ABSTRACT

Flanagan described CIT as consisting of “a flexible set of principles and 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 (John Flanagan 1954).” These principles and procedures can and must be adapted to meet each specific activity and domain under consideration. Critical incidents were defined by Flanagan and colleagues as “any observable human activity that is sufficiently complete in itself to permit inferences and predictions to be made about the person performing the act.” The term “critical” in this context implies a crucial role in system behavior, but not necessarily whether or not the observed event represented an emergency.