SCLOA - explain ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ concepts with relevant studies

Question 1

Etic approaches

Accepted Answer

investigates cross-cultural behaviour (i.e. behaviour that transcends culture and is the basis of human behaviour)
etic studies usually develop a theory in a particular culture (usually Western) and test for it in other cultures

Main study: WHO (1983)

Question 2

WHO (1983)

Accepted Answer

used a standard diagnostic scheme to investigate symptoms of depression of 573 patients in Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and Iran
to discover if they had characteristics in common
found that most patients experienced several common symptoms
76% of patients reported sadness, joylessness, and anxiety
but 40% complained of symptoms not included in the diagnostic scheme being used (e.g. obsessions)
Marsella et al. (1985) interpreted these findings as a strong demonstration of cultural factors

Question 3

Emic approaches

Accepted Answer

investigates culture-specific behaviourexplores a culture’s uniqueness and aims to discoveremic studies operate under the assumption that a particular behaviour can only be found in the culture which is being studiedMain study: Manson et al. (1985)

Question 4

Manson et al. (1985)

Accepted Answer

investigated culture-specific characteristics of depression
developed the American Indian Depression Scale
most Hopi participants could not find a word in the Hopi language that had an identical meaning to ‘depression’
but the researchers could identify 5 categories used by Hopi to describe illness related to depression:
• worry sickness
• unhappiness
• heartbroken
• drunken-like craziness
• disappointment
some symptoms of those illnesses had similarities to the Western idea of depression
but other symptoms had not place at all in Western diagnostic systems

Question 5

thoughts on combining etic and emic approaches?

Accepted Answer

depression is a universal illnessbut culture partially determines how it’s expressedMarsella et al. (2002): manifestation of depression depends on the culture’s place on the individualism-collectivism continuumin individualistic cultures, common symptoms include feelings of loneliness and isolationin collectivistic cultures, somatic symptoms are more often reported

Term	Definition
Etic approaches	investigates cross-cultural behaviour (i.e. behaviour that transcends culture and is the basis of human behaviour) etic studies usually develop a theory in a particular culture (usually Western) and test for it in other cultures Main study: WHO (1983)
WHO (1983)	used a standard diagnostic scheme to investigate symptoms of depression of 573 patients in Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and Iran to discover if they had characteristics in common found that most patients experienced several common symptoms 76% of patients reported sadness, joylessness, and anxiety but 40% complained of symptoms not included in the diagnostic scheme being used (e.g. obsessions) Marsella et al. (1985) interpreted these findings as a strong demonstration of cultural factors
Emic approaches	investigates culture-specific behaviour explores a culture’s uniqueness and aims to discover emic studies operate under the assumption that a particular behaviour can only be found in the culture which is being studied Main study: Manson et al. (1985)
Manson et al. (1985)	investigated culture-specific characteristics of depression developed the American Indian Depression Scale most Hopi participants could not find a word in the Hopi language that had an identical meaning to ‘depression’ but the researchers could identify 5 categories used by Hopi to describe illness related to depression: • worry sickness • unhappiness • heartbroken • drunken-like craziness • disappointment some symptoms of those illnesses had similarities to the Western idea of depression but other symptoms had not place at all in Western diagnostic systems
thoughts on combining etic and emic approaches?	depression is a universal illness but culture partially determines how it’s expressed Marsella et al. (2002): manifestation of depression depends on the culture’s place on the individualism-collectivism continuum in individualistic cultures, common symptoms include feelings of loneliness and isolation in collectivistic cultures, somatic symptoms are more often reported

SCLOA - explain ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ concepts with relevant studies

Etic approaches

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