  As students pursue a bachelor's degree in physics, they may ponder over which
area to specialize in, such as theory, computation, or experiment. Often
students develop preferences and dislikes, but it's unclear when this
preference solidifies during their undergraduate experiences. To get a better
understanding, we interviewed eighteen physics majors who were at different
stages of their degree regarding their interest in theory, computation, and
experimental methods. Out of the eighteen students, we chose to analyze only
nine students who rated computation and theory the lowest. Our analysis did not
include interest in experiment because the ratings were less negative. We used
Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) and Lucidchart to analyze students'
responses and create individual graphical representations of the influences for
each student. Through this, we uncovered how various factors such as learning
experiences, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations influenced their low
interest in a particular method. We found that lack of knowledge and experience
is often the main reason why self-efficacy was lower. Students' lack of
interest is also influenced by negative outcome expectations (e.g,
math-intensive and a bad work-life balance) more than other SCCT factors. Our
findings could help physics departments and educators identify positive and
negative factors that could lead to a more motivating and inclusive physics
curriculum.
