The emic and the etic in crosscultural research science 2. Page 1 of 8 the emic versus etic dilemma in cross cultural marketing research. This we call the situated cultural learning approach sicula, which focuses on the active role that the learner. Adler 1983, for example, uses the terms to differentiate the universal from the particular, and defines them as follows. Etic research takes an armslength approach in which context and populations can be examined across the board, allowing for the development of crosscultural concepts. The emic perspective starts with concepts from within the culture and seeks to understand the meaning of that which is studied and its associations with other factors using that. An integrative eticemic approach to portraying the halutziut system of societal equity.
The recent internationalization orientation among indigenous psychologists has led to a more culturally inclusive stage of personality. An emic perspective is fundamental to understanding how people perceive the world around them. The emic perspective strives to understand humans from an insider pointofview, while the etic takes an objective outsiders pointofview. We analyze forms ol synergy between emic and etic approaches to research on culture and cognition.
This chapter summarizes the stages of crosscultural personality assessment adopted by psychologists outside western cultures, which saw challenges to the imposed etic approach being raised by indigenous approaches in asia. Berry 1999 contends that both the emic and the etic approaches are necessary to cultural psychology where the emic approach is that of local. An etic view of a culture is the perspective of an outsider looking in. Crosscultural psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental process, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions. I utilized a life history methodology in this study through which written and oral narratives were obtained from six postsecondary students who selfidentified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, andor queer lgbq. An anthropological emicetic perspective on open access practices academic search premier. A linguistic and philosophical analysis of emic and etic. These three approaches resemble the three goals of crosscultural psy. Emic and etic principle free download as powerpoint presentation. This resulted in producing ethnocentric results which are biased towards. Pike in a study entitled language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior, published in 1967. The research strategy that emphasizes the ethnographers rather than the locals explanation, categories, and criteria of significance. A combined emicetic approach was adopted to develop an indigenous omnibus personality inventory for the chinese people.
Thus, the emicetic distinction has been redefined as referring to endpoints of a continuum that ranges from cultural specificity emic to universality etic. We argue for recentering crosscultural management teaching and learning around a stronger emic or culturespecific component, balancing the current etic emphasis. In the initial stage of crosscultural psychology, theories and practice in clinical and abnormal psychology are meant to. Unfortunately, most textbooks of psychology are based on western theories and. This book utilizes an integrative ethnic studies, comparative, and integrative. The quality of the work in crosscultural psychology is more uneven than in other disciplines. As such, then, the emic approach shows that everything is culturedependent and nothing can be separated from the culture helfrich. Franklinetic and emic stories graduate institute of. An emic approach involves the study of a particular culture, usually from within, from the. Emic and etic approaches are important to understanding personality because problems can arise when concepts, measures, and methods are carelessly transferred to other cultures in attempts to make crosscultural generalizations about personality. Etic, rather than simply emic views, can help us understand reality. Topics of study in this field include similarities and differences between cultures in terms of norms, values, attitudes, scripts, patterns of behavior, cultural products such as laws, myths, symbols, or material artifacts, social structure, practices and rituals, institutions, and.
The research strategy that focuses on local explanations and criteria of significance. Reflecting on the tensions between emic and etic perspectives in life history research. Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture. Comparing israelijew and israeliarab perceptions of justice.
A biopsychosociocultural approach to human development and mental health. Berry 1999 contends that both the emic and the etic approaches are necessary to cultural psychology where the emic approach is that of local knowledge and interpretations and the etic approach goes beyond the etic and is replicated in multiple studies across many cultures so that it is possible to relate variations in cultural. The goal of crosscultural psychologists is to look at both universal behaviors and unique behaviors to identify the ways in which culture impacts our behavior, family life, education, social experiences, and other areas. From chinese to crosscultural personality inventory a. Until there are truly african textbooks of psychology, some elements of. Human resource management in crosscultural contexts. An etic account, on the other hand, is in terms familiar to the observer and is the outsider view. In the emic approach to crosscultural studies, researchers attempt to look at phenomena through the perspective of individuals of the particular cultural context, and thus researchers should avoid using concepts and measures from other cultures. Heres a simple example concerning etic and emic approaches. Crosscultural studies can be approached from two different perspectives, which have been defined as the emicetic paradigm brislin, lonner, and thorndike, 1973. Emic and etic sociocultural psychology flashcards quizlet. The team of internationally acclaimed authors have included the most uptodate research in the field and two new chapters on language and on. Qualitative researchers often begin by asking people openended.
In the 1970s, efforts toward educating therapists and therapistsintraining on the. Within the domain of crosscultural business studies, it has become standard to invoke the emicetic distinction to mean this. In addition, an integration between cultural emic or indigenous perspective and the crosscultural comparison etic approach is required, as reflected in. Etic approach emic and etic have been used in various fields such as. Classic theories and modern research print, boston. The focus of crosscultural psychology verywell mind. Etic and emic approaches are two divergent cultural perspectives in. The eticemic distinction in crosscultural psychology partly parallels the distinction. In the initial stage of crosscultural psychology, theories and practice in. Using one or more examples, explain emic and etic concepts. The work presented falls into different sides of the emicetic continuum, with some studies taking a more emic perspective i. According to helfrich 1999, the emic approach goes beyond the culturallyspecific and refers to an approach that attempts to see things from the viewpoint of the individuals being studied. Alternatively, an etic approach is likely to investigate one or more. Sage video bringing teaching, learning and research to life.
His approach displays both emic detail, the stories and explanations given by primo and cesar, as well as etic analysis attributing workplace discrimination to the fire economy. Sage reference the complete guide for your research journey. Cq press your definitive resource for politics, policy and people. Sage business cases real world cases at your fingertips. The local construction of meaning and local rules for behavior will be emic accounts while raw data for comparative research will rely on etic accounts. Emic and etic were originally coined in 1954 by the linguist. Etic research compares psychological phenomena across cultures to find out what could be universal in human behavior. Cultural psychology is the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultures.
Emic perspective can be defined as an insiders view or the view from a native about their own customs and beliefs. The etic approach, derived from the linguistic term phonetic, develops psychological models that are generalized across diverse groups. This second edition of the best selling textbook crosscultural psychology has been substantially revised to provide the student with the most comprehensive overview of crosscultural psychology available in one volume. Problems and compensating strategies in crosscultural research the relationship between culture, race, and immigration on mental health. An emic perspective is the insiders view of reality. Many crosscultural psychologists choose to focus on one of two approaches. Frontiers the assessment of grief in refugees and post. Both points of view are rather crucial finance, insurance, and real estate. The emic perspective studies view behavior from inside the system, applying emic perspectives including incorporating insiders viewpoints and using local theories pike 1971. Plank, western michigan university abstract crosscultural research in marketing, particularly involving the measurement of behaviors and.
Researchers typically use existing theories that can be applied equally to other cultures, reapplying them to a new setting or population with the assumption that the theories. Crosscultural psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions. Reflecting upon etic and emic perspectives on distributive. The emicetic distinction is one of the central concepts in current thinking about crosscultural research, having received a good deal of attention recently berry, 1969. Opposite of the emic approach, the etic approach to studying human culture employs existing theories and perspectives that originated. Cambridge core social and cultural anthropology crosscultural psychology by john w. The chinese personality assessment inventory cpai consists of constructs selected specifically in consideration of the chinese culture as well as scales covering personality constructs commonly found in englishlanguage psychological. Crosscultural psychology wikimili, the best wikipedia. Emic and etic project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks. We see emics as a useful way of extending the extant eticdriven crosscultural research and we will combine the etics and emic perspectives in this paper. This is when a member of a group has their own interpretation of their group opposed to an outsiders interpretation emic. An emic view of culture is ultimately a perspective focus on the intrinsic cultural distinctions that are meaningful to the members of a given society, often considered to be an insiders perspective. This is due, in part, to the still undeveloped standards of crosscultural methodology, the publication of papers in many essentially unedited journals, and the proliferation of studies of. In crosscultural psychology, the term etic is used when behaviors are studied from outside a culture with the goal of finding universal patterns, whereas emic refers to an approach where behaviors are studied from within a culture to understand the unique aspects of that phenomenon fernando, 2012.
Through expanding research methodologies to recognise cultural variance in behaviour, language and meaning, it seeks to extend, develop and transform psychology central themes, such as affect. The etic approach, therefore, is particularly useful for testing the generality of psychological theories across cultures. What is emic and etic perspectives in multicultural. Sage books the ultimate social sciences digital library. It is one of the principal concepts guiding qualitative research. The purpose of this paper is to examine ways in which crosscultural research in international business can use emicetic approaches more effectively. The majority of research conducted in the field has been etic, while the crosscultural data used by the researchers have been emic in nature. Through expanding research methodologies to recognize cultural variance in behavior, language, and meaning it seeks to extend and develop psychology. Background the terms emic and etic were first used by the linguist kenneth l. Test the validity of psychological theories in different culture. Clinical psychology and related professions have addressed the issue of cultural diversity in many tangible ways. Business business, international international aspects international business enterprises multinational corporations. Etic research seeks to define common phenomena across cultures which can be used to define a set of universal phenomena among all cultures, whereas emic research lacks this aspect.
Specifically, etic refers to research that studies crosscultural differences, whereas emic refers to research that fully studies one culture with no or only a secondary crosscultural focus. Cross cultural psychology cross cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that looks at how cultural factors influence human behavior. The terms emic and etic refer to two different anthropological study approaches. Methodological issues in crosscultural psychology sage books.
Etic and emic approaches are two divergent cultural perspectives in studying psychology across cultures and ethnic groups. While this perspective stems from the concept of immersion in a specific culture, the emic participant isnt always a member of that culture or society. Research of etic purpose of research is to compare and contrast phenomena across cultures to investigate whether the phenomena are culture specific or universal. Such approaches could be described as etic or culturegeneral.
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