ABSTRACT
In this chapter we describe two methods of inquiry that share the goal of developing an understanding of an event or experience from the perspective of the persons involved. This approach to research is referred to as the emic perspective, which focuses on “the conceptual schemes and categories considered meaningful by the participants in the event or situation being [studied]” (Lett, 1987, p. 62). In contrast, the etic perspective represents the scientist’s viewpoint and focuses on “the conceptual schemes and categories considered meaningful by the community of scientifi c observers” (Lett, 1987, p. 62). That is, a researcher taking the emic perspective is interested in how each individual participant in a research project experiences an event in his or her own unique way and focuses on the participant’s understanding of the meaning of the event and how and why the event occurred. In contrast, a researcher taking the etic perspective is interested in the commonalities found in the participants’ experiences and interprets those commonalities in terms of scientifi c theories and principles. To some extent, the emic and etic perspectives overlap with the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms we discussed in Chapter 1. However, the boundary between the two perspectives and paradigms is not always clear-cut: No research study is purely one or the other, nor is it desirable to focus solely on one or the other; rather, researchers should use both perspectives when studying a phenomenon (Fetterman, 1989; Lett, 1987). Although interest in the emic perspective has increased in psychology over the past few decades, it is not new to the fi eld. Early psychologists such as William James and Edward Titchener argued that individual experiences, emotions, and ideas were real and that psychological research methods needed to be capable of exploring these phenomena (Nelson, 2010).
