SIKOLOHIYANG PILIPINO

Topic presented to DP PSY 811

Prepared by: Araceli B. Paster & Tiantian Lu
People from different
walks of life
Bebelyn Miranday
Bebelyn Miranday, family of four,
Metro Manila
• earns around ₱5,500 through cleaning houses
and washing clothes, among others. She
provides for three of her six children who are
in Manila; the other three are taken care of by
her husband in Siargao.
• Photo by JL JAVIER
• Bebelyn Miranday,
• Bebelyn Miranday doesn’t have a regular
income. Most days, she works as a labandera
or a cleaner for different houses in a
subdivision that is near the slum area that she
and her family resides in.
• If she does get work in a week, she gets paid
₱500 for doing the laundry, another ₱500 for
cleaning the house, and another ₱500 for
ironing clothes. She also sometimes gets
₱1,500 a month for fetching her employers’
children from school.
Mang Tusan Tango
 Mang Tusan Tango
• A Filipino household normally shares three meals a
day.  Ideally, food should consist of a well-balanced
diet so that family members are properly
nourished.    However, this is not always the case
among Filipino families.
• In Sarangani's far-flung barangay, a family subsists
mainly on sweet potatoes. Every day, this root crop
means sustenance for Mang Tusan's family
• But once a year, they get to treat themselves to
a special meal ---- that is, if Mang Tusan
manages to sell his abaca.  Bringing his crops to
the market is not an easy task.  For 6 hours,
Mang Tusan carries 30 kilos of abaca on his
head, traversing rocky and steep mountain
slopes
• commercializing the abaca, farming and
harvesting the abaca was part of their culture
and tradition of the indigenous people in
Sarangani province (Manual, S., 2016)
Aling Lourdelisa
• Stinking, nasty, foul-smelling
— Aling Lourdelisa and her
family live in the garbage
dumpsite in Tondo, Manila.
She already has five children
and is about to add one as
she is already nine months
pregnant.
• She should be resting as she is
about to give birth any
moment. Instead, she joins her
children and husband in
scavenging the mountain of
trash for food, not thinking
about the dangers she is
exposing the little angel in her
womb
Thirteen-year-old Carlo
• Thirteen-year-old Carlo lives in a quiet
town in Guindalman, Bohol.   As soon as
the sun rises, he and his friends go out
to sea to gather “tuyom” or sea urchins. 
• They spend hours diving, their young
bodies exposed to the many dangers of
this job.
• They sell the meat of sea urchins in the market, 
sometimes earning them a measly sixty pesos  —
which they still have to split among themselves. 
• To earn more, after hours of diving, Carlo gathers
firewood in the mountains and sells them.
• Poverty drives children
like Carlo into labor. 
But despite the many
challenges, Carlo
strives to finish his
studies.  He is now in
Grade 6 and no longer
asks his parents for
allowance.
CHARO ABRAHAM
 CHARO ABRAHAM
• Charo was diagnosed with
schizophrenia—a mental illness
unfamiliar to her nor to her
family, including her eldest sister
Manay Jean who eventually
travelled all the way to Manila to
look after her little sister
• Manay Jean, but through time, understanding, and
acceptance, she began supporting Charo. Today, both
of them campaign love and moral support for better
mental health in celebration for Charo’s gradual healing
• MANAY JEAN HAD TO GIVE UP HER JOB AND DREAM
TO BECOME A PRINCIPAL OF A SCHOOL.
Charo Abraham and
Manay Jean
• The following examples have clearly
supported the theory proposed by the clinical
psychologist Ma. Lourdes A. Carandang who
first cited several cases of what she calls the
"tagasalo" or "mananalo"
• syndrome in her book, Filipino Children Under
Stress (1987). She.
• states:
 TAGASALO
PERSONALITY
• Carandang who first cited several cases of what she calls the
"tagasalo" or "mananalo“ syndrome in her book, Filipino Children
Under Stress (1987).
• She states:
• Tagasalo comes from the root
word salo, which literally
means "to catch."
• With the prefix taga it means
"one who catches." Used
colloquially, the word refers
to one who "takes care, or
one who comes to the
rescue.“
• Mananalo is a synonym of
tagasalo. (p. 47)
• Carandang believes that there is a tagasalo in every family.
• She discusses the syndrome's development in the context of a Filipino
society where female members are expected to take care of
household matters early in life.
• Eventually, these chores expand to the emotional care of family
members and others outside the family. It can go on indefinitely and
indiscriminately
• In addition to gender, Carandang
(1987) also theorized on birth
order, stating that the tendency
towards tagasalo can be
determined literally at birth.
• Carandang further made the
distinction between the non-
compulsive and the compulsive
tagasalo.
 noncompulsive
tagasalo
• is the one who occupies
the role of caretaker
naturally and carries it
out without being
compulsively stuck to it.
 Compulsive Tagasalo
• on the other hand, tries
very hard to be recognized
and approved by her
parents, always
anticipating other people's
needs because she herself
needs to be taken care of.
 Western Counterpart of
Tagasalo
• Schaef (1990)
• Adler (1973)
• Beattie (1987)
• Miller (1988)
 Schaef(1990)
• used the term "careaholics" synonymously
with "workaholics, busyaholics, and
pushaholics" in Meditationsfor Women Who
Do Too Much.
• She thought there was a need
to speak to women (and men)
who were doing too much,
keeping too busy, and
spending all their time taking
care of others instead of taking
care of themselves.
• She made no theoretical
statements, however,
regarding the origins of
careaholic behavior.
 Adler (1973)
• "redeemer complex" characterizes
"people who in a conspicuous manner,
but unknowingly, take an attitude that
they must redeem somebody."
• There are similarities between the
redeemer's and the tagasalo' s attitude of
helping others as well as the unknowing,
unconscious aspect of both.
 The difference with Carandang
• The difference is that in
Carandang's
conceptualization, the person
is driven by a need for others
to care for her whereas
Adler's redeemer is motivated
by a need for superiority.
 Beattie (1987)
• offers another possibility in the
concept of "codependency.“
• She defines a codependent person
as "one who has let another
person's behavior affect him or
her, and who is obsessed with
controlling that person's
behavior."
 Miller (1988)
• introduced a similar concept in
describing "enabler," using the term
synonymously with "pleaser," "family
warrior," "facilitator," and "caretaker."
• Both codependency and enabling
developed in the context of alcoholic
families. Alcoholism was never a
factor among Carandang's tagasalo
cases.
 Some of the tagasalo characteristics that
Carandang (1987) enumerated include:

• Compulsive character
• Unconscious aspect
• Overgeneralized and
indiscriminate stance
 the behavior's compulsive
character
• the person feels driven to take care of others
and come to their rescue as if it were her duty
and obligation to do so;
 unconscious aspect
• The person cannot seem to
understand why she feels driven
nor why she feels guilty when she
says "no"
 overgeneralized and
indiscriminate stance
• the need does not appear to be
delimited to family members
alone.
• Udarbe, Margaret Helen of
Siliman University studied
Carandang’s Tagasalo Personality
• The study investigated carandang's
theory of 'tagasalo' in efforts to
describe and explain its origins,
development, and dynamics.
• The possibility of tagasalo being
gender-specific and related to birth
order, was raised.
 Method used
• Ten families were interviewed intensively. In
addition, three psychological tests were
administered to the identified tagasalo child
and to another child least like the tagasalo
 Study found out
• It was found that the tagasalo personality is
not systematically related to gender nor
birth order, but it can develop out of the
need for a child to be different from a sibling
who causes emotional upheaval
(disturbance) in the family
• Particularly, the Udarbe’s study cleared some points different
from Carandang
• 1. Instead of the self-doubting, unloved, compulsive, dependent,
and passive tagasalo who appears to be acted upon in
Carandang's theory, this study found
• them to be responsible, caring, and dependable children who
actually
• take charge in efforts at relieving tension and resolving conflicts
in the
• family.
• The tagasalo is actually a person
who influences the family's
dynamics, who actually holds
power, and who seeks to be in
control.
• Carandang had • Udarbe noted
previously that in this
theorized that the study many
tagasalo is usually
males are the
• female and
tagasalo in their
usually the
families
middleborn, if not
the eldest.
• The tagasalo in the Filipino family can either
be male or female and can be of any birth
category
• What is important is that somewhere in the
family system and at various periods of a
family's life, alliances may experience stress
and the person who gets recruited, or triangle
in, to relieve stress is the tagasalo
 Thank you for listening!
• Miss Araceli B. Paster
• Miss Tiantian Lu
 Sources
• Ladrido, Portia (June 12, 2018). For these families earning below
₱25,000 a month, daily living is a struggle.Retrieved from:
https://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/2018/06/12/filipino-
families-poverty-line.html

• The Tagasalo Personality. Philippine Social Science Council.

Margaret Helen Udarbe. PHILIPPINE JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY/
December 2001, Vol. 34, No.2, 45-65. retrieved from:
http://pssc.org.ph
• GMA News Online Public Affairs (February 1, 2019). Tuyom,' dokumentaryo ni Kara David,
ngayong Sabado sa 'I-Witness'. Retrieved from:
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/publicaffairs/iwitness/683561/tuyom-
dokumentaryo-ni-kara-david-ngayong-sabado-sa-i-witness/story/
• GMA Public Affairs (May 26, 2017). I-Witness: “Minsan sa Isang Taon. Dokumentaryo ni
Kara David”. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW9tT0XafhY
• GMA News Online Public Affairs (May 3, 2013). Mga Sanggol at Langaw sa Tunay na Buhay.
Retrieved from:
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/publicaffairs/tunaynabuhay/306602/mga-sanggol-at-
langaw-sa-tunay-na-buhay/story/

• ABS-CBN Entertainment (Oct. 30, 2018). Maalaala Mo Kaya Recap: Anting-anting (Charo’s
Life Story). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV9doB-NGgU