Globalization
“ The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operations on an international scale”
* process of interaction and Integration among people of different nations
* Driven by international trade and investment aided by technology
Factors that make globalization happen
* increased travel
* Transnational companies with labour standards
* International marketing and access to good
* Social media—> flow of information from the internet
local, global, bicultural
* locals culture is the immediate culture
* Global cultures: cultures apart from your own
* Bicultural: having 2 different cultural identities coexisting which you can mix and interchange in different situations
Changes caused by globalization
* how you view yourself and others
* Gender roles
* Attitudes towards marriage and sexuality
* Increased consumerism
* Cuisine
* Loss of culture/language
* Combination of cultures
Effects
1. Identity globalization: the difficulty integrating one's values and place in society
2. Delocalization: when one has a solid global identity but fails to identify with their own local culture
Examples
(essentially the theory)
1. Hikikomori - Japanese struggle with the two worlds- the global world of the internet and then the local culture which requires a high level of conformity
2. Herbivore Men- The Western ideal of being assertive and asking someone out on a date is problematic for many Japanese.
1. Hikikomori
* Culture bound syndrome
* It is found primarily in Japan where young Japanese may lack themselves in their rooms and refuse to come out for years at a time \
* Also known as the social isolation syndrome
* Globalization brings about rapid changes in cultural norms, values and expectations. Traditional societal structures and expectations may clash with the aspirations and desires of individuals, this is what leads to the feelings of disconnection and alienation. The resulting cultural dissonance can contribute to hikikomori as a coping mechanism or means of retreat from the pressures of a changing society
Symptoms:
* No motivation to participate in school, or work
* No signs of other psychological disorders
* Persistent social withdrawal for at least six months
Extra informational:
* who haven’t participated in society, or shown a desire to do so, for at least a year. They rely instead on their parents to take care of them. In 2016, the Japanese government census put the figure at 540,000 for people aged 15-39. But it could easily be double that number. Since many prefer to stay entirely hidden, they remain uncounted.
* an increasing number of families have only one son in whom they put all their hopes and dreams, and few of them have male role models since their fathers work day and night, persistent gender roles continue to ascribe much, if not all, to the economic responsibilities to the household’s patriarch, to name a few.
* The longer the hikikomori remain apart from society, the more aware they become of their social failure. They lose whatever self-esteem and confidence they have, and the prospect of leaving home becomes ever more terrifying. Locking themselves in their room makes them feel ‘safe’.
Hikikomori study;
Ogihara & uchida (2014)
* Studied Japanese women working for an international, western company.
* Achievement-oriented women had lower subjective well-being and fewer close friends.
* The lower levels of well-being in the Japanese sample may have been due to the transition that Japan is currently experiencing, where globalization is leading to a movement toward individualism in the workplace while maintaining the traditional collectivistic values in general society
They investigated the effect of working in an individualistic workplace would have on the subjective well-being of Japanese women. The sample consisted of 34 adult Japanese women who worked for a large insurance company where performance and achievement-oriented goals were posted on the walls of the offices. Results suggest that even in the study’s achievement-oriented environment, Japanese participants who were achievement-oriented score lower on subjective well-being and fewer friends.
Aims: Ogihara & Uchida (2014) wanted to investigate the effect that working in an individualistic workplace would have on the subjective well-being of Japanese women.
Sample: the study involved 34 Japanese women who worked for a large insurance company in japan. The participants’ ages ranged from 22 to 51.
Procedure: the researcher contacted the company directors to seek permission for the study. The directors then advertised the study through an internal email, asking for volunteers. Those who were willing to participate in the study took part in it. Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires designed to measure their level of individualism, subjective well-being and the number of close friends they had. These questionnaires were used to gather data on the participants’ individualistic orientation, happiness levels and social relationships.
Findings suggest that even in the study's achievement-oriented environment, Japanese achievement-oriented participants scored lower on subjective well-being and had fewer close friends. The lower levels of well-being in the Japanese sample may be due to the transition that Japan is currently experiencing, where globalization is promoting individualism in the workplace while the local culture is maintaining traditional collectivistic values.
Evaluation:
Strength:
By using questionnaires, the researchers were able together context specific information which was relevant to studying globalization, such as their subjective well-being and how the increasingly individualistic workplace ideologies may have interfered with their ability to conform to traditional expectations and gender norms which led to their lack of close social bonds with others in their community. This highlights the high testability and construct validity, which allows for specific details and information to be analyzed when investigating the impacts and nature of globalization
Weakness:
While efforts were made to use a nationally representative sample, the self-report nature of questionnaire data may be subject to social desirability bias as participants may have been inclined to present themselves in a manner aligned with their Japanese cultural ideals. This underscores the difficulty with collecting unbiased and valid data when investigating the impacts of globalization on collectivist cultures . Thai bias also highlights how globalization is not a unidirectional force as suggested, but rather subjective perceptions and behaviours of individuals within a culture, and that globalization , may not impact all individuals equally like we’d expect, otherwise, most of the sampe would present large career aspirations and would report less social bonding and well being, possible sociring them extremely low.
Norasakkunkit and Uchida (2014)- correlation
* applied berry and Sam’s acculturation model to explain the origins of hikikomori
* Japanese youth may not see the benefit of conformity and social harmony which is characteristic of japanese society and yet do not feel that they are part of the globalised community and its values
* This leads to identity confusion and marginalization
* Argues that culture alienates some young people, but they cannot identify or access global culture
* When assessing current self and ideal self, the students at high-risk for hikikomori ranked social harmony values much lower than the low-risk students.
Aim: to see how the difference between people at high and low risk of becoming hikikomori, affected their views on social harmony
Sample: 195 Japanese university students (hikikomori hard to access)
Method:
* Participants given a standardised test testing whether are at low or high risk for hikikomori
* Researchers then gave participants a test to measure their attitudes for social harmony and social conformity
* The test looked at 3 distinct things:
* Perception of current self
* Their ideal self
* General Japanese society
* Also asked to take a test to measure their sense of local identity (high on social harmony and collectivism) and global identity (high on individualism and achievement)
Results:
* both groups agreed that social harmony and conformity were highly valued by Japanese society
* When assessing current self and ideal self, students at high risk for hikikomori ranked social harmony values much lower than the low risk students
* High risk students would likely be lower in harmony seeking and conformity than what they perceive to be the case in Japanese society as a whole
* High risk students scored lower than the lower risk students on both local identity and global identity
* Local culture may alienate many Japanese youth who may then decide not to conform to the cultural norms but do not identify with or know how to access globalized culture and so they withdraw from society
Evaluation
Strength:
The study's methodology, which combined a standardized assessment of hikikomori risks which measures social harmony, conformity and cultural identification, provides a robust approach to investigating globalization. By directly comparing high and low risk groups, the researchers were able to highlight the key psychological differences that may contribute to the development of the hikikomori which presents high validity. Thai procedural vigour revealed that globalisation is a phenomenon that can contribute to create distinct patterns of cultural dissonance and identity confusion within a population.
Weakness:
The study's findings, which like to acculturative strategies bia the distinct patterns of cultural dissonance and marginalization have important implication for understanding the psychological impacts of globalization. By applying Berry’s model, the researchers were able to like the hikikomori content to the broader context of cultural identity, revealing how globalization can alienate individuals from both their local and global communities resulting in the increasing emergence of coping mechanisms akin to social withdrawal and isolation.