Explain the proximal similarity model with an example

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In the proximal similarity approach, you begin by thinking about different contexts you might want to generalize to, and which are more similar to your study and which are less so. For instance, you might imagine several settings, some having people who are more similar to the people in your sample, and others having people who are less similar. This process also holds for times and places. Now picture this in terms of gradations of closeness to your study. Some combinations of people, places, and times are "closer" to those in your study, while others are more "distant" or less similar. The technical term for this idea is the gradient of similarity. There are some groups, for instance, who are more similar to your sample and would be closer along this gradient. Others would be less similar and further away along this imaginary gradient.

For example, imagine that the sample in your study consisted of females between the ages of 18–22 in a small Midwestern college town. Who would likely be more similar to your sample, a group of females aged 18–22 from another Midwestern college town, or a group of females aged 18–22 from Paris? Most likely you would argue that the group from another small Midwestern college town are "closer" to your sample than the one from Paris. That is, you would be saying they are closer along a gradient of similarity.