Cross-cultural Psychology - Different Approaches: Etic and Emic

Different Approaches: Etic and Emic

Many other realms of psychology focus on how personal relationships impact human behavior, yet it is critical to take into account the significant power that culture may have on human behavior. The Malinowskian dictum focuses on the idea that there is a necessity to understand culture of a society in its own terms instead of the common search of finding a universal law that applies to all human behavior. Very often in cross-cultural psychology psychologists pick one of two approaches to examine from: the etic approach or the emit approach. The etic approach is centered around examining how various cultures are similar. On the other hand, the emit approach examines the differences between cultures. Currently, many psychologists conducting cross-cultural research use what is called a pseudoetic approach. This is actually an emit based approach, developed in a Western culture and is in result based to work as an etic approach. Consequently, this way of measurement may not produce accurate results due to that fact that the instruments used are focused around American theories and then translated and applied in other cultures.