CULTURE & PSYCHOLOGY/FILIPINO PSYCHOLOGY

SESSION 1
INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE & PSYCHOLOGY/ FILIPINO PSYCHOLOGY

I. OBJECTIVES
a. Knowledge: By the end of this session, students should be able to have a basic
knowledge about Psychology and be able to discuss its impact to the Filipino
Psyche and Culture, and how God created human beings with unique and
distinct cultural, psychological and physical values.
b. Attitude: By the end of this session, students will be able to demonstrate
appreciation of cultural values Filipino have, as well as, respect for those values
that are different from other cultures here in around the world.
c. Skill: By the end of this session, students be able to see Filipino values through
the lens of relativism rather than ethnocentrism.

II. INTRODUCTION: The Importance of the Subject matter

• “Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things pass and nothing stays, and comparing
existing things to the flow of a river, he says you could not step twice into the
same river.” – Plato
• “When you are finished changing, you are finished”. - Benjamin Franklin
• “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the
heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
• The world is changing at an amazingly rapid pace, and one of the most important
ways in which it is changing is in terms of cultural diversity.
• The Creation of Cultural diversity
o A wonderful environment for personal challenge and growth,
o But it also brings with it an increased potential for misunderstandings,
confusion, and conflict.
• Cultural diversity and intercultural relations are some of our biggest challenges.
At the same time, those challenges also represent our biggest opportunities.
• If we can meet those challenges and leverage them, we can actualize a potential
in diversity and intercultural relations that will result in far more than the sum of
the individual components that comprise that diverse universe.
o Tremendous personal growth for many individuals.
o Positive social evolution,
o Mutual welfare and benefit built on interpersonal land inter- cultural
respect.
• To meet the challenge of diversity and turn that challenge into opportunity.
Doing so is not easy. It requires
o Honest look at our own cultural background and heritage, and at their
merits and limitations.
o Fear, rigidity, and sometimes stubborn pride come with any type of
honest assessment.
 • No field is better equipped to meet the challenge of cultural diversity than
psychology. And psychology has met this challenge through the emergence of a
subfield known as cultural psychology.
• Psychology essentially has two main goals.
o The first is to build a body of knowledge about people. Psychologists seek
to understand behavior when it happens, explain why it happens, and
even predict it before it happens. Psychologists achieve this by
conducting research and creating theories of behavior.
o The second goal of psychology involves taking that body of knowledge
and applying it to intervene in people’s lives, to make those lives better.
• The two goals of psychology—creating a body of knowledge and applying that
knowledge—are closely related

II. PSYCHOLOGY AND CULTURE

A. What is Culture

b. Definition

“Human culture as a unique meaning and information system, shared by

a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to
meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and
derive meaning from life.”1 – Matsumoto and Juang

“The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial,

religious, or social group”

“The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that

characterizes an institution or organization” 2

c. Origins

There are three important sources of the origins of culture: ecology,

resources, and people:

1. Ecology

o People live in groups that exist in specific ecologies, and the

kinds of places in which groups of people live has a major
impact on how they live.
o One aspect of ecology that influences cultures and that has
received much attention recently is climate.

1 Matsumoto, David Ricky. The Handbook of Culture & Psychology. Oxford University Press, 2001.
2 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture
2. Resources

o Another factor that influences the creation of cultures is

resources. These resources can be natural, such as the
presence or absence of water or land to farm to grow
vegetables or raise animals.
o A land void of natural resources may encourage teamwork
and community spirit among its members and interrelation-
ships with other groups that have abundant resources in order
to survive.

3. People

o Another factor that influences the creation of cultures is

People.
o The characteristics of People in creation of culture

1) Group Living

- The first characteristic of people that contributes

to the creation of culture is the fact that humans
are social animals, and have always lived in groups.
- we learned many hundreds of thousands of years
ago that living in groups was better than living
alone.
- A man or woman alone has trouble surviving the
attacks of animals, feeding themselves and taking
care of their children, and meeting all of the other
tasks of living.
- We all also sometimes want the companionship of
others.

2) Needs and Motives

- The second characteristic of people that

contributes to the creation of cultures is the fact
that humans have basic needs that are ultimately
related to reproductive success (Boyer, 2000; Buss,
2001).
- These include physical needs—the need to eat,
drink, sleep, deal with waste, and reproduce if they
are to survive.
 - And they include safety and security needs—the
need for hygiene, shelter, and warmth (remember
the discussion above about climate).
- These needs are universal to all people of all
cultures.

3) Universal Psychological Toolkit

- Another important factor to understand about

people concerns the evolved human mind and
brain.
- Human cultures co-evolved with the cognitive
capacities that evolved with the human mind and
brain.
- Fortunately, nature and evolution endowed
humans with a universal psychological toolkit with
which to address these needs.
- This toolkit includes several tools—or more
specifically, aptitudes and cognitive abilities—that
help people adapt to their environments to address
their basic needs and social motives.

d. Biblical Origin of Cultural Diversity

“And the LORD said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one
language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that
they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go
down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand
one another’s speech.’” Genesis 11: 6 – 7

Why people have Cultural diversities?

1) It is God’s divine purpose and wisdom

2) It is God’s way of fulfilling His purpose for Man to fill the
whole world
3) It is God’s way of fulfilling His divine purpose to redeem His
people for His glory and for the salvation of Man

B. What is Psychology

a. Definition

“Psychology is the science that studies the behavior of organisms.” –

Frank J. Bruno PhD
 b. Three important words from the definition

i. Science – Because it bases its conclusion on data information

obtained by systematic observations.
ii. Behavior – has three aspects:
a. Cognitive processes – Cognitive processes refer to what an
individual thinks.
b. Emotional states – Emotional states refer to what an
individual feels.
c. Actions – Actions refer to what an individual does.
iii. An organism is any living creature.

III. FILIPINO CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

A. The pioneer of the definition of Filipino Psychology

- Virgilio Gaspar Enriquez

- Born on November 24, 1942
- Santol, Balagtas formally Bigaa, Bulacan.
- The youngest of 5 children
- Parents: Arsenio Libiran Enriquez and Rosario Galvez Gaspar.
- Studied at Northwestern University and University of the Philippines
- Known to be the Father of Filipino Psychology

B. The Definition

- For the bases of the Definition of “Sikolohiyang Pilipino” (Filipino

Psychology) He search from the Filipino culture and history itself and not
traced back to the Western theories.
- He even looked beyond the textbook definition of Psychology as the
study of behavior and thoughts to examine what psychology means for
the Filipino.
- Sikolohiyang Pilipino refers to the psychology born out of the
experiences, thought and orientation of the Filipinos, based on the full
use of Filipino culture and language. – Enriquez
- The approach is one of “indigenization from within” whereby the
theoretical framework and methodology emerge from the experiences of
the people form the indigenous culture.

C. Major Characteristics of of Sikolohiyang Pilipino

a. Identity and national consciousness

b. It’s against a psychology that perpetuates colonial status of the Filipino
c. Psychological practice in a Philippine context
d. It is concerned with both science and humanistic approaches
e. It also maintains mentalism-behaviorism approach
 f. It is not inconsistent with a universal psychology

D. Rethinking Filipino values

Enriquez was critical of this approach to the study of Filipino values. He
encouraged Filipino scholars to take a second look at these values using a Filipino
orientation.

THE CORE VALUES

1. Core Values/Kapwa (Shared Identity)

2. Pivotal Interpersonal Value? Pakiramdam
3. Linking Socio – Personal Value/Kagandahang loob
(Shared Humanity)
4. Accommodative surface Value
- Hiya/Shame
- Utang na loob/Norm of reciprocity
- Pakikisama and Pakikipagkapwa/Smooth internal relationship
5. Confrontative Surface Values
- Bahala na/Fatalistic Passiveness
6. Societal Values
- Karangalan/Dignity
- Katarungan/Justice
- Kalayaan/Freedom