Toward a Social Psychology of Globalization

Abstract

In most parts of the world, globalization has become an unstoppable and potent force that impacts everyday life and international relations. The articles in this issue draw on theoretical insights from diverse perspectives (clinical psychology, consumer research, organizational behavior, political psychology, and cultural psychology) to offer nuanced understanding of individuals' psychological reactions to globalization in different parts of the world (). These articles address the questions of how people make sense of and respond to globalization and its sociocultural ramifications; how people defend the integrity of their heritage cultural identities against the "culturally erosive" effects of globaliza- tion, and how individuals harness creative insights from their interactions with global cultures. The new theoretical insights and revealing empirical analyses presented in this issue set the stage for an emergent interdisciplinary inquiry into the psychology of globalization.At the turn of the century, Albert Bandura (2001) noted that societies today are undergoing drastic social, informational, and technological changes, and that

Conceptualizing psychological processes in response to globalization: Components, antecedents, and consequences of global orientations.

“…It reflects the narrowing of the cultural mind, with an ethnocentric, essentialized approach to guarding one's cultural status, adhering to behavioral ideals of local culture, and resisting multicultural environments and intercultural exchanges. These individuals may not react negatively to stimuli from a single foreign culture stimuli, but rather to mixing their own culture's iconic image with that of another culture (Morris, Mok, & Mor, 2011;Torelli et al, 2011). They are anxious about losing their culture's borders and unwilling to leave their comfort zone to embrace novelty.…”

“…Globalization is a process of promoting world-wide integration and interdependence across national borders, exerting economic, political, sociological, technological, and environmental influences (e.g., Arnett, 2002; Berger & Huntington, 2002;Chiu, Gries, Torelli, & Cheng, 2011;Kashima, 2007). The growth of information technology, the speed of geographic mobility, and the expansion of international corporations have exposed many people to two or more cultures and facilitated intercultural contact.…”

“…The moderating role of global orientations in multicultural experiences can also be explored. For example, though exposure to the juxtaposition of cultural stimuli fosters cognitive creativity (Leung & Chiu, 2010;Leung et al, 2008), it can induce negative emotions and exclusionary reactions (Cheng, Leung, & Wu, 2011;Torelli et al, 2011). Note.…”

“…Integrative reactions are described as goal-oriented responses geared toward problem solving, whereas exclusionary reactions are described as emotional reactions to fear of cultural contamination/erosion. For instance, they found that simultaneous exposure to images and symbols from two cultures increased ingroup attributions of culture-typical characteristics and perceptions of dissimilarities and incompatibility between two cultures, but this bicultural exposure effect could be attenuated by thoughtful elaboration about cultural complexities to overcome the fear of cultural contamination (Chiu, Mallorie, Keth, & Law, 2009;Torelli et al, 2011). Thus, exclusionary reactions are spontaneous and reflexive, but integrative reactions are deliberate and effortful.…”

Managing ‘Ordinary Heritage’ in Poland: Łódź and Its Post-Industrial Legacy

“…On the one hand it is strongly determined by external factors which are common for other countries, i.e. economic factors (Salah El-Dien Ouf, 2008;Schlanger and Aitchison, 2010), switching over to sustainability (Loulanski and Loulanski, 2011;Rudnicka, 2010) or European and global integration processes (van Gorp and Renes, 2007;Chiu et al, 2011). On the other hand, however, it depends strongly on national cultural specificity.…”