Qualitative Research into the "Time Perspective" of Chinese People
Time perspective(TP)is the individual's character of accurately controlling time.Currently,both the conceptualization and research on TP by Western scholars are unclear,and the research orientation of domestic scholars also fails to grasp the essence of Chinese individuals'TP.Taking Chinese TP as the starting point,this article adopts a grounded theory approach based on in-depth interviews and employs a sampling strategy of interviewing elites,including academic elites,political elites,and business elites,to construct a three-dimensional structural model of Chinese TP.Results show that(1)in Chinese people's TP,the past,present,and future are organically integrated,and individuals scan back and forth in mental time to generate historical rationality and obtain practical guidance for living,thus building a humanistic perspective of time that can overcome the contradiction between the"ideal"and"reality";(2)in terms of TP,Chinese people have a unique way of thinking.They believe that history will follow a certain inner force(i.e.,"momentum")to move forward,and by mastering timing(temporal locus),grasping the duration and degree of time(temporal duration),and following the law(temporal succession),one can obtain success;(3)according to Chinese people's TP,although an individual's life span is limited,active participation in group work can create"super-temporal"meaning that has eternal value.This super-temporal perspective,which sublimates emotions experienced in life,may serve as the Confucian nutrient for healing the ills of modern life.
time perspectivehumanistic time orientationsuper-temporal conceptmodern time sicknessgrounded theory
万方数据
维普
