EXPLAIN, USING EXAMPLES, EMIC AND ETIC CONCEPTS.

- Etic and Emic concepts first introduced by Pike in order to address the issues of cultural
specific versus universal. KEY TERMS: - Emic and Etic are essentially two different approaches to research in the social sciences - ETIC: aim to discover what all humans have in common - use extensively in cross-cultural studies to investigate whether a cultural phenomena is culture-specific or universal or to compare and contrast cultural phenomenas across cultures - study used to demonstrate this approach: Ekman (1969) - EMIC: not interested in cross-cultural comparisons but in cultural specific phenomenas - do not import theoretical frameworks from another culture - studies one culture alone on a culture-specific behavior - focuses on norms, values, motives, customs of the culture as they interpret and understand it themselves - study used to demonstrate this approach: Bartlett (1932) COMMAND TERMS: Explain: Give a detailed account including reasons or causes. PARAGRAPH 1: Etic is the approach through which researchers use cross-cultural studies to investigate whether a behavior is culture-specific or universal. EKMAN (1969) AIM: Investigate pan-cultural elements of facial displays of emotion. Procedure: - study conducted in New Guinea, Borneo, United States, Brazil and Japan - photographs were selected from over 3000 pictures to obtain those which showed only the pure display of a single emotion - 30 photographs were selected - photographs showed male/ female Caucasians, adults and children, professional and amateur actors and mental patients - photographs were then displayed in front of observers - US, Brazil and Japan observers were freshmen college students (all foreign-born were eliminated) - in New Guinea observers were people from the Fore linguistic-cultural group - in Borneo observers were people belonging to the Sadong group - each observer was told to attribute one emotion to each of the photograph - there were only 6 emotions to choose from - happy, fear, anger, surprise, sadness - in New Guinea and Borneo, the choices were translated into their native language Results: - for the most part people from each country, regardless of literacy, identified the facial expressions correctly - association between facial muscular movements and discrete primary emotions across cultures Evaluation: - keep in mind that cultures may still differ - in what evokes an emotion - in behavioral consequences - in rules for controlling the display of emotion - study results were largely supported by other studies

- a closer look at the data would reveal that the US, Brazil and Japan observers agreed largely on
everything but, aside from the emotion of happiness, observers from New Guinea and Borneo were not always able to identify some of the other facial emotions

- this is example of ETIC, because it is investigating human facial displays of emotion across
cultures to see whether it is culture-specific or universal and it turns out to be universal PARAGRAPH 2: Emic is the approach through which researchers study behaviors and practices in terms of the system of meanings created by an operative within a particular cultural context. BARTLETT (1932) AIM: - to investigate the memory capabilities of the Swazi. PROCEDURE: - initially it was found that this ability was not evident, and the Swazi peoples memory is just as good as any other peoples memory

- it was found that this memory capability was only evident in the Swazis preferred fields of
interest

- he interviewed a Scottish expats herdsman - he asked him to list the cattle purchased the previous year and any additional details he could
remember - the herdsmans answers were compared to the farmers records RESULTS: - the herdsman was able to name - who the cattle was purchased from - the age (at the time of purchase) of the cattle - physical features fro each animal - Swazi culture revolves around the possession and care of cattle and people recognize their animals because they are part of their fortune

- study demonstrates the Emic approach to research in social sciences, as Bartlett was
investigating the Swazi culture on a Swazi-culture specific behavior CONCLUSION: - the best approach would involve both etic and emic components - although a phenomenon under study is the same across cultures, its development and expression may show cultural influences