質性方法中的參照推論分析：傳記研究之案例分析

Inference Analysis as Qualitative Methodology: Case Studies in Biographic Research

傳記研究作為社會科學的研究方法，試圖分析個人的敘說（narrations），以期了解人們如何藉由意義的連結而建構他們的社會世界，準此，傳記研究似乎可被視為一種克服鉅觀（社會學）與微觀（心理學）研究之間鴻溝的方法。但是傳記研究有一個難以解決的關鍵問題－－「範括」（subsumption），也就是研究者以自己預設的範疇作為參照架構來解析他人的敘說。易言之，傳記研究學上最為困難的方法論問題就在於：在理解陌生人的傳記敘說上，如何避免範括，而能確實掌握理解他人或他文化的真正思想？傳統上，文化相對主義與普世主義代表對此問題的兩種極端回答。為了脫離它們的困境，本文提出「參照推論分析」（inferential analysis）方法，並以作者在漢堡大學所做的兩個案例，作為實作分析的文本，最後在呈現「遍在式參照推論」與「獨一式參照推論」的對比中，理解個人生命意義的建構與社會發展兩者之間的互動（辯證）關係。

Biographic research as a method of social science tries to analyze individual narrations in order to understand how people construct their social world by articulating meanings. In this sense, biographic research seems to be a simple way for overcoming the gap between the macro- and micro-perspective. But, a crucial problem in biographic research – subsumption, is hardly to resolve. In another word, the most difficult issue in biographic research would be how to avoid subsumption and how to grasp the real concepts of another person or culture in understanding strange biographic narrations. Traditionally, cultural relativism and universalism are two typical “dead ends” of answers responding to this problem. To avoid embarrassment, this article will present the “inferential analysis” method with two case studies from my research in Hamburg University as material for the purpose of the analysis practice. Finally, with contrast of the ubiquitous inference and the singular inference, we will be able to understand the interactive(dialectical) relationship between the individual construction of life significance and the social development.