COLONIAL INFLUENCES

IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL THOUGHT
IN THE PHILIPPINES.
PRESENTED BY: GROUP 2
AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: IMPETUS TO COLONIAL
PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES.

The United States colonized Philippines and established an English-based

educational system in the country. This followed by the development and
institutionalization of English language. Through educational institutions
which established by American regime, Filipinos have learned not only the
western psychological science.

Introduction of psychology course in undergraduate class were held at

University of the Philippines College of Education using american textbooks
and English as medium of instruction Dr. Alfredo V Lagmay (1984) observed
the interconnectedness of English language and educational system to the
development of psychological thought in the country.

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: IMPETUS TO COLONIAL

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Scientific psychology began with the establishment of a

comprehensive educational system by the American
colonial administration. The state owned University of the
Philippines from 1918 onwards modeled for the entire
country an educational curriculum which was heavy in
psychological courses.

AMERICAN- Governor General Francis Burton Harrison undertook

the “Filipinization” policy to facilitate the inclusion of

TRAINED Filipinos in the governmental affairs of America’s

FILIPINO
insular territory.
Among the first Filipino Beneficiaries who took

PSYCHOLOGY
graduate course in Psychology was Agustin Alonzo,
who accomplished the first English written Master’s

SCHOLARS,
Thesis in Psychology in 1921 at the University of the
Philippines.

PROFESSORS, He proceeded to the University of Chicago and

received his Doctoral degree in Experimental

AND Psychology.

PRACTITIONERS.
While still in Manila, Alonzo initially worked on a
people-oriented research particularly on the
psychology of feeling but shifted to the mechanistic
determinism of rat psychology when he was working
for his Ph.D in the American Midwest.
AMERICAN- The graduation of Alonzo in Ph.D made him the

TRAINED
first American-trained Filipino experimental
psychologist.

FILIPINO
Dr. Alonzo changed his research and teaching
activities from experimental to educational

PSYCHOLOGY psychology.

SCHOLARS,
The first Experimental Psychology Laboratory was
then established at the University of the Philippines

PROFESSORS,
by Sinforoso Padilla.
Dr. Alonzo is better remembered for the quality of

AND students he produced and their contributions to the

PRACTITIONERS.
study of psychological science in the Philippines.
- Sinforoso Padilla
-Alfredo Lagmay
-Estefania Aldaba Lim
AMERICAN-
Estefania Aldaba- Lim who earned her Ph.D in
Clinical Psychology from the University of

TRAINED
Michigan, established the Institute of Human
Relations two years after the Philippine won its

FILIPINO
independence from United States. The institute
was the country’s first training center that

PSYCHOLOGY
provides with extensive scale for teachers in
guidance and counselling in the schools. During

SCHOLARS,
Marcos presidency, Dr. Aldaba- Lim served a
Minister of Social Work - the highest government

PROFESSORS,
post given to a Filipino Psychologist during that
period.

AND

Another student of Dr. Alonzo who later

PRACTITIONERS.
spearheaded the transfer of Psychology
department from Education to Liberal Arts is
Alfredo V. Lagmay who was a recipient of
Psychology fellowship in Harvard, where he was
trained with B.F. Skinner in Experimental
Psychology.
AMERICAN- It was a period of peasant unrest in

TRAINED Central Luzon due to HUKBALAHAP

movement, led by Luis Taruc, when

FILIPINO Lagmay returned to the country from

PSYCHOLOGY
Harvard in 1995. It was the period of
time when Department of Psychology in

SCHOLARS,
UP was still administratively under the
College of Education. As soon as

PROFESSORS, Lagmay came back to the Philippines,

he initiated and successfully transferred

AND the Psychology department to the

College of Liberal Arts, that shifted the

PRACTITIONERS. department’s educational orientation to

a basic scientific approach.

 COLONIAL INFLUENCE IN THE

DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THOUGHT
IN THE PHILIPPINES

Fe Absolo- Domingo who, unde Lagmay’s

advisorship, wrote a research
child- rearing in Barrio Krus- na- Ligas; Angelina Ramirez who was the
on

Chairperson of UST Department of Psychology in the mid-70s; Abraham

Felipe who undertook a study on Psychology of popular Tagalog short stories
made his way to Yale University to earn his PH.D in Social Psychology then
later when he returned to the country he served the Marcos government as
President of Funds for Assistance to Private Education and Deputy Minister of
Education; Robert Lawless who, under the advisor ship of Lagmay in the
Asian Studies program, conducted an incisive review of Personality and
Culture studies in the Philippines; and Elizabeth Ventura who studied the
stimulus characteristics of the Philippine Thematic Apperception Test.

GERMAN INFLUENCE IN VISAYAN UNIVERSITY

The University of San Carlos (USC) is the oldest learning center of the
Philippines even antedating the University of Santo Thomas in Espania Manila.
In 1954 when a department if Psychology was founded at the USC by Joseph
Goerz, A German who spent 18 years of psychological work in Beijing. He went
back to Europe for couple of years of psychological and sent to Cebu.
Psychological science in what has been called as the “genealogy of psychology
in Visayas’’ was taught in german theoretical perspective but medium instruction
was and still In English. Professor Goertz taught experimental psychology in the
tradition of Wundt, Kulpe, and Lindworsky. Psychology at USC was referred to
as ‘’brass and cymbals’’ psychology because perception experiments in the
German tradition were performed semester after semester. The university of
San Carlos opened the psychology department to American training in
psychology of science.
 SPANISH INFLUENCED
UNIVERSITIES IN MANILA
University of Sto. Tomas (UST) , which is considered as the
oldest existing university in Asia, is a Dominican-run learning
institution established in 1616. Three Spanish professors have
pioneered the teaching of psychology in
UST and these were
Jose A. Samson, a Ph.D degree holder in Psychology,
Emmanuel Vit Samson, a doctor of medicine, and Angel de
Blas, a Dominican priest and philosopher. Jose Samson
instituted the clinical setting of the UST psychology curriculum.
Emmanuel Vit Samson became the Chairman of the
department from 1954 to 1972. Fr. Blas was the head of the
Psychology department and founder of UST Experimental
Psychology laboratory.
 SPANISH INFLUENCED
UNIVERSITIES IN MANILA
Under his leadership, the department's direction leaned
towards medical and physiological based. Filipino
Psychology became an integral part of UST's
undergraduate psychology in 1987 under
the leadership
of then Chairperson Dolores de Leon, an alumna of UST
where she studied advanced training in Clinical
psychology. Another Dominican Rum learning institution
founded in 1630, Colegio de San Juan de Letran holds
the distinction of being the only school in Southeast Asia
that offered Psychology courses taught in Spanish up to
the mid-1970s.

BELGIAN LEGACY IN THE CORDILLERAS

St. Louis University (SLU) in Baguio is a major learning institution in
Northern Luzon that offered psychology in 1967 as a major
undergraduate course under the leadership of Fr. EvaristVerlinden, a
Belgian missionary.
Fr.Verlinden was committed to the contextualization of psychology
into the Philippine setting. But due to financial constraints, Fr. Verlinden
had to invite fellow Belgian missionaries who have Doctorates in
Psychology as Visiting Professors. As a result, the guest Belgian
academicians outnumbered the program. The department conceptualized
Filipino psychology as generic Philippine psychology and not only
specific to the Cordillera people. Filipino psychology became the course
name of Psychology 228 and it had a course description as follows:
BELGIAN LEGACY IN THE CORDILLERAS
Psychology 228 – Filipino Psychology: Philosophical Foundations
and Problems. This course aims to orient the student with a broad
perspective of the philosophical foundations of psychology. In particular,
it defines, clarifies, analyzes, and discusses formulations of
psychological theory, knowledge and methods which are developed with
Philippine culture as their basis. It is concerned with the exploration of
psychological constructs, such as the self-concept, the learning of pro-
social behaviors, the communication and etc., as situated specifically
and given unique expression in and affected by the nuances of culture
concretized in the Philippine value systems, rearing and interaction
patterns, and socialization styles. It presents a conceptual analysis and
integration of various theoretical data and empirical findings in a survey
of selected Philippine culture-personality research material.
THANK
YOU! MEMBERS:
REGIDOR, FABY CRESEL
ALON, MARY ANN
BELLINGAN, JERRELYN
PALANAS, KARYL
TORRECAMPO, MAXINE
NAVARRO, HANNE LORE