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将研究困境与关键事件法结合
Combine the Research Edge with
the Critical Incident Technique
September 29th, 2024
在课程第三板块的末期汇报中，我提出了一个自己遇到的的研究困境：
如何揭示城市文化中隐藏的负面部分？
这个问题的出现源于与一位中年企业主的对话（我们称他为S）。尽管S仍在努力经营企业，但客观数据显示其经济效益已远不如从前。我原本希望引导S回忆并谈论他的个人生活故事，但他避而不谈，转而展示了公司1990年至2010年辉煌时期的故事。回家途中，我感到些许失望——这次对话收集的数据完全偏离预期，我的干预对S而言没有起到任何作用。
然而，我发现S的经历在温州企业主中具有代表性。温州曾是1990年代中国改革开放后私营经济繁荣发展的典型代表，但许多企业家因未能应对2010年后市场变化而遭遇事业滑坡。在8月的编辑工作中，我进一步发现：参与者中不只S一人刻意跳过职业生涯中的不光彩经历。
这让我思考：如何创造一个安全空间，让人们能够谈论失败或人生经历的负面部分？ 因为一座城市的文化意义不应仅由单一的正向叙事构成。
关键事件法或许能为这一问题提供解决思路。根据Flanagan（1954）的定义，“关键事件技术是一套收集人类行为直接观察结果的程序，旨在促进解决实际问题和发展广泛心理学原则的潜在用途”。我在探索个人经历负面部分时的失败，促使我思考如何根据参与者的反应调整方法，从而解决这一问题。
根据Serrat（2017）的框架，我需要明确核心问题并初步回应：
导致关键事件发生的背景或条件是什么？
- 第一次干预的主题模糊（仅邀请人们谈论在温州的生活故事）
- 干预环境的安全性不足
参与者行为如何使这些条件成为关键事件？
- 人们回避谈论生活中的负面部分
关键事件的结果是什么？
- 数据收集的全面性降低
若行为不变，未来可能产生什么结果？
- 项目在城市文化探索中的知识产出可能受限
若基于经验改变行为，未来可能产生什么结果？
- 档案可能更具价值，更充分地揭示温州的文化意义，使项目成果更丰硕
行动启示（由deepseek总结）
- 主题聚焦：在后续干预中明确“探索城市文化的多面性”主题，通过案例引导参与者正视负面经历的价值。
- 环境营造：设计更安全的对话场景（如匿名分享机制或小组互助形式），降低参与者的心理防御。
- 技术应用：采用关键事件技术中的“行为观察-调整”循环，动态优化访谈策略。
I was informed of the concept of critical incident on Tuesday’s class, which reminded me of the research edge I met during the summer. Therefore, I decided to research more on critical incident technique and analyze my research edge by using this tool.
There was a question I raised in Unit 3 presentation as my research edge:
How to uncover the negative parts hidden in the city culture?
This question appeared in my mind because of the conversation with a middle-aged owner of enterprise, who is still paying a great effort to his business but the economic benefits are much less favorable than before based on objective facts. I would like to call him S.
What I expected is to lead S to recall and talk about his own life stories, but he just avoided it and instead presented the slides showing how successful the company was between 1990 and 2010. On my way back home, I felt somehow disappointed since the data I collected in this talk were completely contrary to my expectation and this intervention was proved to be invalid to S.
However, I discovered the representativeness of S’s experience as enterprise owners in Wenzhou. Wenzhou was typical in the prosperous development of private businesses after the reform and opening up policy in China in 1990s. However, there are many entrepreneurs whose businesses went downhill because they failed to cope with market changes after 2010.
Meanwhile, after realizing this fact, I found S was not the only case during my editorial work period in August: Among all participants. there are more people who skipped over the dishonorable experiences in their career.
These made me wonder how to create a safe space for people to talk about their failures, or negative parts of their own life experiences, since culture significance of a city should not be composed of simple narratives which only state positive stuff.
The critical incident technique might work in making some progress for this question. As is defined by Flanagan (1954), “The critical incident technique consists of a set of procedures for collecting direct observations of human behavior in such a way as to facilitate their potential usefulness in solving practical problems and developing broad psychological principles”. My failure to explore further about negative parts of the personal experiences made me feel that it could be good to seek solutions to tackle this problem based on reacting to my participants’ responses to my clear demands and making adjustments accordingly.
And identified by Serrat (2017), I need to invest time in understanding what core questions need to be addressed. I would like to list them here and response to them preliminarily:
- What were the events or circumstances that led to the critical incident?
First, the vague theme for the first intervention, which just invited people to talk about their life stories in Wenzhou. Second, probably the insufficiently safe environment of the intervention.
- What were the behaviors of the agents that made these (events or circumstances)a critical incident?
People’s avoidance of talking about negative parts of their lives.
- What were the outcomes of the critical incident?
Less comprehensive data collection.
- What are the possible future outcomes if behaviors remain unchanged?
The project might yield limited knowledge in city culture exploration.
- What are the possible future outcomes if behaviors change based on lessonslearned?
The archive might be more valuable in revealing the culture significance of Wenzhou, which makes this project more fruitful.
Actionable Insights (Concluded by DeepSeek)
- Thematic Focus: In subsequent interventions, explicitly frame the theme as "Exploring the Multifaceted Nature of Urban Culture," using case studies to guide participants in acknowledging the value of negative experiences.
- Environment Design: Create safer dialogue scenarios (e.g., anonymous sharing mechanisms or small group discussions) to reduce participants’ psychological defenses.
- Technical Application: Adopt the "behavior observation-adjustment" cycle from the Critical Incident Technique to dynamically optimize interview strategies.
参考文献 Bibliography
Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51(4), pp. 327–358. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0061470
Serrat, O. (2017). The Critical Incident Technique. Knowledge Solutions. Singapore: Springer, pp. 1077-1083.