Jan Sutton's Profile

It is obvious, for example, how heuristically helpful even the simplest and most common definition of the concept ("insider" versus "outsider" view) has become to doctors and psychologists attempting to diagnose illnesses of patients of another culture, or to educators teaching in a cross-cultural setting. What is the norm in the culture of the teacher or examining nurse may have no application in the culture of the patient or pupil. The resulting miscommunication may be especially glaring when the world view of the latter differs from that of the former. In psychology, one author in that field says his colleagues have only recently (in 1979) "become increasingly aware of the desperate need for an emic approach" (Ciborowski 1979:107). Clearly, the emic/etic idea has done much to help psychologists recognize that "much of what we label as cross-cultural psychology [is] essentially centri-cultural psychology" (ibid.).

It is obvious, for example, how heuristically helpful even the simplest and most common definition of the concept ("insider" versus "outsider" view) has become to doctors and psychologists attempting to diagnose illnesses of patients of another culture, or to educators teaching in a cross-cultural setting. What is the norm in the culture of the teacher or examining nurse may have no application in the culture of the patient or pupil. The resulting miscommunication may be especially glaring when the world view of the latter differs from that of the former. In psychology, one author in that field says his colleagues have only recently (in 1979) "become increasingly aware of the desperate need for an emic approach" (Ciborowski 1979:107). Clearly, the emic/etic idea has done much to help psychologists recognize that "much of what we label as cross-cultural psychology [is] essentially centri-cultural psychology" (ibid.).

using avatars to bridge gaps of distance and understanding