Chapter 1099 - 823: Finding Fault in an Egg

This master’s second-year senior’s research topic is about original family and intimate relationships. Although the research subjects are limited to the university student group—which is what most graduate students choose to study because subjects are easy to find—Nan Zhubin still focused his attention.

This type of research may be limited in terms of developing the discipline foundation, but it can quite effectively assist in the field of psychological consultation.

"Regarding the research background of my topic proposal..." The master’s second-year senior’s voice was tense and somewhat ethereal, revealing an anxious psychological state.

"University students are at a critical stage of transitioning from family to independence, and intimate relationships are currently quite important life issues for many students..."

Although this research topic is not very foundational, the first-year graduate students in the audience listened attentively. Because this aligns more with their current level.

Moreover, this research topic itself is quite capable of arousing widespread interest.

"But currently, although there is considerable research within China on family communication patterns and the quality of intimate relationships, most are cross-sectional studies, which cannot observe the process; only the state at a particular point in time can be seen..."

"My research mainly cuts from three directions. The first direction is the theoretical foundation of family communication patterns..."

"The second direction is the research progress on the quality of intimate relationships..."

"The third direction is the possible mediation mechanism between family communication patterns and intimate relationships..."

"Based on the above literature review, I propose three hypotheses..."

"Research methods..."

"Research progress setting..."

"Data collection cycle estimated..."

"Expected results and application value of this research..."

"Finally, the innovation points and possible shortcomings of this research..."

After about ten minutes, the master’s second-year senior’s report ended; it was orderly and standard.

She took a deep breath, rubbed her palm repeatedly on the seam of her pants, and looked at the audience nervously.

The first-year graduate students seemed to have gained something from listening; the second-year students had just been bowing their heads to organize their reports and were now starting to look up.

The review teachers had expressionless faces.

After about a breath of silence.

Teacher Waterpot spoke first.

"The literature review is relatively okay, the framework is quite complete." His tone was not severe, "How did you determine emotional regulation as the mediator variable instead of another variable in your mediation model hypothesis?"

The master’s second-year senior’s voice was somewhat flustered: "Emotional regu... um, emotional regulation as the variable, mainly because while reviewing literature in the early stages, I found that the influence of family communication methods on intimate relationships is mentioned to be possibly realized through cognitive and emotional mechanisms in many studies."

"Please go back on the PPT, which literature explains this? Give me a clearer thread." Teacher Waterpot directed while sipping tea.

The master’s second-year senior stuttered through the operations and stuttered through the responses.

Teacher Waterpot nodded, then asked a detail about sample recruitment, and after getting an answer, drew a line on the paper in front of him.

Teacher Hot Cloth then asked two questions, one about the applicability of measurement tools, and the other about the plan for tracking loss rate. The responses were reasonably steady.

The students in the audience breathed a slight sigh of relief; these two teachers seated near the center were not highly aggressive, so these questions, as long as one is prepared, seemed answerable.

These questions, similar to "listening too roughly and needing detailed explanations," are the easiest in topic proposals. Many times, the need for detailed explanations is not genuine but set up purely for procedural dialogue.

Even the assistant student in front of the table had a form and was swiftly taking notes, briefly recording the dialogue process between the review teachers and students based on their understanding.

Seeing that the other two teachers had not spoken, this topic proposal seemed to be wrapping up.

Just as the master’s second-year senior was about to breathe a sigh of relief.

"I have a question to pose." Bi Yanling suddenly said.

Though she was seated at the far edge of the review desk, Bi Yanling’s voice was the loudest.

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.

"You’re doing this topic, so I want to ask you first—why did you choose ’original family’ as the theme?"

"...Huh?"

It was actually a question from the research background, which is the root of the study.

The master’s second-year senior was stunned for a moment: "...Because, its concept direction is quite clear... which is communication patterns experienced within the original family..."

"But don’t you find the term ’original family’ fundamentally problematic?" Bi Yanling interrupted before the student could finish.

"It’s introduced from abroad, then rose from internet discussions, right? As of now, none of the domestic textbooks and reference books use this term, right?"

The master’s second-year senior opened her mouth; this was indeed an unanswerable question.

"You are now—university student’s—intimate relationship patterns, right—aligning them with the original family, don’t you feel this is an overrun of Western psychological discourse?"

Bi Yanling seemed to be complaining: "Relationship issues—original family; anxiety—original family; depression—still original family."

Bi Yanling, who researches "Developmental Psychology," said: "Have you considered these things are more likely developmental issues? Stage-specific problems encountered throughout growth, and not necessarily attributable to parents."

"Where do children in our country have so many real original family problems?"

There was a brief moment of silence in the conference room.

The master’s second-year senior was clearly panicked, dryly saying: "Teacher, my research... um... the definition of the original family is..."