Emics and Etics: A Symbiotic Conception

Abstract

Cross-cultural psychology involves both the cultural understandings of behaviour and the comparative analysis of these understandings. The emic and etic approaches proposed by Pike were seen by him as complementary, rather than alternative, or even conflicting, ways of achieving these understandings. With Pike’s original conception as a basis, the cultural and the comparative aspects of the field are viewed as symbiotic, allowing for ecological and cultural explorations of the development of human behaviour, both within and across settings.