Approaches to culture
• Emic: understanding driven by cultural members
• attempt to understand a culture from the perspective of members
of that culture – what cultural members find important and
meaningful
• Etic: understanding driven by researcher/general theories
• examine “culture‐neutral” theories developed by researchers to one or more cultures – what researchers find important and
meaningful
Cultural v cross‐cultural psychology
• Cultural: examine features of cultures, and processes
of culture maintenance and change, within cultures
• could use emic or etic approaches
• Cross‐cultural: identify areas of similarities and
difference between cultures
• associated with an etic approach
Five basic dimensions of culture
- Power Distance
• level of acceptance of inequality between people in a society - Individualism (v. collectivism)
• degree to which a society reinforces individual achievement instead of
collective achievement and interpersonal relationships - “Masculinity” (scare quotes added by me)
• degree to which societies reinforce the traditional masculine work role model
of achievement, control, and power - Uncertainty Avoidance
• level of avoidance of uncertainty and ambiguity within a society - Long‐term orientation
• degree to which societies embraces, or does not embrace, long‐term devotion
to traditional values – expectations that change occurs slowly
Culture shock
a feeling of disorientation and anxiety
that occurs as people from one culture encounter and
adapt to the practices, rules and expectations of
another culture
