Arnett Response To Psychology Of Globalization Summary

Response to Psychology of Globalization In his article, Arnett (2002) states, referring to identity reshaping as the consequences of globalization, “Identity becomes based less on prescribed social roles and more on individual choices, on decisions that each person makes about what values to embrace and what paths to pursue in love and work” (Arnett 2002, p.781). Arnett is claiming that Identity in today’s globalized world is determined by individual choices rather than society’s rules. Although I agree with Arnett (2002) up to a point, I cannot accept his overall conclusion that social roles are less effective nowadays, and individual choices have the final word. Arnett’s (2002) claim is built upon the assumption that world citizens can determine their lifestyle without external source intervening, it such as society, culture or government. I, on the contrary, claim that in countries where traditions are the defining feature of the culture, it is hard to contradict it by any mean, especially if it is a western value. …show more content…
That is because; it is built upon the idea of the ineffectiveness of social roles in identity reshaping. Arnett (2002) overlooks citizens in some countries who cannot follow global values because they will be looked down on and disdained by their society,. For instance, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, there is a huge influence of western rappers and hip-hop singers, but young Saudis find it hard to even wear similar clothes to those rappers or hip-hop singers because they would be considered outcasts by their society and would be more suspicious for the Committee of “ Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”. Thus, Arnett (2002) were mistaken when he did not consider different culture’s tolerance of global