Examples of Emic Case Studies02565

2History
3Examples of etic case studies
4Examples of emic case studies
5Importance as regards personality
6Secondary sources
7See also
8References
9Further reading
10External links
Definitions[edit]
"The emic approach investigates how local people think" (Kottak, 2006): How they perceive and
categorize the world, their rules for behavior, what has meaning for them, and how they imagine
and explain things. "The etic (scientist-oriented) approach shifts the focus from local
observations, categories, explanations, and interpretations to those of the anthropologist. The
etic approach realizes that members of a culture often are too involved in what they are doing to
interpret their cultures impartially. When using the etic approach, the ethnographer emphasizes
what he or she considers important."[2]
Although emics and etics are sometimes regarded as inherently in conflict and one can be
preferred to the exclusion of the other, the complementarity of emic and etic approaches to
anthropological research has been widely recognized, especially in the areas of interest
concerning the characteristics of human nature as well as the form and function of human social
systems.[3]
Emic knowledge and interpretations are those existing within a culture, that are determined by
local custom, meaning, and belief (Ager and Loughry, 2004: n.p.) and best described by a
'native' of the culture. Etic knowledge refers to generalizations about human behavior that are
considered universally true, and commonly links cultural practices to factors of interest to the
researcher, such as economic or ecological conditions, that cultural insiders may not consider
very relevant (Morris et al., 1999).
Emic and Etic approaches of understanding behavior and personality fall under the study of
cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology states that people are shaped by their cultures and
their subcultures, and we must account for this in the study of personality. One way is looking at
things through an emic approach. This approach is culture specific because it focuses on a
single culture and it is understood on its own terms. As explained below, the term emic
originated from the specific linguistic term phonemic, from phoneme, which is a languagespecific way of abstracting speech sounds. (Friedman) (Akane) [4][5]
An 'emic' account is a description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously

or unconsciously) to the actor; that is, an emic account comes from a person within the
culture. Almost anything from within a culture can provide an emic account.
An 'etic' account is a description of a behavior or belief by a social analyst or scientific

observer (a student or scholar of anthropology or sociology, for example), in terms that can
be applied across cultures; that is, an etic account attempts to be 'culturally neutral', limiting
any ethnocentric, political, and/or cultural bias or alienation by the observer.
When these two approaches are combined, the richest view of a culture or society can be
understood. On its own, an emic approach would struggle with applying overarching values to a
single culture. The etic approach is helpful in preventing researchers from seeing only one
aspect of one culture and then applying it to cultures around the world.
History[edit]
The terms were coined in 1954 by linguist Kenneth Pike, who argued that the tools developed for
describing linguistic behaviors could be adapted to the description of any human social behavior.
As Pike noted, social scientists have long debated whether their knowledge is objective or
subjective. Pike's innovation was to turn away from an epistemological debate, and turn instead
to a methodological solution. Emic and etic are derived from
the linguistic terms phonemic and phonetic respectively, which are in turn derived from Greek
roots. The possibility of a truly objective description was discounted by Pike himself in his original
work; he proposed the emic/etic dichotomy in anthropology as a way around philosophic issues
about the very nature of objectivity.
The terms were also championed by anthropologists Ward Goodenough and Marvin Harris with
slightly different connotations from those used by Pike. Goodenough was primarily interested in
understanding the culturally specific meaning of specific beliefs and practices; Harris was
primarily interested in explaining human behavior.
Pike, Harris, and others have argued that cultural "insiders" and "outsiders" are equally capable
of producing emic and etic accounts of their culture. Some researchers use "etic" to refer to
objective or outsider accounts, and "emic" to refer to subjective or insider accounts. [6]
Margaret Mead was a scientist who studied the patterns of adolescence in Samoa. She
discovered that the difficulties and the transitions that adolescents faced are culturally influenced.
The hormones that are released during puberty can be defined using an etic framework,
because adolescents globally have the same hormones being secreted. However, Mead
concluded that how adolescents respond to these hormones is greatly influenced by their cultural
norms. Through her studies, Mead found that simple classifications about behaviors
and personality could not be used because peoples cultures influenced their behaviors in such a
radical way. Her studies helped create an emic approach of understanding behaviors and
personality. Her research deduced that culture has a significant impact in shaping an individuals
personality. (Friedman) [7] [8]
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychoanalyst, is a researcher who took an etic approach in his studies. Jung
studied mythology, religion, ancient rituals, and dreams leading him to believe that there
arearchetypes used to categorize peoples behaviors. Archetypes are universal structures of the
collective unconscious that refer to the inherent way people are predisposed to perceive and
process information. The main archetypes [9] that Jung studied were the persona (how people
choose to present themselves to the world), the animus/ anima (part of people experiencing the
world in viewing the opposite sex, that guides how they select their romantic partner), and
the shadow (dark side of personalities because people have a concept of evil. Well-adjusted
people must integrate both good and bad parts of themselves). Jung looked at the role of
the mother and deduced that all people have mothers and see their mothers in a similar way;
they offer nurture and comfort. His studies also suggest that infants have evolved to suck milk
from the breast, it is also the case that all children have inborn tendencies to react in certain
ways. This way of looking at the mother is an etic way of applying a concept cross- culturally
and universally.[8]
Examples of etic case studies[edit]

Etic studies, as mentioned, are ones that study one characteristic across various cultures. These
studies can give researchers an idea of how an idea, like the importance of family, is valued in
different cultures around the world. This is not to say, however, that emic research cannot be
conducted in a cross-cultural context The test of whether these are etic or emic concepts resides
in their logic-empirical relationship to the cognitive processes. If the verifiability of an
ethnographic statement involves a confrontation with cognitive adequacy or appropriateness,
then we are dealing with emic categories, no matter how many cultures contribute to that
confrontation. (See Harris 1968 at 577). Below are three different studies using an etic approach.
Study #1: How the Idea of Trust Varies Across Cultures (a book review)
[10]
This book found that one of the reasons it is hard to determine whom to trust from
another culture is that to determine trustworthiness, human beings rely on signals and cues
from the other person. These signals and cues are often shaped by ones culture; however,
two different cultures probably emphasize and respond to different signals and cues, making
it difficult to discern if this person from another culture is trustworthy by your cultures
standards. The authors of this book describe trust as: a psychological state of accepting
vulnerability toward the other party based on positive expectations regarding its behavior
(Saunders, Skinner, Dietz, Gillespie & Lewicki, 2012). The authors then define culture as: a
set of basic assumptions manifested in values, beliefs, and norms of social behaviors
(Saunders, Skinner, Dietz, Gillespie & Lewicki, 2012).
While studying what characteristics make up trust, Ferrin and Gillespie found that
ability, benevolence, and integrity were rated as universal qualities of a trustworthy person
(Saunders, Skinner, Dietz, Gillespie & Lewicki, 2012).
One strong example of the difference in trust building between two cultures is the
contrast between traders in Nigeria and Ghana. In Nigeria, traders will come to trust one
another by inviting fellow traders to stay in ones home and get to know his family members.
In Ghana, traders develop trust by going to church and funerals together. This example
proves that benevolence and integrity are universal; both are proven through the different
rituals, but it is in how these qualities are established that varies across the cultures.
Study #2: How the Development of a Distinctive Identity Varies Across Cultures [11][12]

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2History

3Examples of etic case studies

4Examples of emic case studies

5Importance as regards personality

An 'emic' account is a description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously

An 'etic' account is a description of a behavior or belief by a social analyst or scientific

Examples of etic case studies[edit]

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