Emic and etic
Emic and etic are terms used by some in the social sciences and the behavioral sciences to refer to two different kinds of data concerning human behavior.An "emic" account of behavior is a description of behavior in terms meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor.An "etic" account is a description of a behavior in terms familiar to the observer.Scientists interested in the local construction of meaning,and local rules for behavior,will rely on emic accounts; scientists interested in facilitating comparative research and making universal claims will rely on etic accounts.
The terms were first introduced by the linguist Kenneth Pike,who argued that the tools linguists had developed for describing linguistic behaviors could be adapted to the description of any human social behavior.Emic and etic are derived from the linguistic terms phonemic and phonetic respectively.