4.12 Explain, using examples, emic and etic concepts

4.12 Explain, using examples, emic and etic concepts

Pike (1967) suggested the emic and the etic concepts to address the issues of ‘culture specific’ versus ‘universal’, i.e. what is consistent across cultures.

Emic

Emic research studies one culture alone to understand culture-specific behaviour. Researchers attempt to study behaviour through the eyes of the people who live in that culture. The way the phenomenon is linked to the culture (structure) and the meaning it has in this particular culture (context) is emphasized. The focus is on the norms, values, motives, and customs of the members of the culture as they interpret and understand it themselves, explained with their own words.

Example 1: Bartlett (1932) mentioned the extraordinary ability of Swazi herdsmen to recall individual characteristics of their cattle. He explained that the Swazi culture revolves around the possession and care of cattle and it is important for people to recognize their animals because this is part of their fortune.

Example 2: Yap (1967) suggested the term ‘culture-bound syndrome’ (CBS) as a culture-specific psychological disorder which can only be fully understood within a specific cultural context. Among teh Yoruba people of West Africa, it is believed that spirits may come into the possession of a person’s soul and that the person cn be treated by healing and spells spoken by a medicine man or a healer (Ayoade, 1979).

Etic

Etic research compares psychological phenomena across cultures to find out what could be universal in human behaviour. The purpose of research is to compare and contrast cultural phenomena across cultures to investigate whether phenomena are culture-specific or universal.

Example 1: Kashima and Triandis (1986) found a difference in the way people explain their own success when they compared Japanese and American participants. The American participants tended to explain their own success by dispositional attributions whereas the Japanese participants made situational attributions. The American participants demonstrated the self-serving bias and the Japanese the self-effacing bias, which has also been observed in other Asian countries where people are socialized to see themselves as part of a social group.

Example 2: Berry (1967) used a variation of Asch’s conformity experiment to study whether conformity rates among the Temne in Sierra Leone in Africa and the Inuits of Baffin Island in Canada could be linked to social norms and socialization practices. He found that the Temne, who had an agricultural economy, had high conformity rates. The culture emphasized obedience in child-rearing practices because the culture is dependent on cooperation in farming. The Inuits are hunters and often hunt alone. They therefore need to be able to make decisions for themselves. Child-rearing practices emphasize self-reliance because this is needed within this culture. This could explain why the Inuits score low on conformity.