METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN ETIC AND EMIC RESEARCH

1. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN ETIC AND EMIC RESEARCH PSYC 338

2. ETIC APPROACHES * Culture general * Comparative * Seeks to explore universals * Uses culture as an IV

3. EMICS * Culture specific * Limited * Structure uncovered rather than imposed * Understood in culture’s own terms

4. STEPS IN MAKING COMPARISONS (Campbell, 1970) Study 1: Study a phenomenon inculture A (emic)! Study 2: Study to culture B (etic)! Consider validity of comparison! Study 3: Researcher from culture B studies his own culture. Study 4: Second researcher studies culture A.  Cost, time and effort

5. METHODS AND DESIGN IN CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH • Systematic, multiple observations within one community • Comparisons across cultures • The Controlled Comparison • The Cross-cultural Method

6. A Taxonomy of Cross-cultural Studies • Generalizability studies • Theory-driven studies • Psychological differences studies • External validation studies

7. Limitations of Western Made Instruments Do the participants share basic assumptions about • Values: Does the response have the same merit in every culture? • Knowledge: Are people in the various cultures are equally likely to know something? • Communication: Does the context of the test item have the same meaning in all the cultures?

8. CRITICAL ISSUE IN ETIC METHODOLOGY: EQUIVALENCE • Conceptual (construct) • Linguistic • Stimuli • Functional • Metric

9. Cultural differences may be due to Different definitions of intelligence in two cultures Different understanding of instructions Different level of motivation Knowledge of to whom scores will be compared Different reactions to experimenter and test situation Different response sets Different sampling of people, stimuli and response Different ethical acceptability

10. CONCEPTUAL EQUIVALENCE: The meaning or essence of a construct is the same or equivalent. Particularly, the dependent variables must be meaningfully re-identified across cultures.

11. CULTURAL CONCEPTIONS OF INTELLIGENCE • Nzelu (Zambia)- wisdom • Obugezi (Uganda)-stable, cautious, friendly • Gnom (Kipsigis)- readiness to carry out tasks in the service of the community

12. LINGUISTIC EQUIVALENCE * Appropriate translation of materials to ensure equivalence of meaning * Relates to both stimuli and conceptual equivalence

13. TRANSLATION METHODS * Individual translation * Team translation * Back translation * Test bilinguals in both languages

14. Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop….. In a Thai dry cleaners… In a Greek hotel… Ladies may have a fit upstairs Drop your trousers here for best results Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 am daily EXAMPLES OF TRANSLATIONS

15. At an Italian physician’s office…. Detour sign in Japan… In a Greek tailor shop… Lederer (1987) Specialist in women and other diseases Stop! Drive sideways Order your suits here; because of big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation EXAMPLES OF TRANSLATIONS

16. STIMULI EQUIVALENCE Appropriateness of stimuli/test materials; equivalent familiarity (or unfamiliarity) with test materials across cultural groups

17. THE CHITLIN TEST By Adrian Dove

18. WHICH WORD IS MOST OUT OF PLACE? • Splib • Blood • Gray • Spook • Black

19. HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE TO COOK CHITLINS SO THAT THEY WILL NOT BE RUBBERY? • One hour • 15 minutes • 6 hours • 24 hours • One week

20. FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE: Exists when behaviours or processes compared serve the same or very similar functions across cultures.

21. EXAMPLES OF FUNCTIONALINEQUIVALENCE * Nonverbal behaviours such as gaze, proxemics, gestures * Agreements with statements such as “I like myself a lot”

22. METRIC EQUIVALENCE:The same coherent psychometric properties found in two or more sets of data from different cultural groups.Subsystem validation requires that the statistical relationships remain constant among independent and dependent variables. Scalar equivalence: Statistical relationships among dependent variables should be similarly patterned in diverse cultural groups.

23. Methodologial and Statistical Innovations * Item Response Theory * Structural Equation Modeling * Multilevel Modeling

24. EMIC APPROACHES * Culture specific * Seeks to understand culture in its own terms * May unfold as indigenous or cultural psychology

25. CRITICAL ISSUE IN EMIC RESEARCH * A sensitive and appropriate methodology for the specific cultural context

26. AN EXAMPLE FROM THE PHILIPPINES Background: indigenization from within pakapa-kapa (inductive approach) interdisciplinary perspectives Method: Pagtatanong-tanong

27. CHARACTERISTICS OF PAGTATATANONG-TANONG • “Asking questions” • Participatory • Equal status • Adaptable, flexible • Can be integrated with other methods • Ethical concerns

28. PROCESS OF PAGTATATANONG-TANONG • Preparation • Selection of convenient and comfortable time and place • Researcher and participant get to know each other • “Asking questions” goes both ways • Smooth ending

29. LEVELS OF INTERACTION A. Ibang-tao (Outsider category) 1. Pakikitungo (civility) 2. Pakikisalamuha (interaction with) 3. Pakikilahok (participation with) 4. Pakikibagay (in accord with) 5. Pakikisama (being along with)

30. LEVELS OF INTERACTION B. HindiIbang-tao (One of us category) 6. Pakikpagpalagayang- loob (mutual trust) 7. Pakikisangkot (active involvement) 8. Pakikiisa (being one with)

31. CONCLUDING CONCERNS • Power sharing • Ethical issues: treatment and dissemination of data • Benefits for community

32. RECOMMENDATIONS • Triangulation of methods (e.g. monotrait-multimethod design) • Combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods • Longitudinal studies • Interdisciplinary, international research projects

33. QUESTIONS: • What are the critical methodological standards for emic and etic approaches? • Can and do we meet these standards on our research? • How would you use the information on methodologies to evaluate research on culture and psychology?