How do you find a research interest?

[biogirl215]

It's a stupid question, I know, but I really don't know what I want to research.

I do work in a lab that does qualitative research with a minority population in which I have great interest, but seeing as I'm, well, about as white as one can get, I don't think I could really "sell" that interest well (our supervising professor talks about how one of the greatest assests to her in getting research participants is the fact that she's from the same minority group, as are a vast majority of the undergraduate and graduate students in the lab). I know I'm interested in this minority population and rural populations in general (the two often go hand and hand), but I can't get it down to a specific, well-defined interest. I find most research very interesting; it's just that I feel I haven't found my research "calling" yet, so to speak.

How did you discover your research interest(s)?

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[erg923]

Now that's just plain silly! If you like multicultural work and working with minority populations, then do it. No programs or researchers will discriminate against you for being white.

Other than that advice, finding a research interest in very idiosyncratic. Just read new research and google alot of stuff.....

 

[Ollie123]

Hard to say. I love everything so I'm probably a bad person to talk to about narrowing it down - I just found a lab that lets me combine emotion, health psychology, behavioral genetics and psychophysiology (probably my major interests).

I guess my interest in those 3 just came from reading articles. When I was doing "fun" psych reading those were always the things I looked up. I have to admit marketability also played a role in it, since I think its an area that is in pretty high demand and likely will be for quite some time.

 

[cara susanna]

I didn't find mine until I began working in a different lab that researches that particular topic. That happened my junior year, so it was pretty late, I suppose.

 

[psybee]

i had been working at a MH nonprofit in grants admin and advocacy (how i became interested in SPMI and Psychology is a while 'nother story) and later moved to foundation work (educational) and became interested in issues in higher ed., particurally disparities in college attendence and completion. i hated the office life and realized that i was sort of avoiding my interest in psychology and working instead on admin type stuff for researchers who were doing the really interesting work. i called an old college prof who was doing research on stress, trauma, coping, college adjustment, narrative psychology, etc, and got a job from him. from that work and my reading in that field i became interested in CBT and narrowed my stress and coping interests to illness. i am still interested in immigrant and minorioty pops, and from my work in MH, am also interested in how serous illness impacts the whole family unit and shapes illness beliefs and behaviors of the well family members.

ps. i am also whitewhite and question the political soundness of our (and so many other) white research teams studying non-white, disadvantaged pops. my main worry is that lack of insight into the expereince as well as unrecognized racism on our part will edit the research questions we ask and the answers we find about these pops. at the same time, having personal experience of an issue is not a pre req for working on it, and in fact can be a hinderance if your motivations are not clear. for me the answer isn't to not work with pops that interest me but to keep on investigating my own beliefs about race in class, to talk about these thorny issues (which is so un PC, but whatever), to be a good advocate for the field via outreach and teaching so we can encourage more folks from all backgrounds to go into research, and, for us, to utilize some multiple modalities of data collection, like qualitative, when possible, which gives us more info than just responses to the questions we think to ask.

 

[Cosmo75]

I guess the first question to ask yourself is "what am I passionate about?" Is there a group of people, a certain diagnosis, etc. that really resonates with you? That's how I picked my research interest. Personal experience with those affected by the conditions I research certainly guided my interest. Happens to be an area where little research has been done, so that was an added bonus

 

[Thrak]

Personal interest in a topic helps. Some things will appeal to you, and some won't.

For me, personally, I knew I never wanted kids. That made me want to study the intentionally childless.

I've seen that people with certain personality types (Type A, Type B) react to stressors differently, and it may impact their health. This area also speaks to me.

The more varied topic areas you are exposed to, the more you'll know what you will and won't want to research. And even once you have it down to an area, you'll find things that you'd want to spend time on, and those you wouldn't.

I've worked in marketing research. I liked concept/packaging testing more than product testing. I've worked in vision research for quite some time. I liked the more psychophysical research (light, dark, transient adaptation) and driving with vision problems, much more than comparing traditional eye exams to technician-assisted exams.