Globalization

What are the values of global culture based off?

individualism, free market economics, democracy

What are the values of global culture?

freedom of choice, individual rights, openness to change, tolerance of differences

What are the things globalisation changed?

Gender roles, Attitudes towards marriage & sexuality, Rise in secularism (acceptance to not hold a religion), attitude towards privacy, Increased consumerism,

Global culture

international culture via globalisation

Local culture

culture we are enculturated into

Biculturalism

comfortable/proficient in more than one culture

Delocalisation

Strong global identity but can’t connect to local culture

Acculturative stress

stress that stems from trying to adapt to the new culture

Identity confusion

difficulty integrating into single identity (globalisation may be a cause)

Third culture kids

TCKs - people who were raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of their country of nationality

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) - Aim

investigate how well the Integrated Threat Theory & Gordon Allport’s theory explain the attitudes toward Muslims in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) - Theories included

• Integrated Threat Theory: prejudice is a result of perceived threats to one's in-group

• Gordon Allport’s theory: contact with members of an out-group can lead to anxiety reduction, empathy, and a reconceptualization of the out-group (other studies have shown that there are many factors that may influence whether contact alone plays a role.)

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) - Sample

Stratified sample (social science, technology, and natural science percentage of students represented), chosen randomly from roster, 716 university students, second or third-year undergrads.

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) - Procedure

participants approached in lecture halls and asked if they wanted to fill survey.

Survey:

• knowledge about Islam

• subjective views of Muslims and Islam

• geographic knowledge of the Islamic world

• personal characteristics of the participant

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) - Results

• Czech Republic and Slovakia have fewer opportunities to interact with Muslims (not been significant Muslim immigration)

  • 10% of respondents had a Muslim friend, 23% said that they had met

• level of knowledge about Islam negatively correlated with perceived threat (the more the participants knew about Islam, the less they felt threatened by Muslims)

• correlation was also found in the level of personal contact with Muslims and the amount of travel to Muslim countries

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) - Conclusion

both education about Muslims and personal contact have an effect on decreasing prejudice

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) - Eval

• correlational

• problematic in that questions presented:

  • Forced choice means that the participants were not given a specific option to choose a "non-response,” such as "no opinion," "I don't know," "not sure," or "not applicable."

• relatively large sample size

• homogenous for the level of education and the age of the participants

• not representative of the general Czech and Slovak population - University students tend to travel more, be more urban, and be of a certain socioeconomic status

• open to the social desirability effect and demand characteristics

• self-reported and rather abstract

• not clear how these participants would react in an actual interaction with Muslims

Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2014) - Aim

Explore the concept of Hikikomori

Hypothesis: that globalisation may be cause because it has brought rapid social & cultural changes → may contribute to feelings of confusion, disorientation, & disconnection among individuals.

What is Hikikomori (Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2014))

• Hikikomori - “social isolation syndrome” phenomenon where individuals withdraw from social life & isolate themselves for long periods of time.

  • primarily affects young men

  • ages 15-34

  • no motivation to participate in school or work

  • no signs of other psychological disorders

  • persistent social withdrawal for at least six months

Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2014) - Sample

Japanese university students with varying risk of hikikomori (found it difficult to find people who suffer from hikikomori)

Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2014) - Procedure

• Standerdised test

• measure their attitudes about social harmony & social conformity

• perception of their current self, their ideal self, general Japanese society

• test to measure their sense of local identity (high on social harmony and collectivism) and global identity (high on individualism and achievement)

Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2014) - Results

• both groups (no/hikikomori) agreed that social harmony and conformity were highly valued by Japanese society

• students at high risk for hikikomori ranked social harmony values much lower than the low-risk

• high-risk students scored lower than low-risk students on both local identity and global identity

Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2014) - Conclusion

local culture may alienate Japanese youths who then decide not to conform to the cultural norms but do not identify with/know how to access the globalized culture, thus withdrawing from society.

Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2014) - Eval

• correlational

• The sample size was relatively large, allowing for some level of generalizability.

• analogous approach - participants don’t actually suffer from hikikomori, js have a risk for it.

• self-reported

• strong correlation, it is not clear why these specific symptoms manifest themselves in Japanese culture when they are not seen in most other cultures among marginalized groups

Becker et al (2002) - Aim

Study if the introduction of television would lead to an increase in disordered eating attitudes in Fijian girls in two secondary schools in Nadroga

• Looks at the effect of television (globalisation) on body image of girls in Fiji

  • Television was introduced to Fiji in 1995

Becker et al (2002) - Sample

• around 60 participants

• two secondary schools

• ages of 16 and 18

• two groups (unrelated to each other):

  • first group in 1995 a few weeks after television introduced

  • second group 1998 three years later

Becker et al (2002) - Procedure

• EAT-26 - standardized test

  • determine eating attitudes

• Semi-structured interviews

  • confirm test results if evidence of binging and/or purging behaviors

  • weight and height measured

  • 1998 given additional questions: dieting practice, body image, and differences in generational value

Becker et al (2002) - Results

• significant difference in the EAT-26 scores

• self-reported binge eating did not change significantly (1995 - 7.9% and 1998 - 4.6%)

• interviews revealed that there was little awareness among the participants that television images are heavily edited.

• 1995:

  • EAT-26: 12.7%

  • no girls reported purging behaviors

• 1998:

  • EAT-26: 29.2%

  • 11.3% of sample reported purging behaviours - scores >20 were correlated with dieting and self-induced vomiting

  • 69% of the participants reported diet to lose weight

  • 74% felt that they were “too big or fat”

  • 77% reported that television had made them think differently about body image

  • 40% felt that weight loss would improve their job prospects

  • 31% felt that their parents’ generation wanted them to consume too much food

Becker et al (2002) - Eval

• prospective study - behaviours of participants were measured prior to television

• natural experiment - television is not ID the researcher manipulated, they simply took advantage of the circumstance

• etic approach - EAT-26 is western test assumed by research that it can be used despite cultural differences - administered in English because all participants are fluent English speakers.

• Can’t be replicated - reliability low

• natural - high eco

• self reported - cannot diagnose only form theory not evidence in terms of cause of anorexia

• cannot conclude that the group in 1998 did not have disordered eating behaviors in 1995 as the two samples did not have the same participants

• difficult to isolate the variable of television viewing - no recorded number of hours watched, peer pressure may have come into play