According to this article, incentives for conducting family medicine investigations should be scientific and rationalistic, focusing on objectives like scientific discipline and development. Indirect incentives, or the "personal agendas" of investigation, do exist, though, and they have the potential to affect the goals, strategies, and findings. Furthermore, the development of interpretations specific to a highly emotional activity like a study complicates its varied forms. Three of these symbolic connotations are highlighted in this article: legitimacy and belonging, maturity and competence, and goal and earnestness. This article explores the role of behavioral scientists in contributing to a research agenda for the discipline and emphasizes qualitative data as a methodology consistent with many of family medicine's theoretical and philosophical underpinnings.