having conducted my first qualititive interview for this seminar as well as checked the quantitative survery, I came to the following preliminary conclusions for our topic (one might label as "success factor"):

way to get started #1: Involvement in research projects of institute/chair
+ provides structure, steady point of reference (“sparing partner”, positive irritations), leads/concretises interest (“gemachtes Nest”)
- steady boundary work necessary, not enough time to deepen personal interest due to project obligations
way to get started #2: align initial interest to research interests of Prof./chair/institute
- “hot spot”: if there are many open questions on a certain subject -> new, step in there
- “ultimate test”: imagine yourself deepen your knowledge on this topic for at least 5 months

next to this two identified starting points, the following factors seem to be very useful to to concretise the initial research interest:
- initial interest needs to be enriched from theories from ALL disciplines (1. Define phenomenon 2. Search for theories on this phenomenon from all disciplines’ 3. Develop ideas out of this – but still keep it simple!) -> end of this first major process: concept
- social environment: should irritate you in positive way (dialectic), ie good dialogues must be possible
- further development of MA thesis