Emics and etics: A symbiotic conception

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