Social Psychology in the Philippine Context PDF
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Social Psychology in the Philippine Context Social Psychology in the Philippine Context Ma. Elizabeth J. Macapagal Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo Cristina J. Montiel Jocelyn M. Nolasco ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY PRESS Ateneo de MAnilA University Press Bellarmine Hall, Katipunan Avenue Loyola Heights, Quezon City P.O. Box 154, 1099 Manila, Philippines Tel.: (632) 426-59-84 / Fax (632) 426-59-09 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ateneopress.org Copyright ©2013 by Ateneo de Manila University and the authors First printing 2013 / Second printing 2014 (bk) Cover design by Joanna Ruiz Book design by Mary Grace Echavia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the Publisher. The National Library of the Philippines CIP Data Recommended entry: Social psychology in the Philippine context / Ma. Elizabeth J. Macapagal … [et al.]. – Quezon City : Ateneo de Manila University Press, c2013. p.; cm. ISBN 978-971-550-855-1 1. Social psychology—Philippines. 2. Philippines—Social life and customs. 3. Social values—Philippines. I. Macapagal, Ma. Elizabeth J. II. Title. HM1027.P5 P302.09599 2013 P320130322 CONTENTS FOREWORD vii PREFACE ix 1 An Introduction to Social Psychology 1 PART I. THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF FILIPINO EVERYDAY LIFE 2 Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self & The Family 29 3 Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: 53 Pinoy Friendships and School Life 4 From “M.U.” to “I Love You”: 75 Love and Intimate Relationships 5 Ka-Trabaho, Ka-Opisina, Pangkabuhayan: 97 Pinoy Work Life PART II. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FILIPINO SOCIAL ISSUES 6 Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 113 7 Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: 138 Pinoy Community and Political Life 8 Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: 158 Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 9 Kahirapan ng Pinoy: 180 Psychology of Poverty 10 Kapuso, Kapamilya, o Kapatid Ka ba? 196 Media in the Life of the Pinoy v APPENDIX 222 Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities INDEX 239 vi FOREWORD Social Psychology in the Philippine Context is a courageous and provocative book, but it is also a book that is on the right side of scientific history. It is a courageous book because the authors are acting as non-conformists, going against the traditional approach to social psychology. It is a provocative book because the authors are encouraging, even daring, readers to think differently and in some respects step outside the social psychology box. But this book is on the right side of scientific history, because traditional social psychology needs to be improved and adapted to become more successful in a global context. Traditional social psychology reflects a limited number of concerns and values that are Western, and particularly American, rather than global. Social Psychology in the Philippine Context reflects constructive new global trends in social psychology, by researchers who recognize that it is not enough to test hypotheses rooted in Western culture through one-hour laboratory experiments with undergraduate students in California, Boston, and New York, and then generalize the results to explain the rich and distinct social lives of the rest of humanity. Students deserve far better than to be only taught traditional social psychology. Those living in non-Western societies have rich histories and distinct normative systems, with their own indigenous social issues and patterns of social life. They have their own distinct needs from social psychology. This volume presents a serious effort to develop social psychology that is ”appropriate” for Philippine society, something called for but neglected over many decades (Moghaddam & Taylor, 1985). The distinct nature of this text is to some degree reflected in the organization of chapters, around practical issues such as the family, poverty, friendship, work, community and political life, conflict and peacemaking, and media. These issues reflect priorities in the Philippines and will make this a compelling book in the Philippine context. However, this text also has important lessons for international readers. One such lesson is the need for greater diversity in research methodology (Moghaddam, Walker & Harré, 2003), which should include both qualitative and quantitative methods. Social Psychology in the Philippine Context also points to several themes that should be a research focus for all social psychologists throughout the world. The first theme is globalization, and the often problematic relationship between vii global trends and patterns of behavior within individual societies (Moghaddam, 2008). A second theme is human rights and duties, and the sometimes conflicting relationship between universal human rights and local values (Finkel & Moghaddam, 2005). Globalization and human rights are neglected issues in social psychology, as are conflict, poverty, media and a number of other themes underlined by this excellent text, which will benefit students and teachers both in the Philippines and throughout the rest of the world. References Finkel, N., & Moghaddam, F. M. (Eds.) (2005). The psychology of rights and duties. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Press. Moghaddam, F. M. (2008). How globalization spurs terrorism. Santa Barbara, CA.: Praeger. Moghaddam, F. M., & Taylor, D. M. (1985). Psychology in the developing world. American Psychologist, 40, 1144–1146. Moghaddam, F. M., Walker, B. R., & Harré, R. (2002). Cultural distance, levels of abstraction, and the advantages of mixed methods. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddue (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioral research (pp. 111–134). Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage. Fathali M. Moghaddam Professor, Department of Psychology Director, Conflict Resolution Program, Department of Government Georgetown University, and Editor, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology viii Social Psychology in the Philippine Context PREFACE OUR JOURNEY IN CONTEXTUALIZING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES The writing of this book was indeed a team effort of several members of the social psychology faculty and students at the Ateneo de Manila University and other colleges and universities in the Philippines. Ma. Elizabeth Macapagal, Mira Ofreneo, and Cristina Montiel met regularly to discuss the book’s progress, while Jocelyn Nolasco joined the team in several discussion sessions. Throughout our book-writing journey, teams of Ateneo social psychology graduate students and a pool of psychology undergraduate students likewise contributed their valuable time and creative ideas. We also discussed our book’s content with fellow social psychologists from different parts of the country, especially during conventions of the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP). Our journey in writing Social Psychology in the Philippine Context did not come easy. During lighter moments, our book-writing team joked that it felt like we were going through some mysterious rosary milestones —first joyful, then sorrowful, then glorious. JOYFUL CONCEPTION The beginning of our journey was the joyful conception of a dream. The idea began at the Ateneo Psychology Department’s Research Workshop in October 2005, with Ma. Elizabeth Macapagal talking about her dream of writing a social psychology book for Filipinos. She wanted to write a volume that would be relevant to Filipino students. Her dream was to make social psychology, a field that asserts the power of the social situation, truly situated in the social—that is, Filipino social reality. Our team began to dream together a year after, around October 2006, and we proceeded to develop a university research grant proposal. As we talked about what it meant to make social psychology uniquely Filipino, we realized the need to not only give local examples or applications of Western or North American theories but also to crystallize Filipino/Asian theories and concepts. We were critical of North American hegemony of social psychology and wanted to assert our own articulation of social psychology as Third World or Filipino psychologists. ix We imagined that our social psychology book would veer away from Americans’ individual, or individualist orientation and move toward Filipinos’ group, or collectivist, orientation. As such, we envisioned focusing not only on the individual and interpersonal, but also on the intergroup, cultural, and societal realms. At that point, we began working with a group of volunteer graduate students to do a Filipino literature search. Our aim was a book with 50 percent Western citations and 50 percent Asian and Filipino citations. By February 2007, the grant proposal was approved. However, due to our personal situations, we decided to defer the grant. And for a year, our dream slept and our adrenalin subsided. Only to awaken in June 2008. SORROWFUL CONFUSION The awakening brought us to the sorrowful part of our journey. As our research team reconvened after a long sleep, we realized that we did not know exactly what to write in our dream textbook. How do we operationally define Filipino social psychology? The literature search did not reveal much significant theorizing as to the meaning of social psychology in the Philippines. We could not define Asian social psychology. And neither did the literature search reveal that Asians had done much theorizing. Instead, there was a list of Asian indigenous concepts. Filipino and Asian social psychology’s main operational definitions seemed to be the geographical location of the sample and personality traits of these local peoples. These findings likewise made us recognize that American social psychology is just another local or indigenous psychology that happened to be the dominant one in the world. This made us even more confused on what to write. Do we use the same framework as our current undergraduate textbook authored by US psychologist David Myers? But then we counterargued that what Myers described as “social psychology” has been questioned and critiqued. Social constructionism has challenged positivist and postpositivist paradigms. Qualitative research approaches have critiqued quantitative methodologies. In a simplistic sense, unlike positivism that focuses on predefined variables and the relationship between variables, social constructionism focuses on how people give their own meaning to variables and the process of making meaning. In particular, social constructionism looks at how meaning is created through social interaction, like talk. At this point, being the academics that we are, we started developing a conceptual framework. In one evolution of our framework, we incorporated positivist and social constructionist thinking into what we had already x Social Psychology in the Philippine Context
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