's a huge or high level of dissatisfaction or work disengagement at work so finding the best leadership style that fits the culture within organization" and he adds "I would say finding the best for the culture and getting deeply engaged this could benefit them somehow".

Theme: Personality and values

When asked about the most cherished value if his any he answered "fairness" is the most important thing to him. Also to answer how such value has affected his choice of topic he contends "finding the best leadership style is somehow fair. In the context of organization and in the context of culture."

Therefore, we can say that this value he holds has had an impact on his choice of topic as well.

Name: Layla

Paraphrased Research Topic: Muslim lifestyles in Europe

Theme: Childhood experiences

She is a Muslim immigrant from Palestine to Spain who was brought up in a nice but strict Muslim family. Despite the fact that her family were strict she was interested in integrating with the society in Spain. However, she also wanted to keep both identities. "The family was very friendly and fun but also somehow strict how Muslim families are. it wasn't straight in a bad way but just to try to teach me are supposed values about Islam and it was hard to deal with it because I was this a Spanish child Palestinian Arabic and I was integrating and I didn't want to give up on my both sides and it feels difficult. They were nice but I was not independent and I did not have the power that now I have to speak up and to reveal myself."

As it can be seen she was a child in favor of both keeping her Islamic identity and integrating with the host society as well, the traces of the whole situation can be seen in her research topic.

Name: Liam

Paraphrased Research Topic: Eating disorders and competition needs

Theme: Childhood Experiences

His topic in his own words is bleak and about misery and pain. "Actually there is a thing they are underlying concepts of which is and the research topic is misery and suffering."

Also hopelessly he states that his topic would not do much to change the world but just reduce misery a little bit "I guess nothing will really change but there will be less misery for a small proportion of population nothing more."

He also says his behavior in childhood was psychotic and problematic which somehow made him a victim of bullying. “My school days were quite terrible my behavior was I wouldn't be afraid to term it psychotic" and he adds "there were a lot of people I resented that moment resented me so it was mutual the problem was that they're very much more of them and they were stronger they would often beat me up."

It is evident to see he had suffered from a traumatic childhood which we later discuss how it affected his choice of research topic.

Theme: Later experiences and challenges in life

Not only he had suffered in childhood but also in his adulthood he faced mockery when he proposed his research topic in academia "University thought the ideas are stupid and I'm crazy".

Because of this he has a lot of vented emotions against academia and he is not hesitant to openly talk about it when asked how his topic will impact the field. “I guess it will it will shake the field. A lot of heads will roll because they will become absolutely useless but I'm trying to do is to mock other researchers. They couldn't have guessed it though they have a spent 20 years sometimes 50 years some status it hasn't changed for years they haven't got through the easy conclusion which I got and I actually have no idea. Stubborn and living in there all mini worlds.”

Theme: Personality and Values

In his own words he has been "psychotic" and "inconsistent". Another thing to testify to the claim mentioned above is the fact his dream in his teenage hood was to become an assassin. "I was dreaming to become an assassin left terrorist it's not a joke."

Such psychosis, inconsistencies and sufferings he experienced in childhood and the anger inside is obvious to see in his quest to do his research. "... I'm searching for is a cure for suffering because when I was suffering I just have to grab myself... " moreover he asserts "I'm doing it because I'm a stubborn I want to mock a lot of people who thought I'm stupid and I want to smack it to their faces and strangle them with that I have a lot of agendas I'm like an onion with a lot of layers."

Name: Mia

Paraphrased Research Topic: Emotion expression across cultures

Theme: Childhood experiences

She was not brought up in healthy family atmosphere. the father was an alcoholic and the mother was a workaholic to escape from the bitter reality of her life. "at home I had other problems I had an alcoholic father and my mother was workaholic just escaping from the bad relationship she had staying at work I was a little and no one was at the house."

Moreover, she adds her parents were overprotective which rendered her shy and socially incapable. Also the very fact that she had no other brothers or sisters contributed to this as well. "And my father and my mother was protecting me and I didn't have the chance to go out most of the time so I was shy." and she continues "and I don't have any brothers or sisters so I didn't know the social rules I didn't know how to interact because all the time I was at home and I do not have any sympathy like what is your problems what are you needs oh you're mocking me and they didn't have the ability to do that and then I learned about emotional intelligence saying that people should have disability."

It is observable all throughout her childhood her emotions were not taken into consideration. She lived a childhood abandoned and not taught social rules. She has carried these problems until the time she got to know emotional intelligence. That was when she realized what factor had worsened her personal life.

Theme: Later experiences and challenges in life

She explains, to her there is no absolute truth and things are relative and regarding how her research can impact the field she goes on: "I hope people acknowledged that what reading my research and my study and it showed myself that you can be emotionally intelligent but always remember that you should be aware of other cultures and the ways to express their emotions not to be attached to your own standards you need to evaluate every standard around the world and cultures."

However, this was just the tip of the iceberg. As we probed further regarding how her current issues would have shaped her research topic she explains her marriage was a "Cross-Cultural “one and due to different ways of expressing emotions she is facing issues in their marriage. This problem has gone to the extent that she was called “crazy” and been told that she needed a psychiatrist because of the way she showed her emotions. “And it's really hard to communicate with him and he thinks the way I express my emotions is crazy because I need the psychiatrist because the way that we express our emotions in Latin America it's totally normal for us. For him is like what's wrong with you you're not normal."

As it is evident her childhood did not give her the chance to grow emotionally the way she expected and now she is caught in a problematic cross cultural marriage which is also damaging her emotional life. Both of these issues are easy to notice in the title of her research topic.

Name: Riley

Paraphrased Research Topic: Determinants of environmental action

Theme: Childhood experiences

She has fond memories of her childhood being out in nature enjoying all the fun with her sisters all the time, however her good memories were tarnished by seeing the contamination and pollution in Kazakhstan. "... I grew up in the country in a village and we used to spend a lot of time outside with my sisters and I really loved nature and the place I grew up in and then I saw this contamination and this pollution and everything I found this and it's important to me I'm very sad about the fact that this nature I grew up and is deteriorating I find it very sad that it may one day disappear maybe I can do something about that."

As it can be seen, the concerns she had in childhood did not simply fade away with passage of time. It was there until adulthood and projected itself onto her choice of topic.

Theme: Personality and Values

When she was asked about her school days she mentioned there was an authoritarian atmosphere."...I used to do what I was told do. "

Moreover, she was also brought up in a family in which she was told not to express her opinions much. "... my mother and my dad as I saw that a very opinionated I had this opinion to speak about culture other issues we had in the country and growing up like a teenager my mother would say something like you'd better not to go to politics because you get killed and keep your feelings and what you think to yourself. And do what people say something like that."

As to what kind of personality she has she says she is “agreeable", which is factor here to her choice of research topic as she has somewhat compromised her own interest (but not fully) with the interest of her supervisor as well. "... I really didn't know what I was going to study I wanted to study political psychology and I'm some political factors I was interested in that and I heard that my research supervisor she studied political psychology. Talking to her she was like why study political psychology and she suggested me to study political polarization an issues of Environmental attitudes and opinions. so this topic is a combination of what is interesting to her in environmental psychology and what is interesting to me political psychology and I added one concept from political psychology which is political values but our focus is environmental concerns."

All in all, it is indeed crucial to highlight a few facts here. She was brought up in a not much of a liberal atmosphere which she had little to say. She was also warned by her mother not to get involved with politics because of which she could have comprised her research topic a bit. Also her agreeableness is another factor to take into account explaining how her research topic was shaped.

Discussion

It is important to highlight the dilemma of anonymity. This work is meant to find the layers behind the choice of a research topic for which we needed the research title of course. However, since divulging the research title of the fellow students would most probably give away their identity, to reduce such chances research titles were paraphrased with caution not to lose the purpose of this thesis.

This thesis aimed to understand the psychological factors behind a researcher's choice of topic by asking the question what determines young academics' choice of research. How do their value preference, beliefs, their perceived selves and their subconscious motives shape their choice of research topic. Three themes were identified, later experiences and challenges in life, personality traits and value preference, and childhood experiences. In the following each theme will be discussed in the light of the literature.

Freud (1920, 1923) suggested that most of our behavior has roots in our subconscious and childhood. Such deep memories are difficult to retrieve. Most of interviewees were able to vividly remember the cognitions linked to their choice of research topic if there were any. The theme “childhood experiences” is in line with what Freud put forward as indicating that childhood can have a great impact on adulthood behavior. However, the way childhood experiences, in case of the present research, did shape research topics was different from conventional psychoanalytical interpretations of events such as Oedipus and Electra complex or different defense mechanisms. Such experiences shaping research topics were merely early social experiences which could have happened to anyone, and such course of events were not like a surreptitious and mystical relationship between parents and children as described under the category of Oedipus and Electra complex. Among such social experiences one can refer to the case of Riley. In her research she discusses how our actions and behaviors can affect our environment. Her childhood is replete with related themes. She explains how worried she was about the environmental contaminations in nature where she and her sisters were playing and having fun. Therefore, the classical psychoanalytical views would not have a huge role in shaping a research topic.

However, the closest result to psychoanalytical interpretations that we found, was that of Ameila. She was brought up by a religiously bigot father who was very authoritarian and forced Amelia and her two other sisters to attend to church. Her childhood has a direct link to her research topic, which discusses religion, fear, death, and greedy behavior. Another case is that of Layla and that she was brought up in an Islamic atmosphere and her research topic is how Islamic rituals are observed in the host country she has immigrated to.

Moreover, Maslow's hierarchy of needs (1970) has had its own manifestations in the present research. It was observable among the interviewees that by way of doing research they were trying to satisfy at least one need mentioned in Maslow's categories of needs (Physiological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem and self-actualization).

As to the need for “love and belonging”, Aria is a good example. Her topic is related to how conflicts are solved in different cultures. When she was explaining her vision of herself in her 40s or 50s, a typical phase to address self-actualization topics, she mentioned that her research topic is not only about solving conflicts and how different cultures go about it, but she also hoped that her topic would con tribute to amending relationship conflicts. And she continues that she doesn't want to be alone when she is 40 or 50, but wants friends around her.

Or if one considers the need for “esteem”, Caden is the case to look at. His research topic revolves around learning styles and academic performance. As a child in school he would not receive much attention because he was an introvert and apparently he needed more recognition and acceptance from the outside world. Now in his adulthood he wants to help other students who are facing the same problem.

Another important aspect to highlight here, is that in opposition to what Maslow claimed, namely that higher needs cannot be met until lower needs are satisfied, needs are not some form of static levels that should be satisfied one at a time consecutively. Instead they appear to be a continuous cycle that co-exists and each can be attended or ignored at the same time. This means one can attend one's higher needs even though basic needs are not fully satisfied. Unfulfilled lower-level needs can, however, `reappear' in later life phases.

Holland (1973) clearly asserts that self-expression will emerge in our choice of career. This can be extended to how self-expression of the value preferences and personality of a researchers can be seen in his or her choice of topic and quest for knowledge. To Jackson, for example, the most cherished value was “fairness” and he wanted to apply this value, pragmatically, to the world out there. He had eight years of first-hand experience working in an environment with unjust leadership styles. And he says the reason he came up with a research topic addressing leadership styles and work engagement was that he wanted a “fairer” work environment.

Another noticeable example is the case of Liam whose personality is both “psychotic” and “inconsistent”. After a turbulent childhood when he entered academia and was mocked because of his research ideas, he is stubbornly determined to mock his target academics by proving them wrong; and even violent words such as “smack it to their faces” can testify his psychotic personality. Both of the cases mentioned above are concrete evidence that one's personality and the value preferences one holds are in direct contact with the choice of research topic.

The theme “later experiences and life challenges” was in line with James' definition (1899) of curiosity. `The impulse towards better cognition,' `which means that you want to understand what you do not”. Jackson, for example, having worked in construction business, noticed a lot of mismanagement leading to poor work engagement. This lack of understanding of the situation stayed with him for more than eight years, waiting for the right moment to be attended. And now Jackson--by doing his research which is about different leadership styles--wants to analyze the problem.

Another example can be Aiden whose topic is about host country language learning as social capital. During his first days in Russia he had problems not being able to sufficiently understand Russian, which got him to think how he can circumvent such problem. Again this is in accordance with what James (1899) described.

The case of Mia is another instance, her research topic is related to how emotions are expressed in different cultures. The investigations asserts that her way of expressing emotions in her cross-cultural marriage is regarded as inappropriate by her husband. And as she acknowledged, after being interviewed, her choice of topic is affected by this issue.

The manifestation of values is evident in the case of Angelika where she mentions “harmony” is important to her. “Harmony” for her is not only restricted to friendships and other social nexuses, being in harmony with nature is important to her as well. One more instance that can highlight the role of values in choosing a research topic is the case of Riley. “Agreeableness” is a value she puts emphasis on. Further probe shows that her choice of research topic is affected by the interest of her supervisor as well.

Another aspect to take into account is Lam's study (2013) which is going to be discussed along with the current research. The aforementioned study on what motivates researchers (Lam, 2013) uses the three notions of “gold” (financial rewards), “ribbon” (reputation and career rewards) and “puzzle” (intrinsic satisfaction) (Stephan & Levin, 1992) to investigate the complex mixture of motives that drive scientists' behavior. In our study no cues could be found related to “gold” and “ribbon”, that means financial rewards and reputation were not among the factors shaping the research topics of our participants as they discussed it. However, an important factor we should underline here is that the participants in our study were merely second year masters' students not senior researchers to whom financial and reputation might be more important.

In the end since this study had an aura of psychoanalysis and psychodynamics atmosphere it is notable to add that our findings, if being observed through the lens of psychoanalysis and psychodynamics, are closer to the model of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development (1998), with the only difference that in our research psychosocial developments is not rigidly and necessarily linked to a particular stage of life. For example, in Erikson's Model the existential question “is it ok to be me?” happens to us around the ages 2 to 4. However, in current study shows such existential questions can happen at any stage of life, considering the domain of our research which is the whys of choosing a research topic.

sigmund freud self actualization



Conclusion

Having taken into consideration the roles of values, beliefs, self-actualization and unconscious motives (Freudian psychoanalytical thinking), based on our results it can be contended that values, beliefs, self-actualization shape ones choice of research topic, however, the classical psychoanalytical line of thinking of Sigmund Freud did not emerge. Moreover, even though the part of our questionnaire which was meant to elicit values was designed based on Holland codes and Schwartz values, different types of values from those of Schwartz and Hollands emerged from the interviews, which is of course natural. To name a few “harmony” was a value of one our interviewees that had affected his choice of topic.

Also, since we have touched upon psychoanalysis and psychodynamics, it is worthy to mention that our findings are closer to the line of thinking of Erikson (1998) and his stages of psychosocial development (1998). However, his theory of psychosocial developments is rigidly and necessarily linked to a particular stage of life but in accordance to our finding these developments are quite dynamics through different stages of life.

Limitations and Future Directions

We interviewed a relatively small number (10) of people in our study and solely of one master's program, applied social psychology. Interviews were conducted via online phone calls whereas face-to-face interviews could possibly have elicited different, yet more conclusive data. However, an immediate interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee could also have pushed interviewees to the cherished hypotheses of the researcher/interviewer; the effect of pleasing the interviewer

Due to the nature of any study on subconscious motives, we could not understand how much unconscious data we collected and how much was still there to collect. Moreover, sensitive topics such as the family and relationship background of the participants were addressed with care for the fear of losing the participant. More subconscious material could have possibly been found.

For further studies on the topic following suggestions can be made. For better results we could have done a second round of interviews based on the feedback from the first round, however, due to paucity of time we were not able to conduct that. Also a larger number of participants can for sure lead to better results. Moreover, a follow up quantitative study is highly recommended.



Appendix 1

1. Please tell me about your research topic?

2. Can you please elaborate how you came up with this idea?

3. Would you say that this topic has anything to do with you as a person? With how your life was like for you as a child? With the activities you were in interested in? The games you would play?

4. What was the school experience like for you? Has the research topic, you are now addressing anything to do with the time when you went to school in any way you can think of?

5. And how were your teenage years? What were they like? And what were your dreams and fantasies at that time?

6. What was the family atmosphere like for you? Were other family members supportive of your ideas and way of life?

7. How would you define your personality as an individual?

8. How would you see these personal characteristics of yours affecting the social aspect of your life? How your friendships and academic life, for example, are affected by your personality traits?

9. We learn a lot about values in our classes. May I ask you what your most cherished values are?

10. Do these value preferences (the one's you just mentioned) affect your day to day interaction in the university?

11. What happens if other people have different values? Maybe even your teachers at the university?

12. Tell us about the vision you have about yourself? The person you are in your, say, 40s? What's that vision like? How important for this vision is your academic training for you?

13. What's your definition of success in life? Do academics have anything to do with it?

14. What's your definition of failure in life? Do academics have anything to do with it?

15. To what extent do you believe your research topic will make an impact in the field?

16. To what extent do you believe your research topic should make an impact on the world out there, pragmatically speaking?

17. Now that you have told me about yourself to what extent do you see your research topic in line with your personality and personal values you hold?

18. To what extent do you see your research topic in line with your current concerns?

19. Is there anything else you would like to tell me? Any comments?



Appendix 2

Name: Ameila

Paraphrased Research Topic: Religiosity and fear of death

Theme: Childhood experience

During her childhood, she had gone through the phase which contains both words in the research topic that “terror in normal work scared and being religious”. Yes, one can see easily through that interview that person is really curious to understand the behavior pattern among greedy and religious and try to also find the link between them. “But my family my dad was very religious, my dad forced me to go to church. So religion has always been like a very contradictive topic for because I think like religion In Itself Is something good, but like the way I experienced it was for me very difficult, because I did not believe that I was in like a false belief. Being forced to be religious. This is why I was interested also, like In religion.”

Also she adds “I have always been like a good student. Like I had no trouble in school. I was always the first of the class. having the best grades I don't know, I had nice friends , we were more or less the popular people of class, which of course made my life a lot easier, my dad was always putting a lot of pressure on me regarding grades whatever. Like this achieving the best possible, I don't know for the me the most... also my dad was always pushing me towards It but I wanted to .. I'm a very competitive person like I'm not that... but before I was very competitive so. I always wanted to be the best, have the highest grades”

That point also indirectly show about her cognitive dissonance towards the impact of religion and greedy behavior. Though she was highly competitive student throughout her school days but still she was not satisfied. In that point she wanted to relate her understanding towards money which and her father religious behavior which again shows the connection in her topic.



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