Intervention 5 - Crisis Solving

Paired up players:

Player1 (19) - Player2 (33) (Strangers)

Player3 (21) - Player4 (22) (Sisters)

Player5 (20) - Player6 (36) - Player7 (19) (P6 is a stranger, other two are friends)

Player8 (21) - Player9 (52) (Son and Mother)

Player10 (19) - Player11 (23) (Met once before.)

Player12 (18) - Player13 (24) (Student and University admin)

My influence as a researcher: Most of the players are known to me at different levels. This familiarity made the players more comfortable with being paired up with strangers as the trust they had in me translated into trusting my interventions would not cause them any harm.

This is to determine how they would work together in exchanging opinions to solve a problem. This plays to Veneer Theory whether the players would work together or disagree in solving problems.

Results:

The most well thought out solutions came from the mother and son group. According to the son, 'my mom finds answers to crisis' on a daily basis. It's her job. Plus both of us are logical people. We need reason to believe in stuff, but most of the stuff my mom says makes sense'. This highlights strongly the idea that certain beliefs should be kept only if it rationally makes sense to be kept. When it comes to culture and traditions in Sri Lanka there is an agreement from the younger generation and the older educated generation that certain things can be taken out when it doesn't rationally makes sense. At the same time, certain Sri Lankan values that has to do with our family values can be adjusted and kept. The agreement from the younger generation is still questionable as it prompts the questions whether P8 agrees with P9 sincerely or whether it's still because of the family values.

Even though the sisters didn't have a big age gap, P3 noted that while she thought in the moment answers, P4 was more 'mature and realistic' with her solutions. They also made a note that they didn't realise the time passed as they enjoyed discussing the solutions to the problems.

Interesting, all players suggested removing the 'big girl party' as a tradition. The 'big girl party' is practiced in Sri Lanka when a girl gets her first period. She is kept inside a room away from men for a certain period of time, and then have a ritual with family members and she's presented to the outside with a part - basically announcing to the world that she got her first period. With many culture and traditions everyday life, it was interesting to see even the male players chose this as a tradition that should be removed.

Conclusion:

There were disagreements in this activity between the players. They settled on agreeing to disagree - perhaps with the limited time they were given or the fact that they were simply doing an activity that seemingly had no real life consequences to them. While most came up with basic solutions for the first two problems, they became more involved in global problems. This suggests that either they have thought more about global problems or uncomfortable talking about matters close to home.