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Etic vs. Emic - Is There a Preference for One Over the Other?

 In the area of research, whether linguistic, anthropological, or whatever, it is common to use the terms 'etic' and 'emic'. Here is a definition:

'The etic perspective is the outsider’s perspective, the perspective that we have of a project’s parameters—for example, an outsider’s perception of gender in Afghanistan. The emic perspective is the insider’s perspective, the perspective that comes from within the culture where the project is situated—for example, gender perspectives of women involved in a project in Afghanistan.' https://programs.online.american.edu/msme/masters-in-measurement-and-evaluation/resources/emic-and-etic accessed 13th January 2023

Another difference between etic and emic is that the former often assumes the use of a model, or theoretical basis for a study, whereas the latter, almost by definition, would avoid the use of models and theories. Emic involves the use of insider data without theory-based analysis. Any comments would be descriptive only. The assumption would be that the data only works for this sample, and not for any other.

The problem is that many take this to mean that emic is somehow better than etic. Better in what sense? Because it is insider, and local.

The trouble with this is that most of us have models and theories inside our heads. Unless we replace those models and theories with better ones, we lack the ability to move forward in our understanding of the situation.

It might, therefore, be better to start with an etic model that approximates to the data we are studying, and then use the emic approaches to modify that model and come up with a better (etic) model based on that (emic) data. That model can then by tried and tested in similar contexts to see if it works. If not, the model can be modified again.

If etic is thought of as high level (theoretical) and emic as low level (to do with raw data), then this process can be shown like so:

This allows us to improve our model and move onto the next place of study, ready to improve it with new data.

So, in conclusion, neither etic nor emic are better or worse than each other. We need them both: we need to recognise that the ideas we have are based on etic approaches, modify these with raw emic data collected, then use that data to modify our ideas.



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