IMPOSED ETICS—EMICS—DERIVED ETICS: THE OPERATIONALIZATION OF A COMPELLING IDEA

There is a tension between two research traditions in cross-cultural psychology: working intensively within a single culture in order to understand indigenous psychological phenomena and how they are related to cultural context; and working comparatively across cultures in order to understand broad patterns of relationships between behavioural and cultural variables. This tension can be resolved, and the two approaches integrated, by the adoption of the emic and etic concepts of Pike, and by the elaboration of a set of concrete research steps rooted in these concepts. This paper outlines a conceptual and operational framework for the pursuit of both the indigenous and comparative goals, using examples from research on intelligence and attitudes.     

TEMNE AND ESKIMO PERCEPTUAL SKILLS1

Aptitudes perceptives des Temne et des Esquimaux. — Des épreuves de discrimination et d'aptitude spatiale ont été administrées à des sujets appartenant à deux sociétés différentes, les Temne du Sierra Leone et les Esquimaux de la Terre de Baffin (des sujets écossais ont été utilisés comme groupe de référence), pour vérifier l'hypothèse selon laquelle les aptitudes perceptives seraient plus développées chez les Esquimaux qui vivent de la chasse que chez les Temne, qui sont cultivateurs. La langue, les arts, les techniques et les méthodes éducatives des deux sociétés ont été étudiés pour voir si les caractéristiques culturelles peuvent de façon cohérente aider à l'énergence des aptitudes requises par le milieu. Bien qu'appariés en ce qui concerne l'acuité visuelle et le degré d'occidentalisation, les sujets des deux populations montrent des différences hautement significatives qui confirment l'hypothèse. l'A. en conclut que des différences perceptives doivent exister entre les membres des différentes sociétés et que ces différences sont, de façon significative, en liaison avec les caractéristiques culturelles et écologiques propres à chacune d'elles.     

New strings for old: The role of similarity processing in an incidental learning task

This paper reports three experiments that examine the role of similarity processing in McGeorge and Burton's (1990) incidental learning task. In the experiments subjects performed a distractor task involving four-digit number strings, all of which conformed to a simple hidden rule. They were then given a forced-choice memory test in which they were presented with pairs of strings and were led to believe that one string of each pair had appeared in the prior learning phase. Although this was not the case, one string of each pair did conform to the hidden rule. Experiment 1 showed that, as in the McGeorge and Burton study, subjects were significantly more likely to select test strings that conformed to the hidden rule. However, additional analyses suggested that rather than having implicitly abstracted the rule, subjects may have been selecting strings that were in some way similar to those seen during the learning phase. Experiments 2 and 3 were designed to try to separate out effects due to similarity from those due to implicit rule abstraction. It was found that the results were more consistent with a similarity-based model than implicit rule abstraction per se.     

Individual differences in reactivity to daily events: examining the roles of stability and level of self-esteem

Unstable self-esteem is thought to reflect fragile and vulnerable feelings of self-worth that are affected by specific positive and negative events. Direct evidence for this contention is lacking, however. To redress this situation, we examined the extent to which level and stability of self-esteem predicted the impact that everyday positive and negative events had on individuals' feelings about themselves. Participants recorded the most positive and most negative event that occurred each day Monday through Thursday for a period of 2 weeks. They then indicated the extent to which each event made them feel better or worse about themselves. As anticipated, negative and positive events had a greater impact on the self-feelings of individuals with unstable as opposed to stable self-esteem (although the effect for positive events was marginal). Additional findings indicated that event qualities (i.e., self-esteem relevance and concerns about social acceptance/rejection) could account for the unstable self-esteem/greater reactivity link for negative events, but not for positive events. Negative, but not positive, events had a greater impact on the self-feelings of individuals with low as compared to high levels of self-esteem. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Effects of response sets on NEO-PI-R scores and their relations to external criteria

Validity scales indicate the extent to which the results of a self-report inventory are a valid indicator of the test taker's psychological functioning. Validity scales generally are designed to detect the common response sets of positive impression management (underreporting, or faking good), negative impression management (overreporting, or faking bad), and random responding. The revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992b) is a popular personality assessment tool based on the 5-factor model of personality and is used in a variety of settings. The NEO-PI-R does not include objective validity scales to screen for positive or negative impression management. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of recently proposed validity scales for detecting these response sets on the NEO-PI-R (Schinka, Kinder, & Kremer, 1997) and to examine the effects of positive and negative impression management on correlations between the NEO-PI-R and external criteria (the Interpersonal Adjective Scale-Revised-B5 [Wiggins & Trapnell, 1997] and the NEO-PI-R Form R). The validity scales discriminated with reasonable accuracy between standard responding and the 2 response sets. Additionally, most correlations between the NEO-PI-R and external criteria were significantly lower when participants were dissimulating than when responding to standard instructions. It appears that response sets of positive and negative impression management may pose a significant threat to the external validity of the NEO-PI-R and that validity scales for their detection might be a useful addition to the inventory.