Group 1

Psy 888

EARLY PHILIPPINE PSYCHOLOGY

From the beginning of the periods when the Philippines was colonized by Spain,
and then the USA, academic psychology, or the psychology taught in schools, was
predominantly Western in theory and in methodology.

 The Western approach in research of not being enmeshed and bound by the
culture being studied has resulted in a characterization of the Filipino from the
‘‘judgmental and impressionistic point of view of the colonizers’’ (Enriquez, 1992,
p. 57).

 1970’s Virgilio Gaspar Enriquez returned to the Philippines from Northwestern

University USA with a Ph.D. degree and lost no time in introducing the concept of
Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Psychology)
 He then, together with the chairman of the Department of Psychology at the
University of the Philippines (U.P.), Dr. Alfredo V. Lagmay embarked on a
research into the historical and cultural roots of Philippine Psychology
So because of these two people the ideas, concepts, and formulations of Sikolohiyang
Pilipino were formally articulated.

 Eventually, the research included identifying indigenous concepts and

approaches in Philippine psychology and developing creativity and inventiveness
among Filipinos.
 From these researches, a two-volume bibliography on Filipino psychology and a
locally developed personality test:
◽ Panukat ng Ugali at Pagkatao
 In 1975, Enriquez chaired the Unang Pambansang Kumperensya sa
Sikolohiyang Pilipino

What is Filipino psychology?

it is an Indigenous Psychology

The scientific study of the ethnicity, society

and culture of a people and the application
to psychological practice of indigenous
knowledge rooted in the people’s ethnic
heritage and consciousness.
  Sikolohiyang Pilipino is anchored on Filipino thought and experience as
understood from a Filipino perspective (Enriquez, 1975).

 Enriquez (1985) later defined Sikolohiyang Pilipino as ‘‘the study of diwa

(‘psyche’), which in Filipino directly refers to the wealth of ideas referred to by the
philosophical concept of ‘essence’ and an entire range of psychological concepts
from awareness to motives to behavior’’.

 It is based on assessing historical and sociocultural realities, understanding the

local language, unraveling Filipino characteristics, and explaining them through
the eyes of the native Filipino (Pe – Pua and Protacio – Marcelino, 2000)

 SP is an indigenous Asian psychology that emphasizes identity and national

consciousness, social awareness and involvement, psychology of language and
culture, and applications.

 SP stressed the need for psychology to be ethical or respectful of the Filipino

(makatao), to be relevant to Filipino social realities (makabuluhan), and to be
culturally appropriate (angkop sa kultura).

Filipino psychology is defined as the psychology rooted on the experience, ideas, and
cultural orientation of the Filipinos.

Major Characteristics of Sikolohiyang PilipinO

 Identity and national consciousness
 It’s against a psychology that perpetuates colonial status of the Filipino
 Psychological practice in a Philippine context
 It is concerned with both science and humanistic approaches
 It also maintains mentalism-behaviorism approach

Virgilio Gaspar Enriquez – a.k.a

Father of Filipino Psychology

Doc E.

 Laking Bulacan
 Nag-aral ng post-graduate studies sa ibang bansa
 Taong 1970s ng bumalik sa Pilipinas
 Established the Philippine Psychology Research and Training House (PPRTH)
 UP Department of Psychology Chair from 1977-1982
BASIC TERMS AND CONCEPTS

KAMALAYAN- consciousness; includes emotive and cognitive experience

ULIRAT- awareness of one’s immediate surrounding

ISIP- which refers to knowledge and understanding

DIWA- which includes habits and behavior

KALOOBAN- emotions or feelings

KALULUWA or psyche which translates to soul of a people

SIKOLOHIYA NG MGA PILIPINO

PSYCHOLOGY OF FILIPINO

Theorizing about the psychological nature of the filipinos weather from local or foreign
perspective
The most common approach in investigating the pinoy and their supposed characters

SIKOLOHIYA NG PILIPINAS

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE PHILIPPINES

The general form of psychology in the Philippine context

This includes psychological knowledge that may or may not having or anything to do
with a Filipino

FILIPINO INDIGENOUS PSYCHOLOGY: TRADITION

Native psychological thought

Indigenous psychology: kinagisnan and katutubong sikolohiya.

Psychology of Filipinos - perceived ethnic traits, as observed by foreigners or as felt and

expressed by Filipinos.

The practice of psychology by Filipinos techniques of enculturation, socialization.

Kinagisnang sikolohiya - the subconscious psychology imbedded in the native language,

art, music, culture and religion (one has been born into; unaware). e.g. kaluluwa at
ginhawa.

Katutubong sikolohiya - psychology worked out by Filipinos with indigenous elements as

basis (innate to the Filipino) e.g. Kartilya of the Katipunan, Jose Rizal, Hermano Pule,
Isabelo de los Reyes.
Katutubong sikolohiya and Kinagisnang sikolohiya constitute Katutubong sikolohiya.

Psychology of Filipinos- based on mainly Western system of thought e.g. Spanish:

Pigafetta's quite objective observation of the Filipinos in the Visayas (impressed by
them); American: Worcester's view of the Filipinos as distinct ethnic groups different
from one another as Christian and non-Christian (pagans and Moros).

Practice of psychology by Filipinos:

a.) Indigenous techniques of enculturation/ socialization, e.g. myths for social control, or
as affected by Christianity or Islam.

b.) proto-clinical practice, e.g. tagapayo, manghuhula, ancient techniques of group

therapy that are still present (alternating chants during wakes, poetry, consensus).

Psycho-medical system: religion as cohesive element and explanation.

(1565) Babaylan or Catalonan techniques of healing; disease theory, causation, therapy.

(1650) Messianic movements

(1730) Herbolaryo

(1900) Espiritista

As part of the indigenous psychology tradition, sikolohiyang Pilipino is built on

psychological knowledge that:

(a) arose from within the culture;

(b) reflects local behaviors;

(c) can be interpreted within a local frame of reference; and

(d) yields results that are locally relevant (Sinha, 1997).

However, Enriquez (1978) is quick to point out that sikolohiyang Pilipino does not
advocate that foreign theories should altogether be abandoned. Uncritical rejection of
anything foreign is as dangerous as uncritical acceptance of Western theories.
Four Filiations of Sikolohiyang Pilipino

Zeus Salazar (1985), a historian, later examined the history of Sikoohiyang Pilipino and

came up with a description of the four filiations of Philippine psychology:

1. The Academic-scientific psychology: the Western

- Wilhelm Wundt, this coincide with the birth of scientificpsychology the (German
tradition) in 1876, and the entry ofWestern psychology (mainly American tradition) at
theUniversity of the Philippines (1908) and other schools.

2. The Academic-philosophical psychology: the Western (mainly clerical)

- This was pursued by the University of Sto. Tomas and later other schools of higher
learning, under the leadership of individual monks and preachers and Jesuits. The study
of psychology as an aspect of philosophy continued in the tradition of Thomasic
philosophy and psychology.

3. Ethnic psychology: • Indigenous psychology: kinagisnan and katutubong sikolohiya.

- The subconscious psychology imbedded in the native language, art, music, culture
and religion (one has been born into; unaware). - e.g. kaluluwa at ginhawa

• Psychology of Filipinos - perceived ethnic traits, as observed by foreigners or as felt

and expressed by Filipinos.

- psychology worked out by Filipinos with indigenous elements as basis (innate to the
Filipino)

- e.g. Kartilya of the Katipunan, Jose Rizal, Hermano Pule, Isabelo de los Reyes.

• The practice of psychology by Filipinos – techniques of enculturation, socialization.

- based on mainly Western system of thought

- e.g. Spanish: Pigafetta’s quite objective observation of the Filipinos in the Visayas
(impressed by them); American: Worcester’s view of the Filipinos as distinct ethnic
groups different from one another as Christian and non-Christian (pagans and Moros).

4. Psycho-medical: Religion - cohesive element and explanation. - (1565) Babaylan or

Catalonan techniques of healing; disease theory, causation, therapy. - (1650) Messianic
movements - (1730) Herbolaryo

Ethnic psychology Katutubong sikolohiya/ Indigenous psychology

- Is a psychological system worked out by Filipinos from indigenous and foreign.

- It includes the study of Filipino Psychology in the context of the Filipino people’s ethnic
traits which may be culled from both native or foreign, mainly Spanish, sources.

Filipino Psychology -- attempts to study Psychology in the Philippine context and with a
Filipino orientation.

American Colonial Psychology

 When the US colonized the Philippines in the early 1900’s, it established the
American educational system and language. With it came American psychology
(Lagmay, 1984).

 The Philippine social sciences emerged as specialized disciplines with the

establishment of academic departments in the early American colonial period.
‘Patterned after American universities, the social science departments in the country
were created in different years.
 • Anthropology
 • Economics
 • Political Sciences
 • Psychology
 • Sociology

 Zeus Salazar (1985a), a historian, later examined the history of Sikolohiyang

Pilipino and came up with a description of the four filiations of Philippine psychology:

 The first filiation identified by Salazar is academic-scientific psychology which

entered the country in 1925 when Dr. Agustin Alonzo came back to the University of
the Philippines. Alonzo obtained his doctorate in experimental psychology from' the
University of Chicago and became chair of the U.P. Department of Psychology
which was then under the College Of Education. Alonzo brought back American-
oriented educational psychology and was mentor to a number of known Filipino
psychologists, including Alfredo Lagmay, Estafania Aldaba and Sinforoso Padilla
(Enriquez, 1994).

 Lagmay (1984) commented about this history of psychological science in the

Philippines as a "case of cultural diffusion which started about the turn of the
century, when the United States, as colonizer, came to this country and established
an educational system based on the English language as the primary medium of
instruction. "
 Enriquez (1994) had this to say about the impact of the use of the English language
on psychology in the Philippines: The use of English as the medium of instruction in
psychology made possible the speedy introduction of American-oriented psychology
and values. With American textbooks in psychology from Thorndike, Hall and
Lindzey to Hilgard and McConnell, Filipinos began learning not only a new
psychology but also a new' culture. Education became miseducation because it
began to de-Filipinize the Filipino psychologists, taught them to look up to American
departments of psychology as always years ahead of Philippine counterparts, to
regard American psychology as always superior to theirs and American society as
the model par excellence for Philippine society.

 Academic-scientific psychology, in this context, may then be viewed as a tool of

colonization. Psychological knowledge in education was particularly of great utility to
the colonizers who were using education as the main means to subjugate the
natives. The entry of academic-scientific psychology "into Filipino consciousness
and academic preoccupations was a clear case of technology transfer cum foreign
ideology and world view (Salazar,1985)."

 In summary, the pre-Sikolohiyang Pilipino period, coinciding with the colonial era,
was also a period of dominance by western knowledge structures in psychology. In
the decades of the fifties and sixties, the Philippines, though independent, found
itself still looking to the former colonizers for the country's agenda and development.

 In the educational field, the former colony was faced with the task of training its
many academics who would eventually run the degree programs in the universities
and colleges. Academics who eventually made an impact in the field of psychology
in the Philippines went to the United States to train in "rigorous" and "scientific"
psychology.

 This era of Philippine psychology was heavily influenced by psychological science in

the North American tradition, following the two traditions of experimentation and
correlation (Torres, 1997). The brand of psychology was both empirical and
positivistic. This is heavily evident in the nature of research and publication at that
time. Papers accepted for publication in the Philippine Journal of Psychology had to
meet the criteria of empiricism and scientific rigor maintained by the editorial board.
"Legitimate psychology was (and is) stereotyped to be that which proceeds from
experimentation, rigid statistical procedures, and from observable data (Torres,
1997)." Most, if not all, published papers then were in English. Textbooks and other
course materials were all western and usually in English, too. Whatever local
textbooks were written were patterned after western texts and heavily cited western
 theories and research data. Even the local psychological association (founded in
1962) still looked west, affiliating with the American Psychological Association and
the International Union of Psychological Science and vowed to uphold scientific
traditions, ethicality and the welfare of man.

 From the beginning of the periods when the Philippines was colonized by Spain,
and then the USA, academic psychology, or the psychology taught in schools, was
predominantly Western in theory and in methodology.

 Many Filipino intellectuals, notably the two Philippine heroes Jose Rizal and
Apolinario Mabini, expressed dissatisfaction at the pejorative interpretations of
Filipino behavior by Western observers. This disenchantment continued as Filipinos
struggled to assert their national and cultural identity.

 In the 1960s, many Filipino intellectuals and scholars were already sensitive both to
the inadequacy as well as the unfairness of the Western-oriented approaches to
psychology. For instance, in the area of personality, the Western approach in
research of not being enmeshed and bound by the culture being studied has
resulted in a characterization of the Filipino from the ‘‘judgmental and
impressionistic point of view of the colonizers’’ (Enriquez, 1992, p.57).

 For example, the predisposition to indirectness of Filipino communication was

regarded as being dishonest and socially ingratiating and reflecting a deceptive
verbal description of reality (Lawless, 1969, cited in Enriquez, 1992) rather than a
concern for the feelings of others. (There are many other examples which are
discussed further in this article.)

 Thus, using American categories and standards, ‘‘the native Filipino invariably
suffers from the comparison in not too subtle attempts to put forward Western
behavior patterns as models for the Filipino (Enriquez, 1992, p. 57). However, there
was no concerted effort in the 1960s to reject and correct the traditional way of
teaching and studying psychology.
PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORIES

Agustin Alonzo

First American-trained Filipino experimental psychologist is better remembered for his

classes in America-oriented educational Psychology. (Alas!)

-Proficient in American English with psychology as the topic of discourse

The realization applies to the psychological situation:

(Constantino 1975) “The use of English as the medium of instruction in psychology

made possible speedy introduction of American- oriented psychology and values. With
American textbooks in Psychology from Thorndike, Hall, and Lindey to Hilgard and
McConnell, Filipinos began learning not only a new psychology but also a new culture.
Education became miseducation because it began to de Filipinize the Filipino
psychologists, taught them to look up to American departments of Psychology as
always superior to theirs and American psychology as the model at par excellence for
Philippine Society.”

Agustin Alonzo American trained Filipino experimental psychologist - trained by

American Psychologists, influenced by American education and culture on Philippine
Psychology.

Graduated American – oriented

Psychologist in the Philippines

- Influenced by Edward Lee Thorndike, handling of rats in the laboratory.

Sinforoso Padilla, student of Agustin Alonzo – established the Experimental Laboratory

in U.P.

PSYCHOGICAL TESTS

Sinforoso Padilla- credited for his attempt at local psychological test development;
authored Philippine Mental Abilities

Manuel Carreon- develop appropriate and relevant psychological testing

-Some educationalists and test-administrators understood Carreons message, modified

tests to fit Philippine conditions; known as “change-apples-to-papayas”– approach to
improving test validity;

Pagpapatawas– indigenous psychological testing; traditional projective technique

(Rorshach in Philippine psychology)

Identifying with the new culture

“culturally classified with the great natives of the Americas and Europe” --
-Isidoro Panlasigui

Panlasigui -- "the language of the conquered may be adopted by the conqueror or vice-
versa." He considered it a boost to Philippine national dignity to be "culturally classified
with the great natives of the Americas and Europe," and so he happily quoted Hayes
([1937] in Panlasigui 1962):

Panlasigui's (educational psychologist) contribution to Philippine psychology cannot of

course be found in his Elementary Statistics, Educational Measurement and Evaluation
(1951), which amounted to nothing more than a lengthy description of how to compute
the correlation coefficient, but in his more authentic Ti Agtutubo (19-) and Ti Ubing
(1956).

“If Europe is anything more than a geographical expression, then the American nations-
and likewise Australia and New Zealand and South Africa and even Serbia and the
Philippine Islands-are, and for a long time have been, as much a part of Europe as
British [sic], Spain, or Russia. Their languages are European. So are their religious
beliefs, their social customs, their cultural traditions. Their histories are inextricably
interwoven with Europe's”

Manual L. Quezon wanted Philippine language perhaps even at the expense of the
colonial language

“I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like
heaven by Americans”

CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

is a branch of psychology that also examines cultural influences that affect thought
processes and behavior.

However, this branch of psychology explores patterns between various cultures. It is

more specific in nature then cultural psychology.

Cross-cultural psychology was first introduced during the 1970s, but remains a force in
modern psychology.

The main function of a cross-cultural psychologist is to determine how various cultures

affect human behaviors. These psychologists examine universal and “unique”
characteristics and traits, in an effort to identify patterns amongst cultural groups. The
goal is to identify how culture impacts thought processes, behaviors, goals, social
experiences, educational and career aspirations, self-esteem/self-confidence, and
relationships.

Cross-cultural psychologists are most concerned with how culture impacts individual
personalities and social behaviors. In a sense, cross-cultural psychology is a more in-
depth analysis of cultural patterns and behaviors, than cultural psychology.
For example, a cultural psychologist examines how culture, in general, causes some
people to be submissive, while it encourages others to be more aggressive. A cross-
cultural psychologist takes a deeper look into the phenomena by investigating how
traditional Asian women, in general, are more submissive than modern American
women.

The cross-cultural psychologist researches the patterns (i.e. similarities and differences)
between the two cultures (i.e. personalities, behaviors, thought processes, beliefs,
feelings, opinions, traditions, etc.) in an effort to better understand the human race.

Moreover, these psychologists invest large amounts of time and effort into learning
cultural and societal norms, so that they can better communicate with different cultural
groups. The hope is that learning about various cultures will help the human race better
understand each other.