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

A teneo de M anila U niversity P ress
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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

envisioned—balancing Western, Asian, and specifically Filipino studies; and
extending the individual and interpersonal to the intergroup, cultural, and
societal realms. We thought then that this was “Yahoo!” All we had to do was
classify the literature into various conceptual boxes. And so we tried. But sadly,
the data would not fit our complex conceptual matrix. The literature would not
fall neatly into the designated categories. At this point of almost giving up and
just returning to Myers, we stopped thinking the way we were trained to think.

GLORIOUS CLARITY
The glorious part of our journey and the beginning of clarity arose when
we said, “Let’s drop the conceptual matrix! Let’s forget about the framework!”
And instead we asked ourselves again, “What is the purpose of our book?”
Our goal was to give Filipino college students a book that would show how
social psychology can be relevant to their lives. The point was to make social
psychological theories and concepts truly applicable to Filipino social realities. So
we asked ourselves, “What is the Filipino experience? Ano ba ang buhay ng isang
Filipino?” As we were sitting together in the research room of the psychology
laboratory complex, we started reciting “Pamilya!” “Barkada!” “People Power!”
“Kapamilya!” “Kapuso!” “Kapwa!”
So we came up with our own list of Filipino experiences. From there, we
wanted to do a reality check, and to get interactive feedback from others. At
a workshop in the PAP Davao Convention in August 2008, we asked social
psychologists from different parts of the country, “What do we need to
understand about Filipino everyday life?” One dominant theme that emerged
was about Filipino culture or cultures and our diversity, particularly our unique
indigenous practices. Another major theme was conflict in relation to our various
social identities, a list of social issues from the macro to the micro.
We were now at the end of our journey with a book that was taking a
phenomenological approach to the meaning of Filipino social psychology. Making
culture emerge from the background to the foreground, our approach to “Social
Psychology in the Philippine Context” is grounded on Filipino local experience.
Unlike American social psychology, which starts with the individualized self,
we begin with the Filipino relational self as embedded in its immediate social
context—the family, or pamilya. And then we talk about the Filipino nested in a
peer group, or barkada; the student in school; the Filipino in intimate relationships;
the worker in an organization. We then talk about the Filipino social psychology
of significant social issues like gender and sexuality, peace and conflict, politics,
poverty, and media.

Preface xi
 We now share with you the fruits of our journey—a book that contextualizes
social psychology in the Philippines by being grounded on Filipino everyday
social reality and by being responsive to social issues confronting Filipinos today.
This volume can be easily used as a textbook in social psychology for college
classes. As an aid to teaching the social psychology undergraduate course, we
provide in the appendix—very interestingly and creatively—enjoyable sets of
discussion questions, and class activities for each book chapter. We intend our
volume to be a user-friendly introductory source for anyone in the local and
global community who wants to know more about social psychology in the
Philippine context.

WITH GRATITUDE
We would like to thank our volunteer graduate students Kat Bueza, Wella
Lopera, Joel Simpao, and Joanne Diaz who did the initial literature search and
Sarah Ellorenco who proofread the drafts. We are also grateful to the participants
of the PAP workshop in Davao and the undergraduate students who did their
practicum under the Ateneo Psychology Department’s Social Psychology Action
Research Lab, or SPARL, with the supervision of Kat Bueza and Nico Canoy.
We thank the following college psychology undergraduates (now graduates)
for their creative suggestions: Carlo Miguel Berba, Jiweon Shin, Timothy
Salomon, Enrico Inocencio, Anne Laverlhan Quiroz, Katrina Angela Lozano,
Christine Vizmonte, Ramon Francisco, James Angelo Lee, and Jayson Yu. The
undergraduates critiqued each chapter from the viewpoint of a college student
about to take Social Psychology, wrote discussion questions and suggested class
activities. Finally, we would like to thank the Ateneo de Manila Loyola Schools
Scholarly Work Faculty Grant for funding this endeavor. To all of you, we are
truly indebted.

Ma. Elizabeth J. Macapagal

Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo
Cristina J. Montiel
Jocelyn M. Nolasco
Depar tment of Psychology
Ateneo de Manila University

xii Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

CHAPTER 1
AN INTRODUCTION
TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?

• Defining Social Psychology
• Comparing Social Psychology to Related Disciplines

II FRAMES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY:

AMERICAN, EUROPEAN, AND ASIAN
• Western History of Social Psychology
• North American Social Psychology
• European Social Psychology
• Asian Social Psychology

III SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

IV INDIGENOUS PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES
• Sikolohiyang Pilipino
• Enriquez's Kapwa Model

V INDIGENOUS CONCEPTS OF FILIPINO SOCIAL REALITY
• Hiya
• Utang na Loob
• Pakikisama
• Kapwa
• Pakikiramdam

VI RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

VII CONTEXTUALIZING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES:

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

1
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
• For four days in 1986, millions of Filipinos gathered along EDSA (Epifanio
de los Santos Avenue) to protest the dictatorship of President Marcos
and call for his resignation. Armed with flowers and prayers, ordinary
Filipinos faced the tanks of the Marcos regime. This phenomenon became
known worldwide as “People Power.”
• Mindanao has had a long history of violent armed conflict between
Muslims and Christians. Since 2000, an “all-out-war” was declared
by the Christian-dominated Philippine government against the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). In the midst of violent confrontations as
of this writing, there have been genuine efforts between the government
and Muslim groups to settle the conflict through peaceful means.

Social issues like peace, conflict, and violence are of interest to social
psychologists. In the above examples, social psychologists may try to understand
how Filipinos made People Power happen or why Christian and Muslim groups
are in conflict. Not only are social psychologists interested in social issues, they also
seek to understand social behaviors in general. Like why do Filipinos have strong
family ties? Why would strangers help each other in the midst of a typhoon or
natural disaster? Why do teenagers follow their barkada (peer group)? What makes
people fall in love? Social psychologists want to know how individuals and groups
behave in relation to each other. They want to understand why people think, feel,
and act in certain ways in specific social situations. Social psychologists want to
understand social reality.
In this chapter, we shall discuss the definition and frames of social psychology.
We will also talk about social psychology in the Philippines and indigenous concepts
of Filipino social reality as well as research methods used by social psychologists.
We end by contextualizing social psychology in the Philippines and presenting the
outline of the rest of the book.

Defining Social Psychology

Social psychology is the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors
of individuals in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2006). It studies
how individuals relate to the social contexts they live in, particularly their everyday
interactions with others. One important assertion of social psychology is that the
person is influenced by the social environment (Ross & Nisbett, 1991). In other
words, social influences shape our behavior. This refers to the power of the situation
in influencing behavior. For example, you may think of yourself as a shy, polite,
and reserved person, but when you attend a concert or a rally, you suddenly find
yourself shouting and cursing!
Another theme in social psychology is that individuals actively construe or
interpret social situations (Jones, 1998). People have a tendency to respond not to

2 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

environments as they are but as we interpret them to be. In other words, people
behave differently because people think differently. For example, two students may
have failed in the same exam; but student A may perceive it as a challenge to do
better next time and student B may learn to be helpless and think that there is no
point in studying for the next exam. Another example would be our perspective on
poverty. Some people believe that the impoverished are poor because they are lazy
and uneducated whereas others believe that poverty is due to situational factors,
such as the lack of job opportunities (Feather, 1985).
Although social psychologists acknowledge the power of the situation, they
also believe that the person is equally powerful in determining behavior. We all
create our social worlds. If you belong to a barkada that pressures you to drink and
smoke, you still have the power to resist your barkada. Thus, personal dispositions
also shape behavior.
Social psychology seeks “to understand and explain how the thought, feeling,
and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied
presence of others” (Allport, 1985, p. 3). Myers (2010) further defines social
psychology as the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate
with one another. Whether we study interactions between two people, two groups,
or two cultures, the focus of the social psychologist is always the subjective or
psychological world of people.
Principles of social psychology are often applicable in everyday life. Resolving
conflicts between people and groups (Gifford & Hine, 1997), increasing helping in
the community (Rushton & Campbell, 1977), reducing aggression in school (Ong
Ante, 2001)—these are only a few concrete practical applications of research in social
psychology. Students can relate easily to social psychology because it is relevant to
their everyday lives.

Comparing Social Psychology to Related Disciplines

Psychologists often use the personal or individual level of analyzing human
behavior. Personality psychology, for instance, stresses individual differences in
behavior, traits, and dispositions. Cognitive psychology, on the other hand, studies
how people think, perceive, and remember. The focus of social psychology is on
the social nature of the individual or how people think, feel, and act in relation to
others, or in social situations.
Another way of analyzing human behavior is through a societal lens that
focuses on aggregates, or large groups, of people. For example, sociology is the
study of the behavior of people in aggregate, that is, institutions, groups, mass
movements, and populations. Anthropology is the study of culture or a group’s
shared practices or way of life. Economics and political science often study policies
and laws of governments and social institutions. Social psychology is also interested
in groups. As such, social psychology may overlap with the other social sciences.
However, as a subfield in psychology, social psychology focuses on individual and
group subjectivities, that is, people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Introduction to Social Psychology 3

 During the earlier years of social psychology, the discipline focused on
the immediate social situation and the interpersonal level of social interactions.
Increasingly, however, social psychology has grown to consider different levels
of analysis: the individual, interpersonal, and social-structural (i.e., economic and
political structures). In addition, an important factor that has now moved to the
forefront of social psychological constructions of the social being is culture (Fiske,
Kitayama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998). Although the goal of many social psychological
researchers has been to identify aspects of social behavior and experience that are
universal to all human beings, culture is now considered an important variable.
The need to incorporate the cultural context in explaining human behavior is now
recognized (Ng & Liu, 2000). Goethals (2007) predicts that culture will be a key
theme in the future of social psychology.

FRAMES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY:

AMERICAN, EUROPEAN, AND ASIAN
Despite the recognition of the role of culture in social behavior, mainstream
social psychological theories and concepts remain North American and, to some
extent, European in orientation. It is in the US where social psychology developed
its modern characteristics. Social psychology is fundamentally a North American
phenomenon with US researchers and participants. As such, the research questions,
theories, and methods that dominate mainstream social psychology were developed
by Americans.

Western History of Social Psychology

The Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato are probably the first social
psychologists in history (Jones, 1998). Why? Because Aristotle once said that a
person’s nature is inherently social and Plato, on the other hand, declared that people
form social groups because they serve a function. However, the social psychology as
we know it today really began in the late 1800s, with the first recorded experiment
on social psychology in 1897 by Normal Triplett, an American psychologist from
Indiana University. Triplett observed that cyclists perform better when they race
with an opponent rather than when they are alone. To examine the impact of the
presence of others on individual performance, Triplett asked children to wind in
strings on fishing reels on their own and competitively in pairs (Goethals, 2007).
From this study was developed a tradition of research known as social facilitation,
referring to the consequences of the presence of others on individual performance.
According to Goethals (2007), the first book in social psychology, Social Psychology:
An Outline and Source Book, was written in 1908 by American sociologist Edward
Ross and that same year, British psychologist William McDougall wrote Introduction
to Social Psychology.

4 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

North American Social Psychology
A typical North American approach to social psychology is found in David
Myers’s (2010) textbook, one of the most popular textbooks of social psychology
today. It conceptualizes social psychology as three major domains:
1. Social Thinking (the self, social beliefs, and judgments; behavior and
attitudes);
2. Social Influence (genes, culture, and gender; conformity; persuasion;
group influence);
3. Social Relations (prejudice, aggression, attraction, helping, conflict,
and peacemaking).
This organization reflects the Western definition of social psychology as
the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate with one
another. The level of analysis is the individual person interacting with others, or
the interpersonal dimension of social behavior. Although the text claims to have a
multicultural emphasis, the author being American, confesses that he is a creature of
his own culture and thus recognizes the limitation of a Western frame in explaining
social behavior.
In the history of social psychology, several theories have become the cornerstone
of North American social psychology, such as Festinger’s social comparison theory
(1954) and cognitive dissonance theory (1957), among others. The concept of attitude
also emerged as one of the most important topics in American social psychology.
As such, we will briefly discuss the psychology of attitudes as one of the main
theoretical contributions of North American social psychology.

Social comparison theory. According to the social comparison theory, we learn

about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves with other people
(Festinger, 1954).We usually seek to compare ourselves with someone whom we
believe is similar to us (like peers or referent groups). We also do upward social
comparison where we mostly compare ourselves with people whom we deem
to be socially better than us in some way (e.g., role models). Downward social
comparison, on the other hand, acts in the opposite direction. We compare ourselves
with those who are worse than us, mostly to enhance our self-esteem.

Cognitive dissonance. According to Leon Festinger (1957), a person may experience

psychological discomfort, or dissonance, when there are inconsistencies between
one’s cognitions, which may be attitudes, beliefs, or an awareness of one’s behavior.
The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivation to
reduce dissonance, or tension, by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors,
or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Cognitive
dissonance theory is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in
social psychology. An example of cognitive dissonance is seen in smoking behavior
and beliefs that smoking cigarettes increases the risk of cancer. To reduce this
uncomfortable tension, smokers may rationalize their behavior, such as “I’m going
to die anyway,” or they may choose to quit smoking all together.

Introduction to Social Psychology 5

Psychology of attitudes. The concept of attitude is probably the most distinctive
and indispensable concept in American social psychology (Allport, 1935). In fact,
social psychology was once defined as the study of attitudes (Fazio & Olsen, 2007).
An attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular
object with some degree of favor or disfavor, like or dislike (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998).
It is internal to the person; it is not directly observable but is rather inferred from
behavior. The target of an attitude may be a person/people (e.g., actor-politicians),
concepts (e.g., death penalty), or behaviors (e.g., smoking). An attitude is expressed
when one agrees or disagrees with the death penalty, likes or dislikes an actor-
politician, or loves or hates smoking.
The tricomponential view of attitudes conceptualizes attitude as a single entity
with three components: cognitive, composed of thoughts, ideas, and beliefs (e.g.,
Filipinos are peace-loving); affective, the feeling and emotional component (e.g., I
like Filipinos); and behavioral, which are action-related (e.g., I will marry a Filipino).
On the other hand, a separate-entities view sees three separate components that
may or may not be related, depending on a particular situation (Oskamp, 1991).
Attitudes can predict behavior if the attitude is specific to the behavior,
significant others also approve of the behavior (or the presence of subjective norms),
and there is a motivation or intention to act (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). For example,
to predict whether a person would actually go to the gym and exercise, we should
consider whether the person and his/her significant others have favorable attitudes
toward going to the gym, and whether the person is motivated to exercise. Another
variable to consider is the perceived behavioral control or an individual’s perceived
ease or difficulty in performing the particular behavior (Ajzen, 2002). In the example
of predicting one’s behavior of going to the gym, we should also consider whether
the person has the time and money to do so.
Behaviors can also predict attitudes. For example, because of the law on
wearing seatbelts, you now always wear a seatbelt (behavior). You then realize that
you also have a favorable attitude toward wearing seatbelts (attitude).

European Social Psychology

Social psychologists from Europe, such as Serge Moscovici and Henri Tajfel,
criticized American social psychology for being too experimental and narrow in
focus. North American social psychology was critiqued for its focus on individuals
and sometimes interindividual influences, consequently losing the social in social
psychology (Tajfel & Fraser, 1978). The social psychologists based in Europe
proposed the return of the social or society back into social psychology. Thus,
European social psychology is known for focusing on intergroup relations.
As an example of European social psychology, Hewstone, Stroebe, and Jonas’s
(2007) textbook, Introduction to Social Psychology: A European Perspective, has chapters
on “People in Groups,” “Group Performance and Leadership,” and “Intergroup
Behavior.” This focus on social groups is lacking in many North American texts.
According to Graumann (2001), contemporaries consider social psychology as

6 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

too exclusively centered on the individual. Thus, there seems to be two kinds of
social psychology—a psychological social psychology and a sociological social
psychology. Both contribute to an understanding of social behavior.
Historically, European social psychologists have consistently given greater
emphasis to the social contextual dimensions of behavior than have their North
American counterparts. In recent decades this has led to the formulation of distinct
theories that focus upon social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), social representation
(Moscovici, 1961), and minority influence (Moscovici, Lage, şi Naffrechoux, 1969).
These are among the three most important theoretical contributions of European
social psychology (Smith, 2005).

Social identity theory. Tajfel and Turner (1979) developed social identity theory
to understand intergroup discrimination. They proposed that the groups to which
people belonged were an important source of pride and gave us a sense of social
identity, or a sense of belonging to the social world. To enhance our self-esteem we
boost the status of our group.
Social identity theory is used to explain why people are biased in favor of their
own groups and may discriminate against other groups. A division between them
and us unfolds, based on social categorization. This can then lead to ingroup bias
or favoring one’s own group, and outgroup discrimination, or not favoring the
other group. For instance, Muslims and Christians may have positive views about
themselves but have negative views of each other.

Social representations. Social representations are socially shared ideas about the
world around us (Moscovici, 1961). In order for people to understand and interact
with each other, they need a common or socially shared meaning about objects and
ideas. These shared meanings are produced through talk and guide action. For
example, a disaster may be socially represented as a weather-related phenomenon.
Another representation of a disaster is that it is God’s punishment on sinful people.
These two different social representations of the same phenomenon may produce
different actions among groups of people.

Minority influence. Moscovici and colleagues (1969) pointed out that many major
social movements have been started by individuals and small groups, so without
an outspoken minority there would be no social change at all. They developed
the minority influence theory and argued that it was possible for a minority to
overcome majority influence as long as the minority is consistent and confident.
For the minority to be effective in persuading the majority, the smaller group has to
remain consistent with its position. This position consistency evokes perception of
confidence and courage and may lead to defections from the majority. This minority-
influence theorizing is different from American social psychology that focuses on
conformity and the influence of the majority.

Introduction to Social Psychology 7

Asian Social Psychology
Asian social psychology has been branded as “cultural” in the sense that
European social psychology is seen as “societal” and American social psychology
as “individual.” Contributions of Asian social psychologists are generally in three
areas: indigenous research, culture and social behavior, and specific topics in
social psychology (e.g., leadership, social identity and intergroup relations, social
dilemmas, group processes), with most studies addressing cultural idiosyncracies
(Leung, 2007).
There have been attempts at theory formation in Asian social psychology. For
example, Chinese social psychologist Ho (1993) proposed a conceptual framework
for Asian social psychology that he called relational orientation, in contrast to the
individual orientation of Western social psychology. According to him, Asian social
psychology begins with relational conceptions of human existence. An appreciation
of this relational orientation explains why attempts to predict social behavior by
personality variables alone are, in principle, doomed to fail. No longer at the center,
the individual is not the measure of all psychological phenomena.
Asian social psychology is seen as a new voice and emerging perspective in
social psychology (Chiu, 2007). The challenge for Asian social psychology is to be
more visible internationally. According to Chiu (2007, p.1), Asian social psychology
should not let arbitrary geographical or intellectual boundaries restrict the creative
expansion of research ideas, and strive to construct “a global identity with an
Asian character by developing theories that describe and explain important Asian
social psychological phenomena for the benefits of Asia and beyond.”

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Like many other Third World countries in the second half of the twentieth
century, the Philippines imported almost all its psychological knowledge from
the First World, and social psychology is no exception. Many pioneers of social
psychology in the Philippines finished their doctorate degrees in the United
States, such as Virgilio Enriquez (Northwestern University), Patricia Licuanan
(Pennsylvania State University), Allen Tan (Yale University), and Anna Miren
Gonzalez-Intal (Yale University). According to Conaco (2007), aside from Enriquez,
Licuanan, and Gonzalez-Intal, several other American-trained social psychologists
came home and started teaching in two major Philippine universities: Virgilio
Enriquez, Abraham Felipe, Jaime Valera, and Annadaisy Carlota at the University
of the Philippines (UP); Patricia Licuanan, Carmen Alcuaz-Reyes, Allen Tan, and
Anna Miren Gonzalez-Intal at the neighboring Ateneo de Manila University. Both
UP and the Ateneo offered master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology with a
specialization in social psychology, and produced a number of Filipino social
psychologists.

8 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Social psychology along with industrial psychology became new areas of
research interest in the 1970s (Licuanan, 1985). Theses on topics such as attribution,
social perception, communication, decision making, attitude change, altruism,
stereotypes, reference groups, and language emerged during this decade when
Martial Law was declared in the Philippines. Bernardo (1997), in his survey of
Philippine publications in psychology from 1986 to 1996, indicated that a large
percentage of studies conducted by Philippine psychologists were on social
psychological topics. But according to Church (1987b), majority of psychological
research in the Philippines were applications of Western theoretical models and
methods to the local context. Church and Katigbak (2002) also concluded that there
has been little progress in the formulation of Filipino indigenous theories. Filipino
social psychology, like its Asian counterpart, suffered from a lack of theory.
Is there really a Filipino social psychology?

INDIGENOUS PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

The history of modern psychological science in the Philippines can be traced
alongside the country’s colonial history (Lagmay, 1984). When the United States
colonized the Philippines in the early 1900s, it established the American educational
system and the use of the American English language as the medium of instruction.
With the American educational system came American psychology. Even with
Philippine independence in 1946, American colonial education continued. But with
independence came questions of Filipino national identity and nationhood. “Who is
the Filipino?” “What is the Filipino national character?” “What are genuine Filipino
values?”
With the beginnings of a nationalist movement, Filipino psychologists in the
1960s began confronting the issue of applicability of Western theories, concepts,
and methods to Filipino realities (Guthrie & Bulatao, 1963). This was considered
fundamentally an issue of cultural specificity versus the generality or universality
of psychological theories. According to Lagmay (1984), the most important
development in Filipino indigenous psychology was the founding of the Pambansang
Samahan sa Sikolohiyang Pilipino (PSSP), or the National Association for Philippine
Psychology, by Virgilio G. Enriquez in the 1970s.

Sikolohiyang Pilipino
Sikolohiyang Pilipino was a protest against colonization or Philippine colonial
education; hence, the push towards indigenization of psychology in the Philippines
(Enriquez, 1985, 1992). It was against the imposition of psychologies developed
in Western and industrialized countries to an Asian and developing country
like the Philippines. Sikolohiyang Pilipino can be viewed as part of a worldwide
indigenization movement that began in the sixties. This indigenization movement
was a reaction to the domination of Western, especially American, mainstream

Introduction to Social Psychology 9

psychology and a reflection of a global concern for making psychological knowledge
culturally appropriate (Yang, 2000). The Philippines is considered to have the
strongest and most articulate indigenous psychology in Asia (Sinha, 1997).
Sikolohiyang Pilipino is an indigenous Asian psychology that emphasizes
identity and national consciousness, social awareness and involvement, psychology
of language and culture, and applications and bases of Filipino psychology in health
practices, agriculture, art, mass media, religion, among others (Enriquez, 1985, 1992).
Sikolohiyang Pilipino 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) (Enriquez, 1997). It urged Filipino
psychologists to confront social problems and national issues as well as to utilize
indigenous theories and methods. The use of the Filipino language in Sikolohiyang
Pilipino as a means of understanding Filipino culture was integral, with language
seen as reflecting indigenous culture and promoting national culture.
In examining the legacy of Virgilio Enriquez to Filipino indigenous psychology,
Pe-Pua and Protacio-Marcelino (2000) summarized Sikolohiyang Pilipino:

Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino psychology) refers to the psychology born

out of the experience, thought and orientation of the Filipinos, based on the full
use of Filipino culture and language. The approach is one of “indigenization
from within” whereby the theoretical framework and methodology emerge
from the experiences of the people from the indigenous culture. 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 (p. 49).

Sikolohiyang Pilipino is thus a psychology of, for, and by Filipinos, a psychology

that is applicable to Filipino everyday life (San Juan, 2006).

The Search for the Filipino Personality

Church and Katigbak (2002) reviewed the status of efforts to indigenize
psychology in the Philippines. Even before the Sikolohiyang Pilipino movement,
many researchers had already analyzed Filipino concepts, particularly in the area of
Filipino personality and Filipino values. The focus of local research on the Filipino
personality can be understood as a reaction to the country’s colonial history, first
with the Spaniards and then the Americans (Church, 1987a). After the country’s
independence in 1946, much of the research and writing on Filipino personality
from the 1950s to the 1970s coincided with the search for national identity and the
quest for national development (Lagmay, 1984). Hence, studies sought to identify
the Filipino national character and clarify Filipino values.
In a review of research and writing on Filipino personality during the 1950s
to the 1970s, Church (1987a, 1987b) enumerated the indigenous Filipino concepts
that have been studied by various scholars. Among them, Church cited Lapuz

10 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

(1973/1978) who identified pakikisama (to get along with), hiya (to feel shame), utang
na loob (to be grateful), delicadeza (to be circumspect or prudent), mapagbigay (to give
generously), makiramay (to share feelings), pagtitiis (to endure), and pagtitimpi (to
suppress) as personality values of Filipinos. Church cited other writers who point to
the values of hospitality and high standards of neatness and cleanliness in personal
grooming and in the home. Other frequently mentioned value themes include close
family ties, respect for authority, self- and emotional control, courteous and friendly
interactions, concern and sharing with others, industry, courage and endurance, and
desire for economic progress.
In one specific study, Bulatao (1963) used projective techniques to study
values of Filipino workers in Manila. Four major themes emerged from 900 stories
by fifty men and women. The largest number of stories was classified under the
theme “emotional closeness and security in the family.” Within this theme were the
subthemes of sacrificing individual interest for the good of the family and the value
of caring relationships. The second major value was “approval by the authority
figure and by society,” which refers to the concern about what others think, a desire
to appear good and acceptable to important others as well as to strangers and
foreigners, and the need to maintain smooth interpersonal relations. The third value
was “economic and social betterment” that reflects the desire to raise the standard
of living of one’s family. The fourth and last value was “patience, suffering, and
endurance” that is most related to women. Church (1987b) concluded that Bulatao’s
findings were consistent with other Philippine-value studies.
Though there was extensive identification of indigenous Filipino concepts
in the postcolonial era, there has been less progress in the formulation of Filipino
indigenous theories (Church & Katigbak, 2002). Arguably the most seminal work in
indigenous theorizing in the Philippines is Enriquez’s kapwa (shared identity) model.

Enriquez’s Kapwa Model

Enriquez (1978, 1992) critiqued the extensive focus on hiya (propriety/dignity),
utang na loob (gratitude/solidarity), and pakikisama (companionship/esteem) in
studies of Filipino personality and Filipino values. He described these values as
accommodative surface values that support an image of the Filipino as subservient
or accommodating (in relation to the colonizer). Alongside these accommodative
surface values, he asserted a corresponding set of confrontative surface values in
bahala na (determination), sama/lakas ng loob (resentment/guts), and pakikibaka
(resistance) that presents a counterimage of the Filipino as capable of determination,
courage, and resistance. This signifies that Filipinos can be accommodating as well
as confrontative, at times acceding and at other times resisting.
In addition to these surface values, Enriquez further conceptualized a set of
Filipino societal values in karangalan (dignity), katarungan (justice), and kalayaan
(freedom) as the foundational values of the Filipino nation. He then argued that what
lies at the core of all Filipino values is the core value of kapwa, or shared identity.
Kapwa, or the “self with others,” is the central value that connects all the different
Filipino values.

Introduction to Social Psychology 11

 These values would comprise Enriquez’s model of Filipino personality or
Filipino value structure as shown below. At the top level, or rows, are the surface
values. At the bottom level, or row, are the societal values. And at the middle level
is the core value of kapwa. Linking the core value of kapwa to the surface values
above is the interpersonal value of pakiramdam, or shared inner perception. Linking
the core value of kapwa to the societal values below is the sociopersonal value of
kagandahang-loob, or shared humanity.

Table 1.1. Enriquez’s Kapwa Value Structure (Simplified Version)

(Adapted from Enriquez 1992)
Accommodative hiya utang na loob pakikisama
SURFACE VALUES (propriety/dignity) (gratitude/solidarity) (companionship/esteem)

Confrontative bahala na sama/lakas ng loob pakikibaka

SURFACE VALUES (determination) (resentment/guts) (resistance)

Pivotal pakiramdam (pakikipagkapwa-tao)

Inter-Personal value (shared inner perception)

CORE VALUE KAPWA (Pagkatao)

(Shared Identity)

Linking Kagandahang-loob (Pagkamakatao)

Socio-personal value (Shared Humanity)

Associated karangalan katarungan pakikisama

SOCIETAL VALUES (dignity) (justice) (freedom)

In order to manifest the appropriate surface value toward others, one has to
practice pakikiramdam, that is to sense or perceive what another person is feeling or
thinking. Enriquez described this as the value of pakikipagkapwa-tao, or interacting
with others. In order to share the value of freedom, justice, and dignity with the rest
of Philippine society, one has to experience shared humanity through kagandahang-
loob. Enriquez described this as the value of pagkamakatao, or valuing people.
Unlike North American social psychology that starts discussions on social
behavior with the individual self, Enriquez begins with the shared inner self, or
kapwa. Conaco (2007) argues that it is this nonindividualistic orientation of kapwa
theory that makes Enriquez’s theory uniquely Filipino.

INDIGENOUS CONCEPTS OF FILIPINO SOCIAL REALITY

We borrow from Enriquez’s original conceptualization, and use kapwa as the

central concept around which the other concepts revolve. But these indigenous
concepts represent neither Filipino personality nor Filipino values. We posit that the

12 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

core descriptive concept for Filipino psychology is relational rather than personality
or value-based. We utilize Enriquez’s kapwa model to unify the discussion of five
key indigenous concepts: hiya (propriety/dignity), utang na loob (gratitude/
solidarity), pakikisama (companionship/esteem), kapwa (shared identity), and
pakikiramdam (shared inner perception). We focus on these five concepts because
they capture some of the relational norms that govern Filipino interpersonal
relations in everyday life.

Table 1.2. From Enriquez’s Value Structure to a Filipino Theory of Social Relations

Filipino Patterns hiya utang na loob pakikisama

of Relating
(shame) (gratitude/appreciation) (yielding to the majority or authority)

Filipino Underlying Process Pakikiramdam

of Social Perception
(Sensing)

Kapwa
Filipino Core Conception
of the Social Self
(Shared Identity)

We see hiya, utang na loob, and pakikisama as patterns of relating, or how

individual Filipinos think, feel, and act in relation to others. We conceive of hiya,
utang na loob, and pakikisama as social norms or expectations that govern what is
appropriate, or proper, social behavior. Similar to Enriquez, we see these patterns
of relating as tied to the basic conception of the Filipino self as “self with others”;
that is, the relational or interdependent self. Given the primacy of the group or
others in the conception of the self, it follows that maintaining good relations with
others through hiya, utang na loob, and pakikisama are integral to Filipino social
life. And like Enriquez, we see pakikiramdam as the key interpersonal process that
allows Filipinos to sense what the other is feeling and know when it is appropriate to
practice hiya, utang na loob, and pakikisama.

Hiya
Hiya has long been considered important to understanding Filipino personality
(Church, 1987a). Early studies of hiya in the 1950s and 1960s first translated this
concept into English as “shame” (Enriquez, 1992). According to Church, Bulatao
(1964, 1965) has provided the most extensive formulation of hiya. Though hiya is
often translated as shame in English, Bulatao argues that the word comes closer to
shyness, timidity, embarrassment, and sensitivity to others, or a consideration of the
feelings of others. A child may hide behind a parent when asked to greet a guest out
of hiya. In this sense the child is described as nahihiya, or mahiyain, which is similar
to shyness. After forgetting lines in a school play, a student refuses to go to school
the next day out of hiya. In this sense, the student is described as napahiya, which

Introduction to Social Psychology 13

is close to embarrassment, or shame. An employee may not talk about problems at
work in front of one’s boss because of hiya, or sensitivity towards authority.
According to Bulatao, hiya is tied to a need to be accepted by others. The fear or
anxiety of losing support or approval requires one to be sensitive to others. A friend
may not tell you that you have bad breath out of hiya. Hiya can also be in relation
to social expectations and the need to conform to these expectations in order to be
accepted by others or by a group. A classmate may hide that she is pregnant out
of fear of rejection. Bulatao further explains that hiya is related to showing respect
for others’ feelings or regard for social expectations. A person who fails to exhibit
proper decorum, such as a child who shouts at a parent, is labeled walang hiya. The
absence of hiya is considered a disregard for social norms, a lack of consideration
for others’ feelings, or insensitivity to figures of authority.

Utang na Loob
Reciprocity, or utang na loob (“debt of gratitude”), has been the focus of many
early writings on Philippine culture and society in the 1960s (Church, 1987a). Utang
na loob was conceptualized by Kaut and Hollnsteiner as a system of exchange
(Church, 1987b). When a person gives a gift, the recipient of the gift is obligated
to give back, or repay, the gift in the future. Receiving a gift implies incurring an
obligation, or a debt; hence debt of gratitude, or debt of obligation, or utang na
loob. Individuals who do not recognize their debt of gratitude, or obligation, are
walang utang na loob (ungrateful). Andres (1994) further defined utang na loob as
the principle of reciprocity incurred when an individual helps another (as cited in
Pe-Pua & Protacio-Marcelino, 2000). The person helped feels obligated to repay the
debt in the future, such as offering assistance when the original helper is in need or
sending gifts as a form of repayment. For instance, a friend may have helped you
during an emergency situation. You are in turn expected to express your utang na
loob, or help this friend in the future.
In contrast to the definition of utang na loob as a debt of obligation, Pe-Pua and
Protacio-Marcelino (2000) argue that utang na loob is the Filipino’s way of expressing
gratitude. Utang na loob in the context of Filipino culture is not necessarily a burden
as the word “debt” connotes, but rather an opportunity to show gratitude, or to
return the favor:
It is not absolutely obligatory in the immediate future, for the opportunity
to show utang na loob might come only in the next generation, maybe not in your
lifetime. Your children will see to it that it is recognized and respected. It is a beautiful
element of Filipino interpersonal relationships that binds a person to his or her home
community or home country. In fact, this is expressed in a popular Filipino saying,
“Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan” (Those
who do not look back to where they came from will not reach their destination)
(Pe-Pua & Protacio-Marcelino, 2000, p. 56).

14 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Pakikisama
According to Lynch (1973, 1984), one of the basic goals of Filipinos is social
acceptance; that is, Filipinos particularly value being accepted by others. His
conceptualization of smooth interpersonal relations, or SIR, as a framework for
describing Filipino social relations was most influential in the 1960s and 1970s
(Church, 1987a). To obtain social acceptance, one must enact smooth interpersonal
relations by getting along with others, avoiding conflict, being agreeable (even
under difficult circumstances), and being sensitive to what other people feel at any
given moment (Lynch, 1984).
Lynch saw pakikisama as a means for maintaining smooth interpersonal
relations. Pakikisama, meaning to go along with or to give in, is observed by
going along with the group or the majority, that is, conformity (Pe-Pua & Protacio-
Marcelino, 2000). For example, accepting invitations to drink with one’s barkada
(group of friends) often employs pakikisama. One is asked to go along with the
group and have a drink, or makisama ka naman (try to get along). A person who goes
along with the group is described as marunong makisama (knows how to get along)
whereas a person who declines the invitation is hindi marunong makisama (does not
know how to get along).
Enriquez (1978, 1992) argued that the most valued form of relationship in the
Philippines goes beyond pakikisama. He reasoned that it is not pakikisama, or
maintaining smooth interpersonal relationships, that Filipinos are most concerned
with but pakikipagkapwa, or treating the other person as kapwa, or as fellow human
being.

Kapwa
For Enriquez, kapwa is divided into outsider (ibang tao) and one-of-us (hindi
ibang tao). In Filipino social interaction, being placed as ibang tao or hindi ibang
tao determines the level of interaction one is shown (Pe-Pua & Protacio-Marcelino,
2000). If one is classified as an outsider, or regarded as ibang tao, interaction can
range from pakikitungo (transaction/civility with) to pakikisalamuha (interaction
with), to pakikilahok (joining/participating with), to pakikibagay (in conformity with/
in accord with), and to pakikisama (being/going along with) (Santiago & Enriquez,
1976). For instance, one can carry transaction with a stranger (like a salesperson in
a store); interact with churchgoers during mass; or join a school event with relative
strangers. As one interacts with people one knows more deeply—like teachers or
classmates—one engages in higher levels of interaction (such as conformity and
going along with the group).
If one is categorized as one-of-us, or regarded as hindi ibang tao, interaction
occurs at the deeper levels of pakikipagpalagayang-loob (being-in-rapport/
understanding/acceptance with), or pakikisangkot (getting involved with), or
pakikiisa (being one with), which is the highest level of interaction (Santiago &
Enriquez, 1976). We may experience being understood and genuinely accepted by
friends. We may feel one with our barkada. We may be deeply involved in family

Introduction to Social Psychology 15

matters. Hence, in Santiago and Enriquez’s modes of social interaction, pakikisama
is only one level.
In contrast, pakikipagkapwa embraces all levels of social interaction. In relation to
pakikipagkapwa, Enriquez’s main contribution to indigenous Filipino psychology
is the postulation of the concept of kapwa, or shared identity (San Juan, 2006).
Kapwa is the unity of the self and others (Enriquez, 1978). “The English ‘others’ is
actually used in opposition to the ‘self,’ and implies the recognition of the ‘self’ as
a separate identity. In contrast, kapwa is a recognition of shared identity” (p. 263).
Enriquez argues for a Filipino psychology that begins with the concept of shared
inner self, or a self with others (Conaco, 2007).

Pakikiramdam
Finally, we turn to pakikiramdam—the key interpersonal process that allows
Filipinos to sense what the other is feeling and know when it is appropriate to
practice hiya, utang na loob, and pakikisama. Pakikiramdam is the pivotal value
of shared inner perception. It refers to heightened awareness and sensitivity
(Enriquez, 1990). Pakiramdam is feeling, and pakikiramdam is feeling for another
(Mataragnon, 1987). In a study by Conaco (2009, p. 313), pakiramdam was seen
as similar to the concepts of “empathy, sensitivity and awareness and described as
measuring (pagtantya) of the other, being observant and watchful, cautious ‘feeling’
of the other.” It is both a value and a behavior and may derive from or may lead to
the establishment of kapwa. Pakikiramdam is an active process involving great care
and deliberation in one’s actions toward another. One is engaging in pakikiramdam
when he or she hesitates to react immediately, pays close attention to subtle cues
and nonverbal behavior, and practices mental role-playing (If I were in the other’s
situation, how would I feel?) (Mataragnon, 1987). In pakikiramdam, one actively
tries to put one’s self in the situation of the other person; that is, sensing what the
other person is experiencing or feeling.
Part of Filipino socialization is being sensitive to nonverbal cues. We are trained
to be concerned with the feelings of others. We learn to be truthful without hurting
others’ feelings. Our socialization has made pakikiramdam a particularly desirable
skill in many situations involving Filipino social interaction (Pe-Pua & Protacio-
Marcelino, 2000). Without pakikiramdam, one cannot know when to feel utang na
loob or hiya; neither can one know when to engage in pakikisama.
Pakikiramdam explains the Filipino inclination for indirect communication
(Pe-Pua & Protacio-Marcelino, 2000). Filipinos are often observed by foreigners to
be painstakingly indirect in their communication. They are criticized for not being
honest and frank, for not telling the truth directly. On the other hand, Filipinos
find some foreigners excessively direct and outspoken. Foreigners need to learn
pakikiramdam and be sensitive to the Filipino way of interacting. In Filipino social
interactions, one has to be sensitive to body language, voice intonation, and indirect
forms of communication. As such, pakikiramdam is connected to the indirect
pattern of communication among Filipinos.

16 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Social psychologists conduct research on social behavior and thinking. The
goal of social psychology research is to describe, explain, predict, or control social
behavior and mental processes. A descriptive research would focus on what is
happening, such as describing how people understand the meaning of aggression.
If the goal of research is explanation, a social psychologist seeks to determine
the cause of a social behavior, such as that of aggression and why people harm
other people. Knowing the factors that influence aggression, a social psychologist
can then predict the conditions where the behavior can occur (such as in a hot,
overcrowded environment). Finally, a social psychologist can control aggression by
addressing the situational factors that influence it. To accomplish these goals, social
psychologists use several research strategies to investigate a phenomenon. Let’s
look at these research methods.

Experimental Method
The main objective of an experiment is to discover a cause-effect relation
between an independent variable (IV) and a dependent variable (DV). Briefly,
the IV is the hypothesized cause, while the DV is the predicted effect of the IV.
In an experiment, the IV is the variable manipulated while the DV is the variable
measured. For example, in an experiment to determine whether presence of others
has an effect on helping behavior, the IV is the presence of others while the DV is
helping behavior.
In studying the effect of the IV on the DV, there are variables that may influence
the DV but which are not part of the study (e.g., noise, personality of subjects).
These variables are known as extraneous variables and should be controlled by
eliminating them or keeping them constant, for example.
The experimental method is the most widely used research method in Western
social psychology. Its distinct advantage is its ability to establish cause-effect
relationships as a result of isolating an IV and controlling extraneous variables.
However, a disadvantage is the lack of external validity (generalizability of the
findings) due to the artificiality of the laboratory setting.
There are times when experiments cannot be conducted since the IV cannot
be purposively manipulated, either because the IV is already inherently present
in the participants (e.g., intelligence, gender) or doing so would be unethical (e.g.,
manipulating sex abuse, the use of drugs, smoking). In such cases, other research
methods are employed.
Macapagal (2006) conducted an experiment where she varied the gender
of a hypothetical politician (independent variable) in a narrative to see its effect
on perceived traits of the political candidate (dependent variable). Respondents
answered a scale with either a male or female politician in the story. She found
that female politicians are perceived as more attractive, emotional, intelligent, and
religious, whereas male politicians are perceived as more corrupt.

Introduction to Social Psychology 17

The Quasi-Experimental Method
The quasi-experimental method is like an experiment except that the random
assignment of participants is not possible. The IV is not purposively manipulated for
the two reasons stated previously (i.e., IVs are already inherent in the participants
and/or the manipulation of the IV would be unethical). Examples of IVs in quasi-
experiments include participant variables (e.g., gender, socioeconomic status) and
the environment or social events (e.g., poverty, elections).
An example of a quasi-experiment in social psychology would be the study of
Filho, Purugganan, and Sanchez (2004) on relational aggression among Filipino on-
the-job-training students. The IVs they studied included environment (school versus
workplace), level of sociability of the participants (high or low), and relationship
(acquaintance or friends). The DV is the degree to which relational aggression (e.g.,
backstabbing, spreading rumors, silent treatment) were reported. (Results of this
quasi-experiment are discussed in chapter 3.)
The advantage of the quasi-experiment is that it allows us to study variables
that cannot be manipulated nor controlled by the experimenter. Moreover, external
validity is high. In the absence of the random assignment of subjects, however, the
researcher needs to be very cautious in making causal conclusions.

Correlational Method
The purpose of the correlational method is to establish whether two or more
variables are associated or related to each other. The variables are first measured,
after which a correlational analysis (e.g., Pearson r) is conducted to determine
the relationship. The range of the correlation coefficient, or r, is between 0 (which
indicates no relationship) and +1/-1 (perfect relationship). The closer the absolute
value/magnitude of r is to 1, the stronger the relationship. In general, an r of 0.20 or
lower connotes a low relationship, while a ratio of 0.60 and above would mean a high
relationship, regardless of the sign. The sign of r indicates whether a relationship
is positive/direct (as X increases, Y increases; or as X decreases, Y decreases) or
negative/indirect (as X increases, Y decreases; or as X decreases, Y increases). We
can also test for the significance of r by checking the critical r value required that
depends on the sample size. Using a statistical software, such as SPSS (Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences), can inform us if the r values we get are statistically
significant or not.
One advantage of the correlational method is that it focuses on the investigation
of naturally occurring variables or those that tend to occur in the real-world setting.
Its main disadvantage, on the other hand, is that correlation does not necessarily imply
causation. If variables X and Y are correlated, it does not necessarily follow that X
is the cause of Y. For example, even if there is a correlation between the number
of hours children watch violent TV shows and the number of aggressive behavior
committed by the children, it does not necessarily follow that the TV shows caused
the aggressive behavior. For one thing, we are not sure of the cause-effect direction
of the correlation. One possibility is that children who are aggressive to begin with
prefer to watch violent TV shows.

18 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 An example of a correlation is the study of Buot (2006) who found that
former MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) members now integrated with
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who experienced more discrimination
reported higher levels of stress. Consequently, the integrees who encountered less
discrimination were the ones who encountered less number of stresses, personal
dissatisfactions, and less failure. In other words, there was a positive correlation
between perceived discrimination and stress. As discrimination increased, their
stress levels also increased.

The Observation Method

Another research strategy used by social psychologists involves observing the
phenomenon of interest as it naturally occurs. The observation of social behavior
may serve as a starting point for more researches in psychology. Examples in this
regard would include observing couples’ public display of affection (PDA) in the
school campus or how students work in a group.
The advantages of this method include realism (high external validity) and
descriptive information on the sequence and development of behaviors. One
disadvantage, however, is that the method is prone to perceptual distortion and can
be subjective unless observers are carefully trained to be objective. There is likewise a
lack of control over the situation. Sometimes, it takes time to observe the behavior of
interest. There may also be difficulties in the quantification of data. Reactivity (i.e.,
participants not acting “normally” due to awareness that they are being observed)
may also be encountered unless the observation is done unobtrusively or the
participants do not know that they are being observed. A study on the kristo (or
bet taker) of the cockpit by Alabanza, Gonzaga, and Obligacion (1979) used the
participant observation method to determine the intricacies of the kristo’s job.

The Survey Method

Another popular research method widely used by social psychologists is the
survey research, which could employ either a written questionnaire, personal
interviews, or focus groups (Myers & Hansen, 2012). Have you ever been a
respondent in a survey before? Instead of observing your behavior, a researcher
may simply have asked you to talk about your behaviors, attitudes, or opinions.
Examples of such would be your political opinions, sexual attitudes, or product
preferences. Surveys allow us to gather data about experiences, feelings, thoughts,
and motives that are hard to observe directly.
In conducting a survey, we need to consider the instrument and sampling.
A carefully pretested questionnaire is presented to a carefully selected sample of
respondents closely representing the population being studied.
The survey method allows for very specific formulations of issues of concern.
Written questionnaires have the added advantages of being easier to administer, of
being more economical, and ensuring the anonymity of respondents. Face to face
interviews, on the other hand, are more expensive to carry out and susceptible to
interviewer bias, but allow for clarifications.

Introduction to Social Psychology 19

 Sampling is an essential issue because erroneous conclusions may be made
if the sample is not representative of the population being studied. For example,
predicting that a political candidate will win based on the results of a survey may
be risky, unless proper sampling techniques are used.If only friends or those who
express interest in the candidate are recruited as respondents, then the results may
be biased.
A major disadvantage of the survey method deals with the issue of accuracy.
The method does not guarantee that the respondents will be completely honest in
their responses. There is always the possibility of acting for the sake of attaining
social desirability, which is reflected in the tendency of participants to answer on
the basis of what will make them appear good. For example, if asked whether you
smoke or drink alcohol you may say “No,” because it is the more socially desirable
response.
The survey method was used in studying the types of political participation
among Filipino citizens (Sucgang, 2006). Using data from a national survey, the
research reported two types of political involvement, namely, political participation
as proactive engagement in the public arena and political participation as solving
problems in the community. (The results are discussed further in chapter 7.)
Sta. Maria (2000), on the other hand, conducted personal and focus group
interviews with peace zone leaders in the Philippines. (Results of this study are
discussed in chapter 8.)

Archival Research
In the archival research method, written records (i.e., public and private
documents), statistical archives, and physical traces of human beings are
systematically studied in lieu of actual behaviors. It is a descriptive research
method in which existing records are analyzed for a new purpose (Myers &Hansen,
2012). The advantage of the archival method is that it allows hypothesis testing
over a wider range of time and societies. However, some data needed may not be
available. Examples of materials that can be content analyzed include diaries, letters,
paintings, books, poems, newspaper or magazine articles, movies, and speeches.
Even cellphone text messages can be systematically analyzed, which is what Montiel
and Estuar (2006) did when they studied the text messages during People Power II
in 2001. The study has revealed three themes of the text messages, namely, political
information and persuasion, protest humor, and political emotions.
Another example of a study that used content analysis is the study on aggression
and group membership by Puyat (1999). The researcher asked the respondents
to write everything that comes to their mind when they hear or see the word
“aggression.”
Bernardo (1997) also used the archival research approach in studying psychology
research in the Philippines. He surveyed Philippine publications in psychology from
1986 to 1996 and found that social psychology took 41.7 percent, followed by child
psychology (12%), and family psychology (10%). Majority of these publications were
also descriptive in nature (52%).

20 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Indigenous Research Methods
The different research strategies described thus far originated from and are
widely used in the US and Europe. Although Filipino social psychologists have used
these methods quite extensively in their research, some Filipino social psychologists
believe that these Western techniques may not be appropriate or sufficient in truly
understanding Filipino social behavior (Santiago & Enriquez, 1982). For example,
many researches about the Philippines using these Western techniques often use
college students in urban settings as sample of the study. But do these students really
represent the true spirit of the Filipinos? What about the masses, the urban poor,
the farmers, the kasambahays (house helpers). Aren’t they Filipinos too? They are
often neglected in psychological research. Moreover, Santiago and Enriquez (1982)
believed that most topics in Filipino psychological research were chosen, based on
the interest, goals, and problems of the researcher rather than of the respondents
who were the main focus of the study. Most of the time, the research problem chosen
had nothing to do with the respondents. Aside from the choice of topics, the method
of data gathering was sometimes inappropriate because the measures used were
from Western cultures (e.g., how can you conduct an experiment or give out survey
forms in the rural areas?).
To make psychological research more Filipino, topics chosen must emanate
from among the respondents themselves. Using the two scales available to the
Filipino researcher, namely, the Iskala ng Mananaliksik (researcher/method scale)
and the Iskala ng Pagtutunguhan ng Mananaliksik at Kalahok (researcher-participant
relationship scale), might be advisable (Santiago & Enriquez, 1982).
The Iskala ng Mananaliksik may be used by any researcher who wishes to learn
more about people’s work, or anything to do with people’s reactions toward objects
and other people, be it their behavior, thoughts, or feelings. The scale includes
research methods that reflect the Filipino traditions and values ranging from the
unobtrusive to the research-participative. The unobtrusive methods include
pagmamasid (looking around) and pakikiramdam (sensing, feeling what is happening).
From these two, more obtrusive methods may spring and be used, for example,
pagtatanong-tanong (unstructured, informal questioning) and pagsubok (start talking/
working with respondents). The highest levels of research participation include
pagdalaw-dalaw (visits to respondent’s home) and pakikisangkot (deep involvement in
the respondents’ activities).
The Iskala ng Pagtutunguhan ng Mananaliksik at Kalahok, on the other hand, is
about the different layers of relationships between the researcher and the researched
that may have implications on the quality of the data obtained. The scale is based on
the Filipino view of equality between the researcher and the respondents (Church
& Katigbak, 2002). Respondents are not to be treated as guinea pigs. Under certain
relationship conditions, the respondent may disclose varied levels of information.
The scale includes pakikitungo (transaction, civility); pakikisalamuha (interaction);
pakikilahok (participating, joining); pakikibagay (conforming with); pakikisama (being
along with); pakikipagpalagayang-loob (understanding, acceptance); pakikisangkot
(getting involved); pakikiisa (being one with). The researcher may be constrained

Introduction to Social Psychology 21

in getting data from the respondent if their level is only at pakikitungo. On the
other hand, it is not necessary that all researchers and respondents reach the level of
pakikiisa. The level reached will depend on the type of information needed.
Other indigenous research methods have been proposed, including
pakikipagkuwentuhan (storytelling), pakikisama (frequent interaction with the
respondents), and pakikipanuluyan (residing in the research setting). These indigenous
research methods involve unstructured conversations and discussions, often in a
small group context, as well as various degrees of participant observation (Church
& Katigbak, 2002). Church and Katigbak have noted the similarity of these methods
with Western naturalistic and participant observation. They have been applied most
often in studying Filipino samples who have limited familiarity with traditional
surveys and tests or when investigating particularly sensitive topics.
An example of a social psychological research that used the indigenous
methods is a study on pagtawad, or haggling behavior, by Du and Paysu (1979). The
researchers went around public markets, such as Divisoria, and used pagmamasid-
masid (observation) and pagtatanong-tanong (asking around) to determine the
different reasons and strategies of haggling among Filipinos. Other examples include
de Vera’s 1982 study of pakikiapid (adultery) using pakikipagkwentuhan (storytelling);
Gepigon and Francisco’s (1982) study of mga namumulot ng basura (those picking
up garbage) using pagdalaw (visiting) at pakikipagpalagayang-loob (being in-rapport/
understanding/acceptance with); and Nery’s (1982) study of the callboy culture
using pakikisama (getting along with).
Many Filipino social psychologists combine different methods to achieve their
goals. For instance, in her study on upland farmers’ attributions for success and
failure in farming, Abregana (1988) used pakikisalamuha and pagtatanong-tanong to
facilitate entry into the study’s setting, and she used a Cebuano-translated interview
schedule for data gathering.

CONTEXTUALIZING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

IN THE PHILIPPINES: OUTLINE OF THE BOOK
At this point, we have seen that there is no one social psychology. Different
streams of social psychology have developed in North America and Europe.
While Western theories and methods of social psychology were adopted in Asia,
including the Philippines, indigenous psychologies within Asian countries have
also emerged. In contextualizing social psychology in the Philippines, we take the
position that utilizing multiple frameworks is necessary. We will look at Filipino
social realities using the theories developed in North American, European, Asian
as well as Filipino social psychologies. Such an approach means valuing theory as
long as it is applicable or useful in understanding Filipinos’ thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors in social situations.

22 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 What is unique to this book is that it takes a phenomenological or experiential
approach to Filipino social psychology. With the goal of making social psychology
relevant to the lives of Filipinos, the outline of the book is grounded on the
everyday life of Filipinos and the social realities Filipinos live in. Unlike traditional
Western approaches that follow concepts and theories in their articulation of social
psychology, the book follows our own phenomenological knowledge or subjective
experience of Filipino social reality. This approach makes culture emerge from the
background to the foreground of social psychology by making it grounded on local
experience.
Culture has been generally defined as “a shared way of life of a group of
people” (Berry, 2000, p. 199). It is generally believed to encompass both the objective
aspects of how we live, like the food we eat; as well as the subjective aspects, like
our values and beliefs. Thus, culture is both out there in the group and in here in
our heads (Berry, 2000). A useful way of thinking about culture is to see it as a set
of lenses for seeing the world (Triandis, 1994). Triandis further describes culture as
our unstated assumptions or standard operating procedures for doing things. These
ways of doing things have been internalized to such an extent that people no longer
argue about them. Thinking of culture as a set of lenses or a pair of glasses reminds
us that how we see things may not be how people from other cultures see the world.
With Filipino culture as our lens, we contextualize social psychology in Philippine
social realities.
Such an approach is similar to what Kim (2000, 2001) explains as indigenous
psychologies’ approach to studying culture; that is, to examine (1) context, (2)
epistemology, and (3) phenomenology. Culture and psychology need to be
understood in context. According to Kim, our understanding of a culture will differ
depending on whether we are an insider of that culture or an outsider. Members of
a culture looking into one’s own culture would have insights only insiders to that
culture can possess. Insiders would have the experience of thinking, feeling, and
being in that culture; or the phenomenology of insiders.
Coming from our own subjective experience of Filipino social reality, we
dedicate the first part of the book to “The Social Psychology of Filipino Everyday
Life.” Hence, the first half of this book highlights four areas in our everyday lives:
(1) the self and family life, (2) friendship and school life, (3) intimate relationships
and love life, and (4) work life. Unlike American social psychology that begins with
the individualized self, we begin with the Filipino relational self as embedded in its
immediate social context—the family, or pamilya. Subsequently we talk about the
Filipino nested in a peer group, or barkada; the student in school; the Filipino in
intimate relationships; the worker in an organization.
In the larger cultural context, Filipinos live in the midst of pressing social,
political, and economic issues and rapidly changing social environments. To
understand Filipinos in the larger social context, we have focused the second part
of the book to “The Psychology of Filipino Social Issues.” In the second half
of this book, we highlight five social issues Filipinos face today: (1) gender and

Introduction to Social Psychology 23

sexuality, (2) conflict and peacemaking, (3) politics, (4) poverty and social justice,
and (5) mass media and new information communication and technologies (ICTs).
As Moghaddam (1990) argues, a psychology arising from a Third World context
should begin with questions relevant to the Third World. In looking at Filipino
society in its larger social, political, and economic context, these five social issues
are among those that Filipinos experience today.

To conclude, we offer a social psychology book that is grounded on Filipino

social experience and is responsive to social issues Filipinos face today. We hope
Filipinos find this book relevant to their everyday life.

24 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

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reaction and response. New York: Penguin.
Triandis, H. C. (1994). Culture and social behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill. Worcester,
Mass: Clark University Press.
Yang, K. (2000). Monocultural and cross-cultural indigenous approaches: The royal
road to the development of a balanced global psychology. Asian Journal of Social
Psychology, 3, 241–263.

28 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

CHAPTER 2
KAPWA KO, KAPAMILYA KO!
THE FILIPINO SELF & THE FAMILY

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I THE SELF AND CULTURE

• The Self-Concept
• Individualist and Collectivist Cultures
• Independent/Separated and Interdependent/Relational Selves

II THE FILIPINO SELF AS INTERDEPENDENT OR RELATIONAL

• Kapwa as Self with Others
• The Self as Embedded in a Group
• Filipino Youth as Interdependent

III THE FAMILY AS CENTRAL TO FILIPINOS

• Filipino Kinship Structure
• Family as Agent of Socialization
• Family as Important to Filipino Youth

IV THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF THE FAMILY

• Background on Social Influence
• Social Expectations and Norms: Familism and Utang na Loob
• Conformity and Obedience to Parental Authority
• Role-Taking and Role-Playing

V THE TRANSNATIONAL FAMILY: FAMILIES OF OVERSEAS WORKERS

29
 “Who am I?”
You have probably asked yourself this question before. What answers did you
give? Some may describe themselves in terms of personality traits like being smart,
shy, athletic, or crazy. Some may think of the roles they play like being the ate (older
sister) or kuya (older brother), being a son or a daughter, or being a friend and a
student. Some may look at the things they do like playing basketball and singing in
the choir. Others may think of themselves as artists and leaders. Your answers to the
question “Who am I?” reveal your self-concept (Markus & Wurf, 1987).
In social psychology, we see the self or the person as embedded in the social
context (Burr, 2002). The self is shaped by the world we live in and we in turn shape
the world. One aspect of the social context that influences our self-concept is culture.
As we have discussed in chapter 1, culture is like a set of lenses for seeing the world.
In this chapter, we will look at the meaning of the self in Philippine culture. We will
also look at how the Filipino self is embedded in the family as the primary social
group in Philippine everyday life.

THE SELF AND CULTURE

The Self-Concept
The set or collection of ideas, images, beliefs or schemas a person has about
the self comprises the multidimensional and multifaceted self-concept (Markus
& Wurf, 1987). Psychologists and sociologists now emphasize the multiplicity
or multidimensionality of the self-concept. As such, we can have many ways of
viewing our selves. At any given moment, we are only looking at a specific part
of our self-concept. This working self-concept, or the self-concept of the moment, is
best understood as self-knowledge that is active and changing. This means that our
self-concept is not fixed or static. How we see ourselves may change through time.
It depends on what we are thinking of at a particular moment. It depends on the
current situation we are in. It depends on our social experiences. This view of the
self-concept reminds us that the self is constantly embedded in a historical and social
context.
Determinants of the self. Some of the social influences that develop our self-
concept are the roles we play in everyday life (Burr, 2002), the social identities we
form as members of groups (Turner & Onorato, 1999), and the social comparisons we
make when we compare ourselves with others (Festinger, 1954). In playing our roles
as students or teachers, children or parents, our roles become part of who we are. As
members of different groups, we develop social identities like that of being Catholic,
being Cebuano, or being a Psychology major. We also compare ourselves with others
to decide if we are really smart, if we are really good in sports, or if we can really
sing. Aside from these social roles, social identities, and social comparisons, other
people’s perception of who we are and the culture that surrounds us also shape our
self-concept (Cooley, 1902; Matsumoto & Juang, 2004).

30 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 How others perceive us influence how we see ourselves. Charles H. Cooley
described this phenomenon as the looking-glass self, our tendency to use others
as a mirror for perceiving our selves (Cooley, 1902). As such, how significant others
see us becomes how we see our selves. If your teacher says you are a good writer,
being a writer may become part of your self-concept. If your father criticizes you a
lot, you may think you are never good enough. If your friend says someone likes
you, you may come to believe that you are an attractive person. We will return to this
phenomenon in a later section where we further explain how others, particularly our
family influence us (see “Role-Taking and Role-Playing”).
Culture defines the self. In cultural psychology, the self and culture are seen as
mutually constitutive (Fiske, Kitayama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998). That is, cultural
meanings and practices construct psychological processes, which in turn transform
these cultural meanings and practices. In a sense, culture and the self construct each
other. The individual self develops within a particular culture that structures how
the self is to think, feel, and act. In turn, the interaction of many individual selves
transforms the cultural system.
Our sense of self, referred to as our self-concept or our self-construal, is shaped
by our cultural context (Matsumoto & Juang, 2004). Different cultures produce
different self-concepts in their members. This means that even though the self is a
basic psychological concept that is commonly assumed to have a universal nature,
the meaning of the self varies across different cultural contexts. How do we define
the self in Filipino culture? Is the meaning of the self for Filipinos the same as the
meaning of the self for Americans? For the Japanese? For Europeans? For Asians?
In the succeeding sections, we will see how the meaning of the self differs from one
culture to another. In particular, how the sense of self defined in individualistic
cultures will be different from the sense of self defined in collectivist cultures.

Individualist and Collectivist Cultures

According to Kashima (2001), the idea that cultural differences can be examined
in terms of two contrasting worldviews began with the work of Hofstede as well as
Shweder and Bourne in the 1980s. Accordingly, there are cultures that emphasize
individuality (e.g., individualist, independent); and cultures that emphasize sociality
(e.g., collectivist, interdependent). Triandis is widely acknowledged as the leading
proponent of the individualism and collectivism construct in social psychology.
Individualist cultures emphasize that people are independent of their groups whereas
collectivist cultures emphasize the interdependence among people (Triandis, 2001).
In individualist cultures, the self is defined as an independent entity. In collectivist
cultures, the self is defined in terms of primary ingroups or relationships. Collectives
or groups, such as the family, tribe, work group, or nation, are primary.
Triandis (1994) extensively describes the many ways that distinguish
individualist and collectivist cultures. One way by which these two cultures differ
is in the importance given to personal goals vis-à-vis group goals. In individualist
cultures, a person must clearly articulate one’s goals. Personal goals are seen as more

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 31
important than the goals of the ingroup. As such, the norm is to be independent from
one’s ingroup like one’s family, clan, or kin. Little then is expected of the person by
one’s ingroup in an individualist culture.
In collectivist cultures, a person’s goals are defined according to one’s social
roles, with the goals of the ingroup more important than one’s own goals. As such,
the norm is to remain embedded or part of the ingroup, like one’s family or kin.
People are expected to maintain close interdependent relationships with their
ingroups. Much then is expected of the person by one’s ingroup like one’s family,
with self-sacrifice for the group seen as natural.
The classic study by Hofstede (1980) gave empirical evidence supporting
the existence of individualist cultures vis-à-vis collectivist cultures. In the study,
Americans scored highest on individualism, followed by Canada and Western
European countries. On the other hand, Asian, Latin American, and African
countries scored high on collectivism, among them the Philippines. According to
Hofstede, individualistic societies stress “I” consciousness, autonomy, emotional
independence, individual initiative, the right to privacy, and autonomy. Collectivist
societies, on the other hand, emphasize “We” consciousness, collective identity,
emotional dependence, group solidarity and sharing, and duties and obligations. Do
you see yourself as an individual “I” or as part of a group of “We”?
Chinese culture is one example of a collectivist society. In mainland China,
Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Chinese social life is ruled by a strong orientation to the
family, to others, to relationships, and to authorities (Yang, 1997). As such, the
family in Chinese culture is primary whereas individual members are secondary.
The Chinese are expected to prioritize their family’s interests over their personal
goals. Yang refers to this phenomenon as the Chinese social orientation. Unlike
an individual orientation which is a tendency to be different from and to control
one’s environment in order to fulfill one’s personal desires, a social orientation is
described as a tendency to maintain harmonious relationships with others in order
to achieve collective goals. Yang argues that this social orientation is dominant in
Chinese culture. Do you think Filipinos possess a similar social orientation? Do you
think Filipinos are also collectivist? Are you more of a collectivist or more of an
individualist?

Independent/Separated and Interdependent/Relational Selves

Separated versus (vs.) relational selves. Cigdem Kagitcibasi (1996)
conceptualized the separated self and the relational self as the two basic strands
of the self that have emerged from cross-cultural research. The separated self arises
from a culture of separateness wherein cultural and interpersonal relations are
between separate selves. The relational self emerges from a culture of relatedness
wherein cultural and interpersonal relations are between overlapping selves. On one
side is a self-contained, independent self defined by clear boundaries. On the other
side is a relational, interdependent self with fluid boundaries.

32 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Remember our earlier question “Who am I?” In one study comparing American
and Japanese students on their responses to the Twenty Statements Test (which
repeatedly asks the question “Who am I?”), Americans used trait descriptions more
whereas the Japanese gave more role-specific and situational answers (Cousins,
1989). Americans showed a separated self defined by unique attributes whereas the
Japanese reflected a relational self defined by social roles (Kagitcibasi, 1996).
In another example from Bali, Indonesia, the self is also determined by socially
ascribed roles—the part that each individual is to play in society (Geertz, 1975).
As such, individuals in Bali are not known by their names but rather in terms of
whose children they are. In Filipino culture, the self and the other are integrated into
the concept of kapwa (Enriquez, 1997). Unlike in English where the self is often in
opposition to others, the Filipino term kapwa merges the self with the other. Hence,
kapwa is an example of a relational conceptualization of the self (Kagitcibasi, 1996).
Independent vs. interdependent selves. Similar to Kagitcibasi’s conception
of the separated self and the relational self, Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama
(1991) developed the independent self and the interdependent self. Markus and
Kitayama focus on how people in different cultures see the self in relation to others,
particularly whether the self is separate from others or connected with others. For
many western cultures, there is a belief that persons are distinct and separate from
each other. For many non-Western cultures like the Philippines, the belief is in the
connectedness of human beings to each other.
The independent self is defined by unique internal attributes, such as traits and
dispositions, that are independent of one’s context. The independent view of the
self is exemplified by American culture as well as many Western European cultures.
The goal in these cultures is to become independent from others and to discover
and express one’s unique qualities. From the study of Markus and Kitayama (1991),
Americans tend to highlight their individual uniqueness and give importance to
asserting one’s self. Emphasis is on the individual’s own thoughts, feelings, and
actions, rather than that of others. Others become important mainly to verify and
affirm the inner core of the self such as validating the self’s opinions, abilities, and
characteristics.
On the other hand, the interdependent self sees the self-in-relation-to-others as the
focus of individual experience rather than the independent self. The interdependent
view of the self is exemplified by Japanese culture as well as many other Asian
cultures, African cultures, Latin American cultures, and Eastern European cultures.
This Asian view insists on the fundamental relatedness of the self with others and
looks at how the individual self fits in harmony with them. The goal is to maintain
interdependence among individuals and requires seeing oneself as part of social
relationships or a larger social unit. Emphasis is on knowing the thoughts, feelings,
and actions of others in these relationships. Others are important in order to give
meaning to the self in a specific social situation or context. As such, one’s own
opinions, abilities, and characteristics are secondary. The interdependent self finds
ways to fit in with significant others, to fulfill obligations, and to belong to groups.

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 33
For instance, the Japanese tend to emphasize fitting in with others and the importance
of being in harmony with others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
In the figure that follows, the independent and interdependent views of the self
are illustrated. In both drawings, the self is represented by the largest circle in the
middle. The self is surrounded by specific others represented as smaller circles. Each
X represents a representation of the self, of specific others, or of the self-in-relation-
to-others (X along the intersection of the self circle and any of the others circles).
In the independent self, the representation of the self is clearly separate from the
representation of others. And it is these self-representations (e.g., “I am artistic,” “I
love music”) that are most significant in regulating or controlling behavior. In the
interdependent self, the representation of the self intersects with that of others. And
it is these representations that are in relation to specific others (e.g., “I am a good
daughter,” “I am a loyal friend”) that are most important in regulating behavior. As
such, the self can be different in each social relationship or situation. The focus then
is not the inner self but the self’s relationships with others.

Figure 2.1. Independent vs. Interdependent Selves

(adapted from Markus & Kitayama, 1991).

Mother
x x Father
xx x x
Self
x
Sibling
x x x xx
Friend x x x
x x x x x Co-worker
x x x
xx x
Friend

A. Independent View of Self

Mother
Father
xx
xx x Self xx
x x Sibling
x
x x x xx
Friend
xx
x x x x Co-worker
x xx
Friend

B. Interdependent View of Self

34 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

THE FILIPINO SELF AS INTERDEPENDENT OR RELATIONAL
The way the Filipino self has been predominantly characterized matches the
interdependent conception of the self (Peña-Alampay, 2003). As we had discussed
in chapter 1, Virgilio Enriquez, the founder of Sikolohiyang Pilipino, or indigenous
psychology in the Philippines, proposed kapwa as the core concept explaining
Filipino interpersonal behavior (Conaco, 2007). Unlike traditional Western social
psychology that begins with a discussion of the self or the individual, Enriquez’s
indigenous Philippine psychology begins with kapwa which is the self and others
combined.

Kapwa as Self with Others

Kapwa as the core concept of Filipino interpersonal relations emphasizes the self
as fundamentally related with others, and not separate or distinct as conceptualized
in the West (Enriquez, 1978, 1992). Kapwa is the unity of the self and others. Unlike
the English word others that is used in opposition to the self, the word kapwa does
not separate others from the self. In contrast, kapwa is a recognition of a self with
others. Kapwa then is the Filipino equivalent of the interdependent or relational view
of the self.
Kapwa, or shared inner self, corresponds to pakikipagkapwa, or relating to others
as fellow human beings (kapwa tao). As such, Filipinos are socially expected to regard
others with dignity and respect. The importance of kapwa in Filipino thought and
behavior is reflected in the extreme negative reaction to a person characterized as
walang kapwa tao—a person who treats others with disrespect (Enriquez, 1978).
Because of the importance given to relating well with others, Filipinos make
use of pakikiramdam, or the active process of being aware of and being sensitive
to others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions (Enriquez, 1990). One actively tries to put
one’s self in the situation of the other person; that is, sensing what the other person
is experiencing or feeling. This process of sensing and feeling, or pakikiramdam,
allows one to relate well with others—an important goal in Philippine culture.

Self as Embedded in the Group

Bulatao (1964, 1965, 1992, 1998) illustrated the Filipino interdependent, or
relational, self as the individual self embedded in the group through an analogy.
Bulatao used the hard-boiled egg to represent the self, or ego, that is clearly
individuated or separate from others. At the other extreme are scrambled eggs with
completely mixed selves. In between is a batch of fried eggs where each yolk remains
distinct and separate from other yolks. The whites, however, are now joined to one
another that one cannot tell where one egg ends and another begins. According to
Bulatao, Filipinos are like fried eggs or unindividuated (i.e., unseparated) selves, or
egos. The Filipino self is dependent on its primary group. We find security in the
group. As such, we are sensitive to others and seek others’ approval. We experience
the phenomenon of hiya, or sensitivity to others, as likened to shyness, timidity, and

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 35
embarrassment. The Filipino self will not assert itself independently, rather it will
seek to maintain group norms. Do you see yourself as one of the many fried eggs?
Among the scrambled eggs? Or one hard-boiled egg?

Figure 2.2. Filipinos as Fried Eggs, Not Hard-Boiled Eggs

(adapted from Bulatao, 1992, 1998).

Filipino Youth as Interdependent

Peña-Alampay (2003) further verified the predominance of the interdependent
self in a study of Filipino youth. Using the Self-Construal Scale, Filipino adolescents
who participated in the study scored higher on the interdependent self compared
to the independent self. Filipino youth emphasized a conception of the self as part
of relationships rather than a conception of self as comprised of internal attributes
and separate from one’s context. In this study, an interdependent self implied an
“emphasis on status, roles, and relationships, group belongingness, conforming
to group norms and expectations, and being indirect in communication” whereas
an independent self implied an “emphasis on internal attributes as referents for
behavior, being unique and expressing individuality, promoting one’s own goals,
and direct communication” (p. 80).
Peña-Alampay found, moreover, five major categories of self-aspects: relational
social roles (e.g., anak, or son/daughter); social roles (e.g., estudyante, or student);
situations (e.g., sa bahay, or at home); superordinate categories (e.g., ang gusto kong
baguhin, or what I want to change); and categories that had no contextual reference
(e.g., ako, or myself). Relational social roles highlight particular relationships with
others whereas social roles refer to membership in groups in general. In this group
of Filipino youth, 45 percent of self-aspects formed were relational, 33 percent were
situational, and 22 percent were social roles.
Filipino adolescents in the study conceptualized themselves more in terms
of their roles in relationships and less in terms of their inner qualities. They stress
being part of a group more than being a unique individual self. Though the Filipino
youth scored higher on the interdependent self, their score on the independent

36 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

self was relatively high as well. This implies that though they value interpersonal
relationships, collective goals, and social norms more, they also value self-assertion,
achievement, and autonomy. It seems that the Filipino youth today can assert their
individuality while maintaining group goals. Do you value being unique? Do you
play a particular role with your friends or family? If you were to describe who you
are, would you also describe your self more in terms of your roles?

THE FAMILY AS CENTRAL TO FILIPINOS

In collectivist cultures like the Philippines, the family is the prototype of all
social relationships (Triandis, 1994). People are linked to the family through strong
and long-term emotional bonds as well as shared goals. Cooperation and sharing are
expected within the family. Children are raised to fulfill their familial duty, to self-
sacrifice for the family, and to obey parental authority. One’s status is determined
by one’s position within the family. In Hofstede’s (1980) survey of countries, the
Philippines was among the highest in collectivism along with much of Asia, Latin
America, and Africa.
The renowned Filipino anthropologist F. Landa Jocano asserts that traditional
kinship and family structures are shared by Filipinos across ethnic, religious, and
linguistic differences:

The family is basic to the life of Filipinos. It is the center of their

universe. Most of what they do, what they think, and what they idealize,
among others, are first learned within the narrow confines of the family.
(Jocano, 1998, p. 11)

Filipino Kinship Structure

Filipinos are grouped together and identified as kin, or magkakamag-anak, by
birth, marriage, adoption, and ritual kinship (magkumpare/magkumare) (Jocano,
1998). By birth, kinship is traced through blood ties. The Filipino kinship structure
is first defined by the nuclear family that includes the father, the mother, and
children (Torres, 1985). It then extends to relatives of both the father and the mother,
also referred to as the extended family. Kinship relations include the parents and
siblings of both the father and the mother, and the children of their siblings. Blood
relations are then extended through religious rituals, such as marriage, baptism,
and confirmation, expanding the kinship structure to godfathers (mga ninong) and
godmothers (mga ninang). Distinct terms are available in the Filipino language to
denote all these relationships.
One can conceive of the Filipino kinship structure as concentric circles, moving
from family (mag-anak), to close relatives (kamag-anak), to distant relatives (kamag-
anakan), to the kin group (angkan). The nuclear family (mag-anak) is comprised of
the father (ama), the mother (ina), and the child (anak) or children (mga anak). From

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 37
the point of view of the child in the nuclear family, close relatives (mag-anak) may
include the grandfather (lolo), grandmother (lola), uncle (tiyo), aunt (tiya), and
first-degree cousins (pinsang-buo). Distant relatives include second-degree cousins
(pinsang-pangalawa) and greatgrandparents (ninuno).

The Family as an Agent of Socialization

The kinship structure has been consistently identified as the primary socialization
unit in the Philippines (Torres, 1985). Numerous studies have shown that kinship is
the basis of social expectations and interpersonal relationships in Philippine society.
Kinship determines one’s status and designates one’s role as a member of the group,
setting the rules and expectations of personal and interpersonal behavior. One is born
into a position, such as being a daughter or sibling; or is assigned to a position, such
as husband or in-law. For instance, older siblings are assigned the right to command
obedience from younger siblings with the corresponding duty to take care of them.
We have to play our designated social role as part of our kinship status. As such, our
actions are now determined by rules of conduct or social norms. What role do you
play in your family? What are you expected to do?
Philippine social organization is further characterized as familial (Church,
1987). The family is generally the basic unit of production in economic activities,
such as farming or agriculture. Businesses are often owned by families. Finding a job
or money often involves family connections, with company or government officials
hiring relatives as a sign of family support. In politics, kin are expected to support
a family member running for office. Even religious activities are generally family-
based.

Figure 2.3 Filipino Kinship Structure (adapted from Jocano, 1998).

38 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Family as Important to Filipino Youth
Are the Filipino youth still as family-centered as the older generations of
Filipinos? According to the 2001 Filipino Youth Study, more than half of the
respondents want to be like their parents (Abrera, 2002). The mother remains the
primary role model for female youth while the father continues to be the model for
males. If not their parents, the youth idolize other family members. Interestingly,
only a few would mention people outside of the family. The family remains central
to the youth; that with their greater freedom, the youth still finds the family and the
home important (Abrera, 2002).
It may seem particularly interesting for Filipinos to know that Western
mainstream social psychology has not focused on the family’s influence on the social
self. And yet our everyday experience tells us that family is central to our way of
life. A possible explanation for Western social psychology’s inattention to the family
is how psychology itself as a scientific discipline is deeply influenced by cultural
values (Kim, 1995). The psychology that developed from Euro-American cultural
values emphasizes individualism; hence, the focus on the independent self (Kim,
1995). As such, Western psychologists may fail to recognize the social influence of
the family to the interdependent self in non-Western cultures like the Philippines.

The Social Influence of the Family

How does the family influence the social self? How does the family influence
individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Mainstream social psychology in the
West has not really studied how the family influences an individual’s thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors. Instead, Western social psychology has traditionally studied
social influence in the context of groups comprised of strangers in laboratory
experiments. In this section, we first take a look at classic studies on social influence
in mainstream social psychology.

Background on Social Influence

Goethals (2007) narrates the history of Western mainstream social psychology
as first addressing the question of how the group affects the individual. Early
work on social influence in the beginning of the twentieth century looked at how
groups influence individual performance, investigating questions such as whether
the presence of others facilitates or hinders performance. Research in the 1920s and
1930s explored norm formation and conformity to group norms, such as in the classic
laboratory experiments by Muzafer Sherif. Another set of experiments of lasting
impact was conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1940s and 1950s on conformity to
group pressure in the form of a unanimous majority. Finally, Stanley Milgram’s
obedience to authority experiments in the 1960s following the Second World
War looked at whether individuals will comply with an experimenter’s orders to
physically harm another human being.
Sherif’s norm formation experiments. In Sherif’s classic experiments, participants
were seated in a dark room. Participants were asked to estimate the distance by

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 39
which a light seems to move in the dark (in reality, the light did not move and the
perception of movement was an optical illusion called the autokinetic phenomenon).
Sherif (1935) found that upon repeated trials, participants who were asked to do the
task in groups would converge in their response. Individual judgments in a group
move toward a group norm. And even when tested alone, individual participants
still retained the group norm. Sherif’s experiments showed the importance of group
norms and how these exist separate from the individual.
Asch’s conformity experiments. A question arose as to whether individuals
would still conform if they could be sure of their own judgment, something that was
not possible in Sherif’s experiments. Asch (1956) conducted a series of experiments
wherein participants were asked to judge which of three comparison lines matched
a standard line. Unlike in Sherif’s experiments, the correct answer in this case was
clear. Placed in a group of seven people, the participant will hear five confederates
give the wrong answer. Did people conform to the wrong answer? In 37 percent of the
trials, people conformed to the majority who unanimously gave the wrong answer.
This study would become the standard for hundreds of conformity experiments that
followed.

Figure 2.4. Conforming to the Wrong Majority: In Asch’s conformity study, participants
were asked to choose which among the 3 lines on the right matches the line on the left.

Milgram’s obedience experiments. Milgram’s experimental studies in the 1960s,

arguably the most well-known research in social psychology, were a response to
the killing of millions of Jews during the Second World War. Milgram thought that
only if a large number of people obeyed authority was the massive killing of Jews
possible. Milgram (1963) staged an experiment wherein participants were made to
believe they were participating in a study on the effect of punishment on learning.
Each participant was asked to play the role of teacher while a confederate played
the role of learner. An experimenter then asked the participant to administer electric
shocks in increasing voltage from 15 volts to up to 450 volts to the confederate each
time he gave a wrong answer. The confederate pretended to be in pain even though

40 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

no actual shock was administered. The participant was made to believe he was really
administering painful electric shocks with the confederate acting out the pain. At
each level of shock, the experimenter prodded the participant to continue. Milgram
found 26 out of 40 men, or 65 percent, continued up to 450 volts. Milgram’s study
had a profound impact on social psychology, showing that ordinary people would
obey an authority even if they knew they were harming another person.
In summary, social influence from this body of research refers to the ways
in which one person affects another person, particularly in the context of groups
(Martin & Hewstone, 2007). Martin and Hewstone distinguish between two forms
of social influence within groups—that of maintaining group norms (social control)
and changing group norms (social change). Conformity is the dominant form of
maintaining group norms wherein an individual accepts or complies with the group.
This is often referred to as majority influence. Another form of social control is by
virtue of obedience wherein individuals obey an authority figure, even if this is
against their free will. Changing group norms has been studied from the point of
view of minority influence, or innovation.
Social influence in the context of the family. Placed in the context of our
everyday reality, social psychological research on social influence may seem distant
or remote. The classic experiments in social psychology did focus on the power
of social forces to breed conformity, but particularly in the context of conforming
to falsehoods and violence (Burr, 2002). What about the power of social forces to
influence our everyday behavior? What about our experience of conforming to the
norms of a group not comprised of strangers but of family members or friends? What
about conformity to the social expectations not of experimenters but of the significant
people around us?
In looking at the Filipino self in the context of the family, we will apply the
concepts as defined in Western social psychology to refer to the social influence
processes in our everyday lives. First, we will look at the social norms that govern
Filipino family life. Norms are ideas about what is correct behavior for members
of a group (Triandis, 1994). Norms then can be conceived of as rules about what is
considered acceptable and proper in a particular culture. Norms control our behavior
although we may not be aware that they exist. We are so used to how we do things
in our own culture that we may not realize that we are following social expectations
distinct to our own. At times, it is only in visiting another culture that we become
aware of our own social norms.
Second, we will look at conformity and obedience within the Filipino family.
Unlike traditional social psychological experiments, we will look at how people
conform in everyday life. In particular, we will look at how Filipino children
conform to parental expectations or obey their parents and elders. We will see how
conformity and obedience to family expectations influence our individual decisions
and actions. Thus, we will contextualize the meaning of conformity and obedience
in the Philippine social setting.

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 41
 Finally, we will examine a form of social influence that has not been heavily
investigated in traditional social psychology, that of role-taking and role-playing.
We will look at how roles define who we are as exemplified by traditional gender
roles in the family. We will see how role-taking becomes self-presentation and how
the enactment of the role is the self. This phenomenon will be illustrated using a
unique role in the Filipino family—the tagasalo.

Social Expectations and Norms

The behaviors of individuals from collectivist cultures are expected to reflect
the needs, values, and expectations of the larger group, most salient of which is
the family (Fuligni, Tseng, & Lam, 1999). In our own families, we may be expected
to do chores like cooking, cleaning, or taking care of younger siblings. We are
expected to be present during family occasions like family reunions. Moreover, we
are expected to spend time with extended family members like grandparents and
cousins. Even our goals in life like doing well in school or finding a good job may
be for our family. We can even be expected to make personal sacrifices for the good
of the family.
Cross-cultural studies. Anthropological and sociological studies have
emphasized that Asian, Latino, African, and Eastern and Southern European cultures
place a central role on familism. Familism is defined as norms of collective support,
allegiance, and obligation to the family (Cooper, Baker, Polichar, & Welsh, 1993). In
their study, Cooper and colleagues found that Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, and
Filipino American adolescents endorsed familistic values more than their European
descent counterparts. These Latin American and Asian adolescents believed that
older siblings should help directly to support other family members economically.
They also believed that much of what a child does in life should be done to please
one’s parents. Filipino youth in this study endorsed familistic norms, particularly
mutual support among siblings and using their parents as their reference group for
decision making.
Fuligni, Tseng, and Lam (1999) also did a study among American adolescents
to see whether those with Asian and Latin American backgrounds (i.e., from
collectivist cultures that emphasize familial duty and obligation) would possess
stronger family values compared to those with European backgrounds. They found
that Asian and Latin American adolescents possessed stronger values regarding
respect and future obligations to their families than did those from European
backgrounds. Asian and Latin American adolescents placed greater importance to
treating their elders with respect, following their parents’ advice, and helping and
being near their families in the future.
Among the sample of Filipino, Chinese, Mexican, Central and South American,
and European adolescents, Filipino youth placed the greatest importance on respect
for family. Further, Filipino youth emphasized future obligations more than those
with Mexican backgrounds. Both Chinese and Filipino adolescents believed they
should spend more time with their families and help their families more compared

42 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

to European adolescents. In family interactions, Filipino youth most frequently
discussed personal plans and problems with parents and siblings. The strong
attitudes of Filipino youth toward family obligations seemed to account for their
tendency to seek more advice from parents and siblings. Similar to Chinese youth,
Filipino adolescents also had higher academic aspirations and expectations. They
likewise studied more.
What is striking from the two studies cited is even within American society
that emphasizes adolescent independence and autonomy, youths from families
with collectivist backgrounds retain their parents’ familistic values. The tradition
of familism still played a significant role in the lives of children from Asian and
Latin American families, among them the Filipino youth.
Local studies. The above findings are further supported by studies on Filipino
values. Bulatao (1963, 1992, 1998) found four values shared by Filipinos: the value
of family; the value of authority; the value of economic and social betterment; and
the value of patience, suffering, and endurance. Within the family value is the
cultural norm to sacrifice personal interests for the good of the family. Parents are
expected to strive even at a cost to themselves to give their children an education.
Mothers must sacrifice for their families. Older children must take care of younger
children. Even marriage may be put off to help the family.
In addition, the social expectations to share responsibilities and to maintain
emotional relations extend beyond the nuclear family (Medina, 2001). Jocano (1998)
illustrates how mutual rights and obligations extend to close and distant relatives.
He notes how relatives are expected to support and assist each other in times of
crisis and need. For instance, relatives are expected to help during birth, marriage,
and death. Denying help to a relative is an offense and a sign of disrespect for the
entire kin. When traveling to far places, a Filipino must seek out relatives first
before joining other groups. Even strangers become intimate and familiar as soon
as they discover that they are related to each other.

Utang na loob
Using anthropological studies, Jocano (1998) describes utang na loob as the
Filipino cultural law of reciprocity. Reciprocity is recognized as the ideal way of
relating with others and is one of the cultural assumptions Filipinos make about
social behavior. This norm of reciprocity is most evident in the Filipino family as
seen in the belief that all children should recognize their debts of gratitude toward
their parents (marunong tumanaw ng utang na loob). According to Jocano, children
are expected to take care of their parents when they grow old as part of their debt
of gratitude toward their parents who raised them and gave them life. This utang
na loob cannot be repaid in material terms but remains with the individual as long
as one lives.
Reciprocity, or utang na loob (debt of gratitude), has also been conceptualized
as a system of exchange by Kaut and Hollnsteiner (Church, 1987). Receiving a
favor implies incurring a debt or obligation; hence debt of gratitude, or debt of

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 43
obligation, or utang na loob. Utang na loob is often initiated primarily between
biological or ritual kin (Kaut, 1961, as cited in Church, 1987). As such, relatives
may make requests upon each other that they would not usually demand of others.
For example, when an uncle gives his nephew a job, the nephew incurs a debt
of obligation. The nephew may be expected to grant any request of the uncle in
the future, or to repay the favor in some form. If some time in the future, the uncle
asks a favor from the nephew who was given a job, the nephew has to fulfill the
obligation. Otherwise, he will be frowned upon and labeled as walang utang na loob.
Relatives, or kin, who do not recognize their debt of gratitude, or debt of
obligation, are walang utang na loob (ungrateful for not fulfilling their obligations).
An adult child who does not take care of one’s elderly parent is negatively viewed
in Philippine society. Therefore most adult children are expected to live with their
elderly parents to take care of their needs as they grow old. Not doing so is seen as
a sign of walang utang na loob.

Conformity and Obedience to Authority

Asian parenting is shaped by a cultural emphasis on interdependence among
family members and its underlying set of principles that has been referred to as filial
piety (Chao & Tseng, 2002). In Confucian-based societies in East Asia and parts of
Southeast Asia, filial piety is traditionally a system that governs how children are
to behave toward their parents and ancestors. Parents and elders have authority
and must be treated with respect and obedience. Among children’s primary
duties are to treat their parents with great respect, to be obedient, and to care for
their parents. Children are expected to seek their parents’ advice and guidance
throughout their lives. Filial duties extend beyond one’s parents as well as to the
entire family and kin. Though the sociocultural roots of family interdependence
for Filipinos may be different from other Asian cultures, Filipino parents have
the same strong expectations for children’s obedience to parental authority and
conformity to family obligations.
Cross-cultural studies. Hoffman (1988) used the 1975 Cross-National Value
of Children Study to test LeVine’s theory that childrearing patterns evolved in
response to the environment. That is, parents rear their children so as to encourage
the development of those qualities needed for their expected adult roles. In
particular, LeVine hypothesized that obedience in children is valued in agricultural
economies because obedience is a necessary trait for economic survival in rural
societies.
The Cross-National Value of Children Study was conducted in eight countries:
Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the
United States; with national samples of 1,000 to 3,000 married women and at least
one-quarter of their husbands. Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines—the
three predominantly rural countries—showed an overwhelming endorsement of
obedience as the most desired quality in children. Over 75 percent of the Indonesian
Javanese sample, more than 64 percent of the Indonesian Sudanese sample, and

44 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

over 61 percent of the Philippine sample wanted their children to obey. Of all the
countries in the study, the Philippines and Indonesia were the poorest in terms of
subsistence resources.
In addition, Filipino parents emphasized the economic-utility value of their
children more than primary ties and affection, stimulation and fun, and other
values. This was shared by Turkish, Indonesian, and Thai parents. This finding
supported the idea that parents who saw children as satisfying economic-utility
needs were more likely to want their children to be obedient. These parents were
also less likely to want their children to be independent.
In a more recent study, Darling, Cumsille, and Peña-Alampay (2005) compared
adolescents’ obedience to parental rules in Chile, the Philippines, and the United
States. The study found that Filipino parents were more likely to set rules than
parents in the United States, who were more likely to set rules than parents in
Chile. In addition, Filipino parents set more rules for girls than for boys. Darling
and colleagues noted that in their previous study comparing Filipino and Chilean
adolescents, Filipino youth were more likely to believe it was okay for parents to
set rules and felt more obliged to obey parental rules more than Chilean youth.
Local studies. In another study by Porio, Lynch, and Hollnsteiner (1978), 3,500
respondents were surveyed from across fifteen cities nationwide. Respondents
were asked, “What is the most important thing to teach children?” Six choices
were available. Two values of the six emerged as extremely important: trust in
God and obedience to parents. Sixty-one percent of the respondents ranked trust in
God first whereas 23 percent ranked obedience to parents first. Rural, less wealthy,
and less well-educated respondents ranked obedience to parents higher. The other
values in order were desire to succeed in life, honesty and justice, getting along
well with others, and enjoying life. Similar to the Cross-National Value of Children
Study, this local nationwide study lends support to the perceived importance of
obedience to parents in the Philippines.
Filipino children are traditionally taught to respect and obey authority,
particularly parents and elders (Medina, 2001). An example of a traditional sign of
respect is to greet the elder through the mano (kissing the back of the hand of the
elder, or reaching for the elder’s hand and pressing it to one’s forehead). Another
sign of respect is the use of the words po and opo in ending a sentence. It is impolite
to refer to the elder by his or her first name. Bulatao’s (1963, 1992, 1998) study
on Filipino cultural values further support the value of authority and obeying
authority figures, with the value of authority among four Filipino values found.
According to Peña (2001), cross-cultural research has already established that
conformity to parental authority and meeting parental expectations are central
values in most Asian contexts, including the Philippines. She further investigated
whether there is a relationship between the perception that one is conforming
to parental expectations and self-evaluation. She found that higher levels of
conformity correlated with higher self-worth among Filipino adolescents. The
Filipino adolescent’s self-worth appears to be based on the perception that one is

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 45
meeting the expectations of others, particularly that of one’s parents. Peña’s study
not only shows the centrality of obedience to parental authority in Filipino culture,
but also more importantly how this impacts the Filipino sense of self. Do you obey
your parents? Do you follow your family’s expectations? How important is it to you
to follow your parents’ wishes?

Role-Taking and Role-Playing

Finally, we look at the concept of role. Burr (2002) argues that the concept of
role is central to understanding how the individual is defined by one’s relations
to others. Role here refers to the norms and expectations attached to a particular
position or status in society. A given role corresponds to role behaviors that we
must perform. In the family, the father, mother, son, and daughter have distinct
roles. In school, we are very much familiar with the role of student and teacher. At
work, the employer and the employee, labor and management, also have definite
roles. The roles we take on and consequently the role behaviors we perform depend
on the social situation we are in. As such, our daughter or son role will become
salient when we are at home while our student role will be activated when we are
in school. What roles do you play? What expectations accompany these roles?
Gender roles in the family. Liwag, de la Cruz, and Macapagal (1997, 1998)
conducted a comprehensive review of literature on child-rearing and gender
socialization in the Philippines. They found that clear-cut gender roles exist for men
and women in Filipino culture. In the context of the Filipino family, the traditional
masculine role is the head of the family and the conventional feminine role is the
homemaker or housewife.
The Filipino mother’s role is to be the primary caretaker of the children and the
home. She is expected to be the main source of emotional support for the children,
the nurturer. She is expected to spend much time performing child care. The Filipino
father’s role, on the other hand, is to be the primary provider for the family. His role
in child care is secondary to that of the mother’s. But he is expected to be involved
in disciplining the children, instilling obedience as figure of authority.
Liwag and colleagues found that boys and girls are raised differently according
to appropriate masculine and feminine roles. For instance, girls play house (bahay-
bahayan) whereas boys play with toy guns (baril-barilan). In the average Filipino
family the girl child experiences many restrictions on her behaviors, such as not
being allowed to play outdoors. The girl child is also given more tasks and chores
inside the home, such as cooking, doing the laundry, and ironing clothes. This
reinforces the traditional feminine role of homemaker. The boy child may be asked
to do odd jobs that require physical strength or to assist in farming or fishing. This
is to prepare him to perform the traditional masculine role of provider. Through
gender socialization, boys and girls learn to take on their traditional gender roles.
The role of tagasalo. Perhaps a unique example of how role-taking and role-
playing become part of the self-concept can be found in Carandang’s (1987) concept
of the tagasalo in the context of the Filipino family. Tagasalo literally means one who

46 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

catches and refers to one who takes care of the family, or always comes to its rescue.
The tagasalo feels responsible for other people’s feelings. His/Her feeling of self-
worth is tied to her ability to please others and make people happy. His/Her need
to care for others is unconscious, indiscriminate, and can become a compulsion.
Udarbe (2001) investigated Carandang’s theory of tagasalo and found that
the tagasalo is a responsible, caring, and dependable child who takes charge in
relieving tension and resolving conflict in the family. The tagasalo is the child who
comes in between parents, or between parent(s) and siblings, taking on the role
of mediator and regulator. The tagasalo takes control of the situation to create
harmony and order in the family. From a family-roles perspective, family members
develop certain roles, one of which is the tagasalo.
Role-taking as self-presentation. Erving Goffman (1959) developed the idea of
role-taking as self-presentation. Goffman argued that in all our social encounters,
we are fundamentally concerned with self-presentation (i.e., we are constantly
engaged in acts of self-presentation). We do this by taking on a specific role in a
particular situation. At times, we may feel that we are just playing a role, such as
when we are trying to make a good impression (e.g., on a first date), when we feel
uncomfortable with the role we have to play (e.g., as boyfriend or girlfriend), or
when we are first taking on a role (e.g., as a new parent). But for Goffman, the role
is the self. How we play a role is how we present the self. Hence, we can say that
“we become the roles we play” (Burr, 2002, p.64).

THE TRANSNATIONAL FAMILY:

FAMILIES

OF OVERSEAS WORKERS
What becomes of the family and consequently the self when family members
no longer live in the same geographical location?
More than 7 million Filipinos work overseas in more than 106 countries,
making Filipinos one of the largest groups of migrant laborers in the global economy
(Kanlungan Center Foundation, 2000). Unlike in the 1970s when the typical overseas
Filipino worker, or OFW, was male, women now comprise the majority of OFWs
(Asis, Huang, & Yeoh, 2004). Most of these women migrants work as domestic
helpers (Parreñas, 2003). Majority of migrant workers are also parents, making the
transnational family—where at least one parent is not physically present—a norm in
the Philippines (Parreñas, 2008).
While global labor migration is reshaping the Filipino family, it has not at all
diminished the importance of the family (Asis et al., 2004). Filipino women migrants
who work as domestic helpers in Singapore, for instance, refer to the family as a
source of emotional support despite the physical distance (Asis et al., 2004). Filipino
migrants in the United States emphasize the close-knit family as unique to Filipinos
(Espiritu, 2008). In asserting their Filipino identity, these migrants assert that
Filipinos have stronger family ties and collective identity, are more willing to work

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 47
for the family, and are more willing to abide by traditional gender roles compared
to Americans. As such, Filipino-Americans insist on the traditional family system
as part of expressing their unique Filipino identity, along with traditional gender
roles.
Migration itself is seen as a family project, with the migrant enduring the
physical distance in order to put their children or siblings through school or help
the family financially (Asis et al., 2004; Espiritu, 2008; Parreñas, 2003, 2008). For
Filipino migrants in the United States, migration is primarily for the children;
to provide better health care, education, and job opportunities (Espiritu, 2008).
Working abroad is a move to improve the status of families back home; it is
for the love of family (Espiritu, 2008). To endure the pain of family separation,
Filipino women migrants who work as domestic helpers in Rome and Los Angeles
suppress their emotional needs and highlight the material gains of labor migration
(Parreñas, 2003). This economic framework wherein the migrant family member is
seen as fulfilling a familial role as provider keeps the family together (Asis et al.,
2004).
When the father is away, the mother at times plays the role of both mother and
father (Parreñas, 2008). However, when the mother is away, the father often resists
taking on the traditional caregiving role of the mother. From interviews with young
adults who grew up in transnational migrant households, it was found that gender
roles persist even if these aggravate the problems that come with transnational
families (Parreñas, 2008). Instead of crossing the boundaries of gender roles with
mothers imposing discipline and authority on their children and fathers nurturing
and caring for their children, most families refuse to reorganize gender roles. Even
if the structural rearrangement of households in migration dictates a change in
gender role patterns, pressure from kin to uphold gender role expectations along
with cultural norms maintain traditional gender roles. In one study on Filipino
men who became househusbands, the men did take over managing the household
(Pingol, 2001). Still, both the men and the women maintained the dominant position
of the househusbands by making them feel in control.
Instead of fathers taking on the mothering role, the women migrants’ mothers
or other female family members often take their place in caring for the children
and the households (Asis et al., 2004). The cultural value of mutual obligation in
the extended family becomes evident in transnational families with the female
migrant providing financially for primary and extended kin while female kin
give care and support for the children of the female migrant (Parreñas, 2003). This
interdependency among primary and extended family members keeps the family
intact.
To conclude, the family remains central to Filipinos even in the context of
transnational migration. The Filipino identity continues to be defined by a
collective identity where the family is the center (Espiritu, 2008). The changing
structure of the family where members are no longer in the same physical location
necessitates a more fluid conception of the family and the roles that members play

48 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

(Asis et al., 2004). Transforming gender roles through a mutual expansion of men
and women’s gender responsibilities will help transnational families maintain the
Filipino family they value most (Parreñas, 2008).

In this chapter, we have explored how the Filipino self is a relational self
in a collectivist culture. The Filipino is a self embedded in a group, a self that is
fundamentally related with others. We have looked at the Filipino self in the context
of the family, the primary ingroup of the Filipinos. The family is central in Philippine
society as it influences individuals’ social expectations and the roles people play in
everyday life. Finally, we note the emergence of the transnational family with the
rise in the number of overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs.

Kapwa Ko, Kapamilya Ko! The Filipino Self and the Family 49
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Pingol, A. (2001). Remaking masculinities: Identity, power, and gender dynamics in families
with migrant wives and households. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Center
for Women’s Studies.
Porio, E., Lynch, F., & Hollnsteiner, M. (1978). The Filipino family, community, and nation.
Quezon City: Institute of Philippine Culture.
Sherif, M. (1935). A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology,
27(187).
Torres, A.T. (1985), Kinship and social relations in Filipino culture. In A. Agannon &
A. David (Eds.), Sikolohiyang Pilipino: Isyu, pananaw, at kaalaman (New directions in
indigenous psychology) (pp. 487–511). Manila: National Book Store.
Triandis, H. C. (2001). Individualism and collectivism: Past, present, and future. In D.
Matsumoto (Ed.), The handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 35–50). NY: Oxford
University Press.
Triandis, H. C. (1994). Culture and social behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Turner, J. C., & Onorato, R. S. (1999). Social identity, personality, and the self-concept: A
self-categorizing perspective. In T. R. Tyler & R. M. Kramer (Eds.), The psychology
of the social self: Applied social research (pp. 11–46). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates Inc.
Udarbe, M. H. (2001). The TAGASALO personality. Philippine Journal of Psychology, 34(2),
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In H. S. R. Kao, & D. Sinha (Eds.), Asian perspectives on psychology (pp. 236–262). New
Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London: Sage Publications.

52 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

CHAPTER 3
KAIBIGAN, KABARKADA, KAESKWELA:
PINOY FRIENDSHIPS AND SCHOOL LIFE

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I THE FACTORS THAT ATTRACT US TO OUR FRIENDS

• Factors that Help Initiate Friendship
• Theories of Friendship

II THE PINOY BARKADA EXPERIENCE AND CONFORMITY

• What is Conformity?
• Why Conform?
• Factors that Predict Conformity

III FILIPINO SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS:

PAKIKISAMA, HIYA, AND PAKIKIRAMDAM

IV RISKY BEHAVIORS AND AGGRESSION IN SCHOOL

• What is Aggression?
• Causes or Explanations of Aggression
• Aggressive Behaviors in School
• Gender Differences in Aggression

V WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE WORK IN A GROUP
• Social Facilitation
• Social Loafing
• Deindividuation

53
 Nandirito kami, ang barkada mong tunay aawit sa iyo
Sa lungkot at ligaya, hirap at ginhawa, Kami’y kasama mo…

(Your real friends are here to sing for you, in times of sadness and joy,
hard times and good times, We are here for you…)

So goes the famous song “Awit ng Barkada” of the Apo Hiking Society, later
revived by the Itchyworms. For many Filipinos, belonging to a peer group, or
barkada, is an important aspect of one’s social life. Most often, barkadas are formed
in school. Come to think of it, for many Filipinos, most of the weekday is spent in
school. If you started preschool at around 3 or 4 years old, and would graduate from
college at around 20 or 21 years old, that would mean that you’d actually spend
eighteen years of your life in school. For many of us, school is not just a place of
academic learning but also a place where we meet our friends and barkada, where
we fall in and out of love, and where we learn how to work and deal with other
people. Unfortunately, sometimes this is also the place where we learn how to do
risky behavior like smoking or drinking, or perhaps learning how to be aggressive
toward others. In this chapter, we shall discuss these social behaviors that we
encounter in school.

THE FACTORS THAT ATTRACT US TO OUR FRIENDS

Ang matapat na kaibigan, tunay na maaasahan
(A true friend can really be counted on).

Ang tao kapag mayaman marami ang kaibigan

(A person who is rich has many friends).

Ang tunay na kaibigan, nakikilala sa kagipitan

(A friend in need is a friend indeed).

All these Filipino proverbs attest to the fact that Filipinos without a doubt
value friendships. Remember your very first best friend? He or she may have been
a neighbor or a classmate in school. But did you ever wonder why she or he became
your friend? What factors led you to like your best friend? How did you get to end
up with your barkada? Is it true that opposites attract in friendships? According to
Western research, the factors that help initiate friendships include proximity and
similarity.

Factors that Help Initiate Friendship

Proximity. It is quite impossible to imagine becoming friends with someone
you have never encountered. Proximity is one good predictor of whether any two
people are friends. In fact, the most enduring friendships are those formed between

54 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

people whose paths cross repeatedly. Nowadays, though, the encounters need not
be face-to-face. With the rising popularity of cellphones, the Internet, and social
media, people may be physically distant but remain relationally close to each other.
A number of studies have established the effects of proximity on who become
friends. American psychologist Theodore Newcomb (1961) found that randomly
assigned college roommates who interacted frequently were far more likely to
become friends. Another interesting study examined these effects across race and
age. In a housing project in New York, comprised of blacks, whites, and Puerto
Ricans, it was found that 85 percent of best friends happened to live in the same
building as the respondent, and almost half lived on the same floor (Nahenow &
Lawton, 1975). Of the friendships between people of different ages and races, 70
percent lived on the same floor.
Now why would proximity lead to liking? Being near or close to someone,
such as a roommate, seatmate, or classmate, enables us to interact with him or her
and explore similarities. The mere exposure effect can explain this further. Zajonc
(1968) asserts that the more you are exposed to something (or someone), the more
you tend to like it (him/her). Remember the first time you met your classmates in
college? You had not seen them before and did not know who they were. But after
being together for several months, you noticed that you’d begun to like them. It is
the same case with reality shows. The first time you watched, say Pinoy Big Brother
or American Idol, the “housemates” or contestants there were virtually unknown to
us. However, after watching them repeatedly every day or every week, you perhaps
noticed that you’d come to find them as more attractive and likeable.
Similarity. A famous saying goes, “Show me who your friends are and I’ll
show you who you are,” or “It takes one to know one.” In Filipino, Turan mo ang
iyong kaibigan, sasabihin ko kung sino ikaw (Tell me who your friend is and I will
tell you who you are). A second important determinant of developing friendships
is similarity. Research has consistently shown that we tend to like other people
who are similar to us (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). Think of your best friend now, list
down the things you have in common or agree on. Then list down the things that
you disagree on. I think you will discover that, indeed, the similarities outweigh
the differences. It does not mean, however, that friends agree about everything.
Of course, some of your friends do not root for the same basketball team or have
the same favorite singer as you. But most probably, you do indeed share similar
likes and values. A study by Ortega (2009) validated research in the West when she
looked into how Filipinos initiate, maintain, and end friendships. She found that
perceived similarity and shared personal history or events were indeed important
factors for Pinoy friendships.
What about the saying “opposites attract?” Is there some truth to this theory
of complementarity, that is, the tendency to like others who are different from
us? Intuitively, we may believe that a shy person would complement an outgoing
person. You may know of a couple wherein the wife is very organized whereas
the husband is spontaneous. But just imagine if your best friend has very different

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 55

attitudes, beliefs, or values from you. You would probably end up arguing all the
time, right? If you are a hard worker, would you want to be with someone lazy?
And if you value integrity and honesty, would you marry someone who is corrupt?
Thus, in very important traits, the norm is that similarity is still preferred but
complementarity may be an exception. Perhaps we observe some friends where one
is shy and the other more outgoing, but in the long run, friendships are developed
due to similarity. This complementarity may evolve as a relationship develops yet
there is more empirical evidence supporting the similarity theory (Buss, 1984, 1985).

Theories of Friendship
Why is it that you may prefer to be friends with Tina and not with Mira or
with AJ and not with Lorenzo? Social psychologists have provided some theoretical
explanations, namely, the exchange theory, equity theory, balance theory, and social
penetration theory.
Exchange theory. Imagine a friend who did nothing for you but instead always
borrowed money from you and never paid you back, always copied notes from you,
borrowed your clothes and never returned them. Surely, we would think of this as
an uneven friendship or unfair exchange because your friend benefits much from
the relationship whereas for you, there are only costs.
The social exchange theory, originally developed by Homans (1961), posits
that human relationships, including friendships, are formed by a cost-benefit
analysis where we want to maximize benefits and minimize costs. Some benefits of
being friends with someone include emotional support, someone to party or watch
a movie with, or assistance in doing your homework. On the other hand, costs may
be giving time and money to this person. When a person perceives the cost of a
relationship as outweighing the perceived benefits, the theory predicts that this
person will decide to end the friendship. Note that this exchange is very subjective
such that I may perceive my relationship with my friend to have many benefits
whereas other people may see the relationship as too costly for me.
Equity theory. An assumption of the equity theory is that people want to
achieve fairness in their relationships so they feel upset if they perceive unfairness
(Adams, 1965). In other words, there should be give and take. When I do something
for you, there is the expectation that you will also do something for me, although
neither necessarily quantified nor in equal terms. If I treat you to lunch once in a
while, there is the expectation that you should also treat me to lunch at other times.
If I think I give more than my friend, this may lead to some form of distress and may
lead me to think whether I should remain friends with you.
Both the social exchange and equity theories explain friendships in terms of
principles of economics and both were developed in cultures founded on principles
of individualism. Do you think that for Filipinos these two theories can aptly
explain why we remain friends with others? There is empirical evidence for this. For
instance Ortega (2009) found that for Filipinos, give-and-take of emotional support
and companionship is important to maintain friendships.

56 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Balance theory. Another theory that seeks to explain friendships is the balance
theory, which this time focuses on relationships among three or four people. It is
concerned with how our relationships with several others match, or balance, one
another. Imagine you have a friend from school that you like very much but your
family and family friends do not like him or her. You will, of course, feel upset
about it because, according to Heider (1958), people in general prefer harmony and
balance; therefore when there is inconsistency somewhere, we feel bad about it.
Similarly, if you have a best friend and she happens to like the current president of
the Philippines but you don’t like the president, this would create an imbalance in
the relationship. This, of course, would also depend on many factors. For example,
is it important for you that your best friend likes the president and you don’t? If it
is not very important, then this will not affect your friendship at all. But if you feel,
for example, that it’s important for you to have friends whom your parents approve
of, then you will perhaps think twice about maintaining a relationship with your
friend.
Social penetration theory. Social penetration theory is an example of a stage
theory where friendships are believed to occur in stages. Friends go through a
gradual process of self-disclosure (Altman & Taylor, 1973). When you meet someone
for the first time, you usually talk about simple things like how’s school or have you
watched the latest movie? But as the relationship becomes deeper, you now begin to
reveal more of yourself to the other. Even deeper still is when you reach a point that
you can talk about private and personal matters like your family problems. When
the relationship is stable, you can even predict the emotional reactions of the other
person. As a relationship develops, the friendship penetrates deeper and deeper
into private and personal matters. As you go thru the different stages, you expose
your vulnerabilities so that trust has to be developed along the way.

THE PINOY BARKADA EXPERIENCE AND CONFORMITY

Many Filipinos experience belonging to a barkada, or peer group, and for some,
even maintain several barkadas. You may have formed a barkada in high school,
then in college, or in your church, or even in your neighborhood or community. For
Filipino adolescents, the barkada is an important source of support. When you need
help in your homework or if you have a problem and can’t turn to your parents,
your barkada is ever present to help you. They are also a source of affirmation and
inspiration. Among Filipino adolescents—according to the 2003 study of Conaco,
Jimenez, and Billedo—Filipino youth reported that they keep their barkadas
generally small and manageable (from three to twelve members only). While
the respondents reported barkadas with both sexes, most tend to be of the same
sex except for homosexual males who had more female group mates. Many fun
activities are done with the company of the barkada, like frequenting bars, malling,
or watching movies. Another study on the Filipino youth noted that the barkada

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 57

provides information on sex and sexuality (Tan, Batangan, & Española, 2001). The
Filipino youth find it easier to confer with a kabarkada about matters regarding sex,
rather than with their parents. Moreover, the barkada provides social control in
the case of choosing a right partner for their kabarkada. This can be explained by
the balance theory mentioned earlier, where barkadas prefer that the girlfriend or
boyfriend of their kabarkada be someone they also like.
Even street children have barkadas with whom they play games like sipa and
basketball. They also tell stories (kwentuhan), and go around the city (pasyalan)
with their barkada (Torres, 1996). Among Manila street children, work is a shared
activity with the barkada. The barkada is seen by street children as “second family”
(Carandang, 1996). The peer group provides them with companionship, identity,
emotional and social support. The children had very favorable attitudes toward
their peer group that they perceived as helpful and a source of happiness and
provided advice. However, the children in conflict with the law acknowledged
that their barkada also influenced them into doing unlawful things.
But how does the barkada influence us to behave in certain ways or to change
our attitudes toward something? Let us look at the concept of conformity to help
us understand the barkada influence.

What is Conformity?
Ano ba ang uso ngayon? Sumusunod ka ba sa uso? (What is the fad nowadays? Do
you follow fads?) Do you want to be thin just like all the girls in school? Conformity
is a change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure.
Most of your classmates wear slippers and shorts to school. Do you follow them?
If yes, why do you do so? Conforming to others’ behavior is a part of our social
interaction. It is observed more so in school and especially by adolescents.
Social psychologists often distinguish between compliance and obedience.
Compliance is conforming publicly because of social pressure but privately
disagreeing. An example would be wearing a certain kind of clothes because
everyone else is wearing it, although you really feel uncomfortable about it.
Obedience is when we respond favorably to an explicit request by another person
of authority. Examples would be when your parents ask you to clean your room or
when a teacher asks you to do a task and you follow him or her.
Is it good or bad to conform? In the US, conformity is often seen as “bad” and
children are socialized to be independent and self-reliant. But for other nations
such as the Philippines—as discussed in the previous chapter—teaching children
to obey their parents is more important than teaching independence and self-
reliance (Kagitcibasi, 1984).
In Philippine society, one who conforms is often labeled as marunong makisama
(knows how to get along well), obedient, and good; and those who do not conform
are called rebels and walang pakisama (does not get along well). However, it is also
possible that those who conform are labeled as uto-uto (gullible) whereas those who
do not are may paninindigan (with conviction). So which is it then? It really depends

58 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

on the situation. In general, though, Filipinos prefer to conform to societal norms
and rules to be accepted by others. However, there are instances when conforming,
let’s say peer pressure to do drugs or smoke, are obviously frowned upon.
In Conaco, Jimenez, and Billedo’s 2003 study, a respondent reported that
she developed better study habits because her friends valued education; another
claimed that he gave up smoking and drinking because of a group of friends who
frowned upon these activities. Thus, conforming to a barkada’s wholesome values
is deemed good. Later on, we shall discuss some negative effects of peer influence
that could lead to risky behavior, especially among adolescents.

Why Conform?
There are two main reasons why a person may conform: to be right and to be
liked. The first one, to be right, refers to informational influence. People conform
because they believe others know better than them; if others are right and you
follow them, you will be right also. Remember your first day in college? The
environment was new and everyone was virtually unknown to you. How did you
go about moving around in school? What did you wear? Where did you go? Most
probably you conformed to what the others were doing like going to the cafeteria
for lunch or wearing casual clothes like everyone else.
How do you know if the money you offer in church is “enough” or “too
much?” You simply look at what others are giving and from there, conform. If
others give P50 or P100, it may be embarrassing (nakakahiya) on your part to give P1
or 25 centavos. In other words, other people serve as information on appropriate
behavior.
The second reason, to be liked, is probably more important for Filipinos. This
refers to the normative influence. We conform because we want to be accepted by
others. We want to belong. If we don’t go along with what our classmates are doing,
we would be left out. If your student leaders or organization president requested
every freshman to wear white on this day and you do not conform, you might be
labeled as not getting along with others (hindi marunong makisama).

Factors that Predict Conformity

Several Western researches have examined the characteristics of the group
and the task of the situation that may influence the tendency to conform. Let’s
review the highlights of these researches.
Group size. As the size of the group increases, conformity also increases.
This is no surprise. However, studies have shown that the effect of group size
levels off quickly such that as the group size reaches four people, conformity rates
level off (Gerard, Wilhelmy, & Conolley, 1968; Milgram, Bickman, & Berkowitz,
1969). What about number of groups? Will that matter too? Yes (Wilder, 1977).
Imagine that you are trying to convince other people to conform to your cause (say
the Divorce Bill). Would one group of 100 members supporting the bill be more
effective than five groups with twenty members each? Although the total number

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 59

of people is equal, the latter seems more convincing because groups carry more
weight than individual members. There is the perception that more people are
actually supporting the bill if you report different groups or organizations rather
than just reporting one big group of people.
Unanimity. It makes a difference if everyone in the group behaves in a certain
way as opposed to some members of the group not conforming (Asch, 1955; Morris
& Miller, 1975). For example, if everyone agreed to wearing white on a Monday,
you would probably conform. But if you know that others will not follow it anyway,
that would decrease your chances of conforming.
Cohesion. Belonging to a cohesive barkada makes it difficult not to conform to
them (Crandall, 1988). If everyone wants to watch a particular movie, it’s difficult
to say no. If you say no, wala kang pakisama. But if the group is not so solid to
begin with, it is easier to dissent. You may feel that there really is no obligation to
conform to what the others say.
Expertise and status. It is expected that people would conform more to
someone who is perceived as having a high status in society or someone who is
an expert in the field (Cialdini & Trost, 1998; Driskell & Mullen, 1990). If she is an
expert, she must be right (informational influence). There is also the perception
that if someone powerful does something, it must be okay to follow the behavior.
For example, a study has shown that a person wearing normal clothes and another
person wearing a business attire, like a suit, were jaywalking; more people tended
to follow the jaywalking behavior of the latter (Mullen, Copper, & Driskell, 1990).
Similarly, if you see your professor or your father smoking, that will make you
believe that smoking is cool and okay.
Difficulty or ambiguity of the task. Imagine being assigned by your professor a
task that you have no knowledge of. Most probably you would ask your classmates
or other people for guidance. In situations where the task is ambiguous or difficult,
people often conform to what others are doing (Baron, Vandello, & Brunsman,
1996).
Public response. Suppose you were electing your class officers or student
representatives, then you were asked to raise your hand if you wanted to vote for
candidate A. If almost everyone in the class raised their hands for this candidate,
wouldn’t you feel pressured to also raise your hand since everyone else seemed
to be voting for this candidate? This is what we mean by public response. Since
everyone can freely observe others’ behavior, it is easier to conform (Asch, 1955).
But if you were asked to do secret balloting, then you would feel that it’s okay to
express your own true feelings.
No prior commitment. Filipinos generally do not like balimbings (named
after the fruit with many “faces”) or people who easily change their minds or
switch political parties. If you know that someone prefers this candidate in school
and even campaigned for him, then you later learned that he actually voted for
another person, we label that someone as “balimbing” and this is frowned upon by
Filipinos. Once you have already made a public commitment, you must conform

60 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

because people in general prefer it when we stick to our principles (Deutsch &
Gerard, 1955). On the other hand, if you have no prior commitment and are open to
ideas, you can easily conform to the “bandwagon.” Some businessmen wait until
the last minute before endorsing a political candidate because they want to know
who is popular so they can conform to the majority and be with the winning team.
Culture. Most of the conformity studies are done in Western countries,
such as the US. Would the same factors hold true for an interdependent culture
as the Philippines? One expectation is that Filipinos would be more conforming
compared to, say, Americans. Filipinos value pakikisama whereas Americans value
individualism. In a study of seventeen nations, it was shown that conformity
does tend to be higher among interdependent or collectivist cultures (Bond &
Smith,1996). When I told my class that we had an activity about conformity I then
asked them to drop their ballpens. Upon my signal, almost all students conformed
to my instructions. However, in a similar situation among American students,
majority would resist and assert their independence and refused to drop their pens
(Myers, 2008).

FILIPINO SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS:

PAKIKISAMA, HIYA, AND PAKIKIRAMDAM
Pakikisama and hiya are Filipino patterns of relating or social norms that govern
what is appropriate, or proper, social behavior. Pakikiramdam is the interpersonal
process that allows Filipinos to sense what the other is feeling and know when it
is appropriate to practice hiya and pakikisama. Given the primacy of the group
or others in the Filipino conception of the self, it follows that maintaining good
relations with others through pakikisama, hiya, and pakikiramdam are integral to
Filipino social life. This can be observed in the Filipino barkada and how Filipinos
relate with friends in everyday life.

Pakikisama
Filipinos particularly value being accepted by others (Lynch, 1973, 1984). In
particular, Filipinos value being accepted by their peers, friends, and barkada.
One way to gain social acceptance is by getting along with others, or pakikisama.
According to Lynch, pakikisama means to go along with or give in. As such,
pakikisama is observed by going along with the group or the majority, that is,
conformity (Pe-Pua & Protacio-Marcelino, 2000). For example, accepting invitations
to drink with one’s barkada often employs pakikisama. One is asked to go along
with the group and have a drink, or makisama ka naman. A person who goes along
with the barkada is described as marunong makisama (knows how to get along)
whereas a person who declines the invitation is hindi marunong makisama (does not
know how to get along).

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 61

Hiya
Another Filipino indigenous concept tied to a need to be accepted by others
or by a group is hiya, or shame (Bulatao, 1964, 1965, 1992, 1998). This includes
the need to be accepted by one’s barkada, or set of friends. One feels hiya only
in an interpersonal situation or in a relationship involving others whose opinion,
approval, or regard is important. The fear or anxiety of losing support or approval
requires one to be sensitive to others. A boy may feel hiya toward a girl he has a
crush on because her approval matters to him; he may avoid talking to her out of
hiya. A student may not sit beside her teacher in a school party out of hiya. A friend
may not tell you that you have unplesant body odor out of hiya.
Hiya can also be in relation to social expectations and the need to conform
to these expectations in order to be accepted by others or by one’s peers. A male
teenager may not admit to his high school friends that he is gay out of fear of
rejection. A female teenager may not disclose to her barkada that she had sex with
her boyfriend to avoid being discriminated or frowned upon by her peers.
According to Bulatao, the immediate effect of hiya is a tendency to flee the
anxiety-creating situation. As such, one may shy away, hide one’s face, keep silent,
look down, and display other gestures of shyness, timidity, or embarrassment. We
often observe this among young children who hide behind their parents during social
occasions. We also sense this in class when everyone looks away and keeps silent
when the teacher asks a difficult question. We ourselves may feel uncomfortable in
social situations or make excuses to avoid an anxiety-provoking situation.
Bulatao further explains that hiya is related to showing respect for others’
feelings or regard for social expectations. A person who fails to exhibit proper
decorum, such as a child who shouts at a parent, a student who disobeys school rules,
a classmate who makes fun of another, or a person who smokes in a nonsmoking
area, is labeled walang hiya. The absence of hiya is considered a disregard for social
norms, a lack of consideration for others’ feelings, or an insensitivity to figures of
authority.

Pakikiramdam
Pakikiramdam is the interpersonal process that allows Filipinos to sense
what the other is feeling and know when it is appropriate to practice hiya and
pakikisama. Pakiramdam is feeling and pakikiramdam is feeling for another
(Mataragnon, 1987). Pakikiramdam is an active process involving great care and
deliberation in one’s actions toward another. It refers to heightened awareness and
sensitivity (Enriquez, 1990).
Good interpersonal relations are attributed to a person’s ability to sense
or feel or practice pakikiramdam. One who is good at sensing cues, or magaling
makiramdam, is consequently a person who is magaling makisama (Mataragnon,
1987). On the other hand, a person who is unable to sense what another is feeling
is perceived as profoundly lacking in values, walang pakiramdam, or manhid (the
absence of emotion, or numbness). When a friend or loved one is unable to sense

62 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

that we have a problem, we may refer to him/her as manhid, or unable to sense
what we are feeling. Hence, Filipino interpersonal relations require constant
attention to what the other is feeling in order to behave appropriately.
Without pakiramdam or pakikiramdam, one cannot understand an
ambiguous or complex social situation (San Juan, 2006). One has to sense what
others are feeling in order to formulate the appropriate behavioral response. To
illustrate, one understands a situation of hiya and avoids a situation wherein
one will be embarrassed, or mapapahiya, by actively sensing the situation through
pakikiramdam. For example, you will not laugh at a classmate who makes a
mistake in front of many people if you were practicing pakikiramdam. Similarly,
if your friend has a crush on a classmate, you would be careful not to tease your
friend in front of that classmate if you were practicing pakikiramdam.

RISKY BEHAVIORS AND AGGRESION IN SCHOOL

Although the barkada has generally positive influence on students, it is also
viewed as a potential source of trouble and negative influences, such as being
matakaw (glutton), maingay (noisy), magulo (boisterous) (Conaco, Jimenez, &
Billedo, 2003). Male respondents reported that they cut classes, got involved in
fights, learned smoking, drinking, and watching pornography because of their
barkada. The influence of the barkada, however, is largely due to role modeling or
following the examples of their peer group. Rarely are these behaviors explicitly
forced on them.
According to the 2004 data of Youth and Fertility Study 3, 21 percent of Filipino
adolescents aged 15 to 24 years old smoked and double that number (42%) drank
(Raymundo & Cruz, 2004). Further, 23 percent reported they had premarital sex,
whereas 2.8 percent admitted using dangerous drugs. These risky behaviors have
often been linked to the barkada context. On the other hand, other studies report
a lower influence of the barkada on risky behaviors. Among street children, only
about 18 percent were gang members and only 5 percent of nonstreet youth were
members of gangs (NCSD, 1994).
Juvenile delinquents were found to have strong barkada attachments.
Delinquent activities carried out with peers include serious theft, drug and alcohol
use, riots with rival gangs, and sexual activities (TAMBAYAN, 2003). Although
these activities strengthen the bonds of the barkada and may help them deal
with stress, they also place the youth at greater risk for committing more serious
antisocial acts (Alampay, 2005). Studies on smoking (Rojas, 2004) and gambling
(Chua, 2007) likewise partly blame the barkada. Rojas (2004) found that among
Filipino high school students who smoked, their father and friends influenced
them to smoke. Further, adolescents who gambled cited the encouragement of
other people, including the barkada (Chua, 2007).
Next we shall discuss aggression in school. Before we do that, however, let us
first look into the concept of aggression and how it is conceptualized.

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 63

What is Aggression?
Lenny Villa in 1991, Nino Calinao in 1999, Jan Angelo Dollete in 2006, Cris
Mendez in 2007, EJ Karl Intia in 2010, Marvin Reglos in 2012, and Marc Andre
Marcos, also in 2012. Do any of these names sound familiar to you? They were
actually students who died from hazing by fraternities. Why does such aggression
exist, and even in the context of school? Have you ever experienced being hurt by
someone? Or perhaps you yourself were able to hurt someone? This is essentially
what aggression is all about, behavior intended to cause harm. Social psychologists
have often debated on what behaviors are considered as aggressive. Consider the
following behaviors. Do you think they are aggressive or not?
• A police shoots a kidnapper;
• A man imagines a murder he wants to commit;
• An angry daughter purposely does not call/text her mother who is
expecting a call/text from her;
• A fisherman kills a fish and prepares it for dinner;
• A male professional boxer gives his opponent a blackeye;
• A person commits suicide;
• A doctor gives injection to a screaming 3-year old;
• A woman accidentally knocks over a glass that injures a passerby.

We may probably not agree on which of the above behaviors are aggressive,
except perhaps the last behavior. Social psychologists seem to agree that intention
is an important component of the definition of aggression. In the last example, it
was an accident and although the passerby was hurt, the woman did not intend to
harm him or her. But the other behaviors may appear aggressive to some people.
It is part of the role of a police, doctor, boxer, or fisherman job to “hurt” others. If
they are just doing their job, is this aggressive? What about the man who imagines
killing someone but does not actually do so? Or the daughter who does not do
anything but hurt her mother in the process? Can inaction also be considered as
aggressive? The person who commits suicide, is this aggressive? In the context
of hazing, since it is the duty of the alumni to “harm” the applicant, would this
be considered aggressive? If the fraternity applicant died during hazing, is this
aggressive? Clearly, the construct of aggression is not as clear-cut as we may have
originally thought. What may be aggressive to you, may not be to me. Similarly,
what may be considered as aggression in one culture may not be seen that way in
another.
Social psychologists have classified aggression in different ways. One
classification is between hostile and instrumental aggression (Berkowitz, 1993).
Hostile aggression usually comes from anger with the goal of injuring another.
That is why it is also called angry aggression. An example would be murders that
usually are committed out of anger. Instrumental aggression also has the goal
of harming another but only as a means to some other end. The ultimate goal is
not really to injure but some other goal. An example would be war and terrorism

64 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

or robbery. Thus, in both types of aggression, there is the intention to harm as a
proximate goal. However, the difference lies in the ultimate goals (Anderson &
Bushman, 2002).
Aggression can also be classified as direct and overt, such as in the case of
physical aggression (Buss, 1963). However, there is another form of aggression,
indirect aggression, in which the identity of the aggressor is not easily identifiable
(Buss, 1961). Destroying property is an example of indirect aggression. Another
form of aggression is relational aggression in which the aggressor interferes with
people’s ability to relate with others, thus damaging their social relationships
(Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). Examples are spreading rumors or ignoring others
(silent treatment). Among children, relational aggression often occurs in the
context of friendship. Studies with Filipinos have revealed that spreading rumors
and giving the silent treatment are more likely to be adopted in the school than in
the workplace (Filho, Purugganan, & Sanchez, 2004). Moreover, the same study
reported that Filipino students with low sociability are as likely to spread rumors
in school as in the workplace whereas those with high sociability are less likely to
exhibit relational aggression in the workplace. Perhaps those high in sociability
realize that the consequences of aggressive behaviors in the workplace are more
serious than in school. Filipino students are also more likely to spread rumors
about their acquaintances than about their friends.
Still another classification of aggression is between self-instigated aggression
and retaliatory aggression. The former is without provocation as in the case of
bullying while the latter is defined as an attack in reaction to some provocation.
A cross-cultural study covering countries like Japan, US, India, Kenya, Mexico,
and the Philippines found that retaliatory aggression was rather constant across
cultures with girls retaliating less frequently compared to boys (Tan, 1997).

Causes or Explanations of Aggression

But what causes aggression in the first place? Let us look at the main
explanations of aggression: biological or physiological, physical environment,
frustration-aggression, and social learning.
Aggression is biological. We cannot deny that aggression is influenced by
biological factors, such as neural, genetic, and biochemical influences. For example,
research has consistently shown that there is a link between the sex hormone
testosterone and aggression. Studies indicate that males tend to be more aggressive
than females due to males’ testosterone levels (Dabbs, 1992; Dabbs, Carr, Frady, &
Riad, 1995). In the Philippines, Campano and Munakata (2004) found that teachers
rated male students as more aggressive compared to female students. Another study
also found that among Filipinos, male children were more physically aggressive
than female kids (Sievert, 2001). However, it is difficult to ascertain if this gender
difference is due to biology or socialization.
Physical environment and aggression. Behaviorists tend to regard aggression
as a set of environmentally triggered behaviors and to give less importance to innate

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 65

and biological determinants. A number of conditions in the physical environment
have proven to elicit aggressive behavior. For instance, it is a common belief that
aggression is more likely in hot weather than in cold weather. In the US, the peak
occurrences of common crimes of violence (i.e., assault, rape, and murder) occur in
the hottest summer months (Anderson, 1989; Anderson, Anderson, Dorr, DeNeve,
& Flanagan, 2000; Bell, 2005).
Overcrowding was also found to lead to higher levels of aggression (Matthews,
Paulus, & Baron, 1979). It is unpleasant when your personal space is invaded.
Consider this, there is optimal aggression along the most heavily congested roads;
there are more prison riots when the population density in the prison is higher
(Lawrence & Andrews, 2004).
The aggressive effects of noise have also been well researched (Geen &
McCown, 1984). Noise is any unwanted sound that causes a negative effect. It can
cause aggression when it is too loud or unpredictable. The introduction of noise
facilitates the expression of the aggressive behavior. Noise may also contribute to
aggression by reducing an individual’s tolerance for frustration.
Aggression is a response to frustration. When we are blocked from achieving
our goal, we are led to frustration. According to Miller (1941), frustration produces
different types of responses, one of which is aggression. For example, if your
favorite basketball team loses, this may cause frustration and may lead you to act
in an aggressive manner. Berkowitz (1993) contends that aggression is the result
of an interaction between an internal emotional state and cues that are available
in the environment. Frustration alone is not sufficient to produce aggression. A
frustrating experience creates a readiness to aggress. Whether aggression will
occur depends on stimulus cues. For example, Berkowitz and LePage (1967) found
that when a gun—instead of a badminton racquet—was present in the room, the
tendency to be aggressive increased.
Aggression is a learned social behavior. Behavior is learned through
observation and imitation and by being rewarded or punished (Bandura, 1975). If
a child is rewarded for being aggressive, he is more likely to repeat the behavior.
For example, a child hits another and the latter child gives up the toy. The first
child has been rewarded for his violent behavior, so will probably be violent again
in the future.
Vicarious or observational learning could also occur where children watch
others being rewarded for aggressive behavior; they are likely to learn this
behavior by observing others being rewarded. For example, Bandura, Ross, and
Ross conducted a famous experiment where some children were shown a video
wherein an adult behaved violently toward a bobo doll and was rewarded for this
behavior. Afterwards the children were made to play in a room full of toys that
included bobo dolls. Bandura and colleagues discovered that the children who saw
the violent behavior on the films acted twice as aggressively toward the bobo dolls
than the control groups did.

66 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Aggressive Behaviors in School
Which of these theories of aggression do you think best explains the two most
common aggressive behaviors occurring in Filipino schools today: bullying for
grade school and high school and hazing for college students? Let us look closely
at some research on these two behaviors.
Bullying. Jopie, a high school student, admits that a classmate used to irritate
her by humiliating her everyday. It came to a point that she did not want to go
to school anymore because her classmate would not stop upsetting her. Many
students in the Philippines can relate to Jopie’s experience of bullying, actions
toward others that harms physically or emotionally. Research on bullying in the
Philippines has shown that the behavior is prevalent among grade school and high
school students (Ong Ante, 2001; Suba, 2001). However, there is a tendency for the
behavior to decline from first to fourth year high school. Some forms of bullying
include teasing and name-calling that are the most common while other physical
forms such as hitting and kicking are less common. Group bullying is reported
to be more prevalent among older students. Filipino students who were bullied
reported negative effects on their schoolwork and self-esteem. The bullies, on the
other hand, reported that they bullied for retaliation when they disliked someone
or were annoyed by someone, to have fun, join the bandwagon, gain status, and
obtain a sense of power (Ong Ante, 2001; Suba, 2001).
Hazing. In the Philippines, hazing is a crime where the victim experiences
physical or psychological suffering. Nevertheless, fraternities and even sororities
continue to practice hazing. According to Go (2009), members of fraternities
perceive hazing as an important rite of passage because it facilitates several
psychological processes essential for initiating newcomers to the fraternity.
Using social representations theory, Puyat (1999) studied fraternities in
the Philippines and hypothesized that the violence is linked with their group
membership. As discussed in chapter 1, social representations theory posits that
cognitions can be elaborated on and shared by a collective group (Moscovici,
1984). Social representations are ideas, values, and practices that do not reside
inside people’s heads but are in the public domain and can be accessed by anyone.
Fraternity, sorority, as well as nonmembers were asked to write down everything
that came to their mind when they saw or heard aggression. The results have
revealed two main dimensions of aggression: individual versus (vs.) intergroup,
and abstract vs. concrete. Male members of fraternities viewed aggression in
the context of their group memberships or social identity, but sorority members
did not. This implied that for Filipino males, their group membership made
them vulnerable to see behaviors by other groups as antagonistic and led them
to think and act more aggressively. Puyat’s study has revealed that Filipinos’
social representation of aggression is in terms of traits and characteristics (strong,
selfishness, temper, brave, injustice) and concrete actions (bugbog or beat up, away
or fight, suntukan or fistfight).

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 67

 Is it possible to have fraternities in the Philippines give up hazing? Mattison
(2009) provided these organizations with an alternative. She designed a nonviolent
program to socialize new members of fraternities in relation to belongingness and
reinterpreting organizational values. Consequently, these fraternities no longer
resorted to hazing.
Aside from bullying and hazing, only a handful of studies have been done
on aggression in the Philippines. In fact, according to Puyat (1999), aggression is
virtually a foreign social representation. There seems to be no direct translation of
aggression in Filipino. Western psychology defines aggression as an intention to
harm another. But is it the same for Filipinos? Let us look at some local research on
aggression.

Gender Differences in Aggression

The meaning of aggression for Filipinos seems to vary depending on the
specific aggressive action and on the gender of the perceiver. For example,
Lopez (1981) found that diverse words related to aggression are perceived
differently by Filipino males and females. Paladabog (always throws tantrums
by throwing things or making noises using one’s hand and feet) is viewed by
males as an attacking behavior, but for females it is an issue of refinement.
Palatsismis (always gossiping) and palaaway (always picks up a fight) are seen by
men in terms of insufficiency in intelligence, but females see it as an expression
of hostility and an issue of moral uprightness and refinement. Another study by
Yacat and Mendoza (1996, as cited in Puyat, 1999) found that Filipinos perceive
women’s aggression as justified compared to aggression committed by men.
When women become aggressive, there must be a strong reason for it; thus, it
is perceived as justifiable. Conaco (1997) also found that Filipino mothers and
fathers in the rural areas view corporal punishment differently. Fathers think
it is okay to hurt their children to discipline them whereas mothers are more
contrite and feel distress when parents hit their children.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE WORK IN A GROUP

Aside from developing life-long friendships and barkada, school is where
we learn to work with other people. Working in a group is an important part of
school life. But what exactly is a group? Would you consider students studying
independently in the library a group? What about members of the John Lloyd Cruz
fan club?
A group is a set of people who identify with one another and have a sense
that they belong together. They share common goals, are often organized, and
continue their relationship over time. This definition of a group is subjective in
that it depends on the perception of people. By these characteristics of a group,
students studying independently in the library would not be considered a group.

68 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Although they are physically together, they do not really interact. What about the
John Lloyd Cruz fans club then?
For Filipinos, working with others is very important. When students work in
a group, they can experience any of the following: social facilitation, social loafing,
and deindividuation. Let us look at each of these group effects.

Social Facilitation
Suppose you are learning to play basketball or a new dance step. You had been
practicing for some time now then suddenly your mother comes along, and say
Kris Aquino drops by and they both watch you perform. How would their presence
affect you? Does it motivate you to do better or does it make you stressed out and
distracted?
Social facilitation is known as the improvement of performance with the presence
of others. So is there scientific evidence for such a phenomenon? Remember the very
first social psychology experiment by Norman Triplett discussed in chapter 1?
Easy tasks are made easier but difficult tasks become more difficult with
the presence of others. Of great relevance to the social facilitation effect is the
recommendation on how to study (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2006). When you
have a difficult material to learn, it is best to study alone. Having no distractions or
cause for apprehension will be better for you. Study groups may be helpful if you
need to review or divide and summarize numerous materials; but when it comes to
absorbing and integrating new ideas, it is best done alone. Once you have mastered
the lesson well, taking the exam with other students in the classroom should
facilitate performance.

Social Loafing
Ako ang nagbayo, ako ang nagsaing, saka ng maluto’y iba ang kumain (I pounded
and cooked rice but when it was ready, someone else ate it).
Have you ever experienced being in a group and one member does not
contribute anything to the group task? It is quite annoying, especially if this
group mate also gets an A when in fact she did nothing. This is known as social
loafing, the tendency to exert less effort when in a group that is working toward
a common goal (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). Another term for this would
be free riders, people who benefit from the group but give little in return. Imagine
being blindfolded along with five other people in a room. You’re asked to wear
headphones and listen to the sound of people shouting and clapping. Then you are
asked to shout or clap, first alone then along with a group. In which condition do
you think you’d be more likely to shout or clap much louder? When Harkins and
Latane (1981) conducted this study, they found that social loafing occurred. People
shouted or clapped less when they knew there were five other people with them
than when they were made to believe that they were by themselves.
Why is this so? Perhaps people believed that because they were in a group,
their individual efforts would not be evaluated. Their responsibility was diffused.

Kaibigan, Kabarkada, Kaeskwela: Pinoy Friendships and School Life 69

How do we avoid social loafing then? One way is to make individual performance
identifiable. People will be less likely to free-ride if the task is challenging.
Now, if your school-project group mates are your barkada, would you loaf
less? What if your group mates are strangers? Studies have shown that groups loaf
less when their members are friends (Karau & Williams, 1993). But for Filipinos, do
you think this is still the case? If you were grouped with a stranger, wouldn’t you
feel hiya not to perform?
Karau and Williams (1993) have found evidence of social loafing across cultures,
however; individuals in Eastern cultures were less likely to engage in social loafing
compared to Westerns culture. In fact, in some conditions, people exert more effort
when working as part of a group than when working alone (Gabrenya, Latane,
& Wang, 1983). Thus, it seems that social loafing is not entirely universal but a
phenomenon that depends on cultural circumstances (Moghaddam, 1998).

Deindividuation
What would you do if you had the chance to do anything in the world humanly
possible without anyone knowing your identity? When asked this question, many
Filipino students would often answer that they’d do something evil or naughty like
rob a bank, or break into the computer system and change all their grades into A’s.
In many cases, losing your identity can make you act differently. This is known
as deindividuation, the reduced sense of identity accompanied by diminished
self-regulation. Can you think of other situations in which you may “lose your
identity” and therefore behave differently? Perhaps attending a rock concert or a
basketball championship game between your school and a rival school? When in a
rock concert or a basketball game, one doesn’t feel shy (hiya) to scream and cheer
with the crowd.

In sum, many factors influence how Filipinos initiate friendships and how
the barkada, or peer group, can lead us to conform. Maintaining good relations
with others through pakikisama, hiya, and pakikiramdam are integral to Filipino
social life. This is reflected in the Filipino barkada and how Filipinos relate with
friends in everyday life. Unfortunately, the barkada may also lead people to act
aggressively, like bullying and hazing in school. Other group processes, such as
social facilitation, social loafing, and deindividuation, are also experienced in
school.

70 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

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74 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

CHAPTER 4
FROM “M.U.” TO “I LOVE YOU”:
LOVE AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I WHAT IS AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP?

II BF/GF DATING, “M.U.,” & SAME-SEX ROMANCE

• Boyfriend/Girlfriend Dating
• M.U., or Mutual Understanding
• Same-Sex Romance

III PRINCIPLES OF ATTRACTION

• Proximity and Familiarity
• Physical Attractiveness and Reciprocity
• Similarity or Compatibility

IV THEORIES OF LOVE
• Triangular Theory of Love
• Styles of Loving
• Romantic Love and Companionate Love

V THE MEANING OF LOVE AND SEX FOR FILIPINO YOUTH
• The Meaning of Love
• The Meaning of Sex

VI LIVE IN, MARRIAGE, AND SAME-SEX UNIONS

• Long-Term Unions
• Sexual Relations
• Same-Sex Couples

VII MAKING RELATIONSHIPS WORK

• Self-Disclosure
• Equity
• Gender Inequality and Domestic Violence

75
 As social beings, relationships with other people are central to our lives. We
relate to our parents, our friends, our classmates, our coworkers. We even relate
to strangers. We develop close relationships with some of these people like our
family and barkada or best friend. But there is a special kind of close relationship
that will concern many of us throughout our lives—the kind that we associate with
romantic love.
Have you ever fallen in love? Are you in love? What is love, anyway?
If you have not experienced romantic love, you may be wondering what it’s
like. You may be dreaming of having a relationship with the person you’re in love
with. Everyday, we hear songs about love, watch movies and TV shows about love,
and read stories about love. We talk with our friends about our crush, our romantic
relationship, our M.U. (mutual understanding), or our imaginary boyfriend or
girlfriend. We are surrounded by ideas and images of love.
This special relationship we often associate with love or romantic love is
referred to as a close, or intimate relationship. In this chapter, we will discuss the
psychology of love and attraction as applied to intimate relationships.

WHAT IS AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP?

An intimate relationship is a relationship between two people that often involves
a deep knowledge about each other. It is caring, interdependent, mutual, trusting,
and committed (Brehm, Miller, Perlman, & Campbell, 2002). Intimate partners know
each other very well and share personal information with each other that they may
not reveal to other people. They care about each other. They need, influence, and
affect each other. They see themselves as a couple or an “us” and “we.” They trust
each other. And they are often committed to make their relationship last. Though
not all intimate relationships may contain all of these qualities, these are expected in
some degree for an intimate relationship to be meaningful and satisfying (Fletcher,
Simpson, & Thomas, 2000).
Baumeister and Leary (1995) theorize that our desire to be part of an intimate
relationship is part of our human nature. Our desire to develop intimacy or closeness
comes from a basic human need to belong in a relationship. To satisfy this need to
belong we seek regular interaction with an intimate partner. We try to establish a close
relationship with another person and try even harder to make this relationship work.
Baumeister and Leary argue that developing stable and affectionate interpersonal
relationships was an evolutionary adaptation that allowed the human species to
survive. Attachment between a man and a woman enhanced the probability that
children would be taken care of so that they can in turn reproduce and multiply.
Whether this evolutionary account is indeed accurate, human beings today
care deeply about their relationships with others, suggesting that intimacy is indeed
essential to a satisfying and meaningful life (Brehm et al., 2002). What about you? Do
you feel the need to be in an intimate relationship?

76 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Though not all adolescents will experience being in an intimate relationship,
adolescence appears to be the beginning of the search for intimacy. In a review
of Filipino and Western literature, Ujano-Batangan (2006) characterizes ages 13
to 17 as the beginning of romantic interest for the opposite-sex for heterosexual
adolescents and same-sex attraction for lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents.
Most Filipino adolescents develop crushes prior to forming intimate relationships.
This shift from friendships to intimate relationships during adolescence begins
with dating and courtship.

BF/GF DATING, “M.U.,” & SAME - SEX ROMANCE

For most adolescents, dating is regarded as a social experience rather than
a prelude to marriage (Ujano-Batangan, 2006). Dating can be for recreation,
companionship, status-seeking, personal growth, sexual experimentation,
mate selection, and the desire for intimacy. An interesting phenomenon in the
Philippines is the “M.U.,” or mutual understanding, the process of coming together
until a couple agrees that they are now girlfriend and boyfriend (Tan, Batangan,
Cabado-Española, 2001). Some adolescents enter same-sex relationships either as a
phase in their development or as an affirmation of their sexual orientation (Savin-
Williams, 1996). However, most gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents are denied
the experience of dating and intimacy (Savin-Williams, 1996).

Boyfriend/Girlfriend Dating
Dating life of the Filipino youth. The 1994 YAFS-II, a nationwide survey on
adolescent sexuality, mapped the dating life of the Filipino youth (De Guzman &
Diaz, 1999). Most females report having their first crush at age 14 while most males
report developing crushes at age 15. Admiring the opposite sex typically occurs
at age 15. Teens go on their first group date around age 16, followed shortly by
having their first boyfriend or girlfriend. Teens go on single dates at ages 17 and
18. Majority of Filipino youth are in high school at the time of their first date. How
about you? Have you been on a date?
From the same nationwide survey, three out of every five youth aged 15 to
24 have experienced going out on a date. Date here is defined as an activity that
involves going out with someone of the opposite sex. Unfortunately, the survey did
not ask about same-sex dating. The most common activity for a date is watching a
movie followed by having dinner in a restaurant. Also popular are going to a park
or a shopping mall. Around half, or 46 percent, of the youth consider their dating
partner their boyfriend or girlfriend at the time of their first date; 28 percent refer
to their dating partner as a friend; 16 percent say the date was with a crush or
admirer; and 10 percent say that the person was an acquaintance.
From courtship to relationship. De Guzman and Diaz (1999) explain that
traditional courtship is no longer the norm in the Philippines. Instead, going steady

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 77

with a boyfriend or a girlfriend is commonplace among Filipino youth. Some
adolescents date only those they consider their boyfriend or girlfriend already.
Others report that their dating partner became their boyfriend or girlfriend within
a few months. Young couples would see each other frequently, with majority
seeing each other at least twice a week.
Sex differences in dating scripts. Even if traditional courtship is no longer
the norm, sex differences in the dating practices of Filipino adolescents still exist
(Ujano-Batangan, 2006). Males must initiate and make the first move while females
wait to be courted. Women are not supposed to initiate the first move for they may
be regarded as “cheap” and not decente (decent); men, on the other hand, should
come up with proper opening lines and the proper diskarte (approach) wherein
they project an image of what is desirable (Tan et al., 2001). Males are expected to
initiate courtship by trying to be close with the girl through her friends, through
writing letters, texting, calling, emailing, and showing signs of affection (Gastardo-
Conaco, Jimenez, & Billedo, 2003).
In addition, males usually seek sexual experimentation or satisfying sexual
desires when they engage in intimate relationships while females value emotional
intimacy or getting to know the person in a deeper way (Tan et al., 2001). When
a relationship is established the men are expected to “carry,” or “bring,” the
relationship, which is referred to as pagdadala. This is tied with the notion that
the male must have more knowledge and experience compared to the female on
matters of love and sex (Tan et al., 2001).
Sexual activities during dates. Since many young couples are already in an
intimate relationship when they date, they tend to engage in intimate or sexual
behaviors (De Guzman & Diaz, 1999). From the YAFS-II data, around 36 percent
of young Filipinos reported kissing; 12 percent reported petting; and 3 percent
reported going all the way on the very first date. Kissing is defined as kissing
on the mouth, petting as fondling or caressing, and going all the way is sexual
intercourse. Asked if they engaged in petting and sexual intercourse in subsequent
dates, 28 percent said yes. Alarming, however, is the report that 17 percent of the
girls who had sex on the first date said that this happened without their consent.
From the 2002 YAFS-III data, 23 percent of Filipino youth have had premarital
sex. More males (31 percent) have engaged in premarital sex compared to females
(16 percent) (Natividad & Marquez, 2004).

M.U., or Mutual Understanding

A popular term among Filipino adolescents and young adults is M.U., or
mutual understanding (Tan et al., 2001). Young adults describe M.U. as a natural
process in the development of an intimate relationship. It can be described as a
process of being friends first and then developing feelings for each other from
being constantly together. M.U. is described in the phrase mahuhulog ang loob
mo (loosely translated as the falling of your inner self for the other). Unlike the
romantic idea of falling in love, which is often described as a spontaneous feeling

78 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

of physical attraction or sexual desire, M.U. corresponds more to a gradual process
of developing emotional intimacy through time.
Females are expected to be caring, sweet, faithful, and loyal. Males are expected
to reciprocate with respect (galang) and responsibility (pananagutan). This period
of courtship and coming to mutual understanding involves pakiramdaman, or the
process of sensing and feeling each other out. This phase is also often a practice for
marriage, mirroring gender role expectations.
Filipino adolescents view relationships as fun and as a source of inspiration
and support (Conaco et al., 2003). For female adolescents, having a boyfriend
means having someone to help in schoolwork, having an escort, and having a
source of care and affection. However, females also cautioned that relationships
can be distracting, restrictive, and time-consuming. They can also lead to unwanted
pregnancy, early marriage, abortion, and the end of one’s goals and aspirations.
Male adolescents also worry that relationships can be time-consuming, distracting,
and costly.

Same-Sex Romance
What about gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents? Do they also have crushes
and seek intimacy like their heterosexual counterparts? Do they also experience
dating, courtship, M.U., and the like?
Unfortunately, very little research has been done on same-sex relationships.
But like heterosexual young people, lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents also
seek to have intimate relationships (Savin-Williams, 1996). Even though they find
it hard to maintain a visible same-sex romance and at times need to keep their
same-sex relationships hidden, many of them still engage in same-sex relationship.
These young people are no different from their heterosexual peers except for their
sexual orientation and the stigma and discrimination they experience because of it
(Moore & Rosenthal, 2006).
In a qualitative study on Filipino adolescents’ identity, sexuality, and health,
gay adolescents were purposively interviewed (Conaco et al., 2003). Gay male
adolescents described realizing they were different from their heterosexual peers
at a young age. They narrated having crushes on guys, liking guys, and always
thinking about guys. They talked about a gradual process of awareness and
acceptance of themselves. Unlike their heterosexual counterparts, gay adolescents
felt that they had no models or scripts to follow on how to meet a potential
partner and develop an intimate same-sex relationship. Also unlike a heterosexual
relationship marked by popular expectations of marriage, having children, raising
a family, and growing old together, a same-sex relationship seemed to present no
options for gay adolescents.
In a study of Filipino female homosexuals, Ofreneo (2003) found that lesbian
and tomboy adolescents experience same-sex attractions at the onset of puberty
like their heterosexual peers. But unlike their heterosexual counterparts, they
experience fear that their feelings of attraction are abnormal or wrong. The initial

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 79

experience of having crushes on the same sex can create fear, guilt, and shame
among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents.
Despite the lack of support and acceptance for same-sex relationships, Filipino
lesbians and tomboys are able to engage in same-sex romance during adolescence
(Ofreneo, 2003). Tomboys report belonging to a tomboy barkada, or peer group,
who would encourage everyone to have a girlfriend. In addition, both lesbians and
tomboys speak of the on system, a phenomenon in exclusive schools for girls. Girls
accept having an on (same-sex partner) or becoming mag-on (having a same-sex
relationship) as normal and even fashionable in exclusive girls’ schools. Showing
affection, giving gifts, writing love letters, and holding hands are common. And
though many adolescent girls who engage in same-sex romance see it as a fad, a
stage, or a phase, lesbian adolescents see these as serious relationships that signify
their sexual orientation.
Same-sex adolescent romance may also involve sexual exploration similar to
heterosexual adolescent relationships. Gay adolescents talk about casual sexual
encounters or anonymous sex (Conaco et al., 2003). Lesbian adolescents talk of sex
within a same-sex romantic relationship (Ofreneo, 2003).

PRINCIPLES OF ATTRACTION
We have seen how intimate relationships begin with crushes that can lead to
M.U., or mutual understanding, and an adolescent’s first experience with love and
sex. Conceptually, an intimate relationship is believed to begin with liking and
attraction. Liking has been discussed in chapter 3 in the development of friendship,
but we extend the discussion of liking here from friendship to love. Interpersonal
attraction or the desire to be close to someone is the psychological experience that
has played a crucial role in developing relationships (Berscheid & Reis, 1998).
Have you ever been attracted to another person? Have you ever felt a desire to
know someone? What makes you like a person? What makes you love a person?
What makes you fall in love?
Attraction is not the same as love and does not guarantee love; but it opens
the possibility for love (Brehm et al., 2002). As also discussed in the chapter on
friendship, among the most important factors that have been associated with liking
and attraction and consequently the beginning of an intimate relationship are
proximity and familiarity, physical attractiveness and reciprocity, and similarity
or compatibility.

Proximity and Familiarity

The basic principle of attraction is familiarity (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). We
are more likely to like people who are familiar to us compared to those who are
unfamiliar. Placed in a situation where we have to interact with students from
different schools in the country, we will most likely interact with students from

80 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

our own school and schools from our own city or province. In a family reunion, we
will most likely talk more to cousins that we know from childhood compared to
relatives we just met. In the same way, we are more likely to end up being friends
with those who study in the same school or live in the same neighborhood.
Familiarity in terms of physical proximity or closeness often determines who
will be our friends and lovers (Brehm et al., 2002). In a study by Segal (1974), students
were more likely to become friends with those sitting near them in class compared
to those sitting across the room. Most people develop intimate relationships with
someone who sits in the same class, works in the same company, or lives in the same
city (Burr, 1973). In the YAFS-II survey, Filipino adolescents did report the above
to be true. In this nationwide survey of males and females aged 15−24, majority of
young Filipinos reported that their first date was with a friend or neighbor, with
a classmate or officemate, or with a very close friend (De Guzman & Diaz, 1999).
Think about your friends. How did you meet?
Numerous studies have confirmed that mere exposure to any kind of stimulus
leads to liking (Bornstein, 1989). Whether one is exposed to different faces, strange
characters, or nonsense syllables, repeated exposure leads to more positive ratings.
The same seems to be true of people. The more familiar a person is to you, the more
you like him or her. But overexposure to the same thing including our best friend
or lover could also lead to boredom (Bornstein, 1989). At best, familiarity enhances
feelings of attraction to bring people together. Do you think this is true of you?

Physical Attractiveness and Reciprocity

Another factor that greatly influences attraction is physical attractiveness.
Young Filipino males consider physical attractiveness important in a partner while
young Filipino females look for emotional maturity (Tan et al., 2001). In general,
both males and females are attracted to physically attractive people (Brehm et al.,
2002). Looks do matter whether we like it or not.
It is also generally believed that what is beautiful is good (Dion, Berscheid, &
Walster, 1972). Physically attractive or beautiful people are perceived to have more
positive characteristics compared to physically unattractive people. For instance,
attractive people are judged as kind, sensitive, sociable, exciting, and sexually
responsive. Further, they are believed to have happier relationships and more
fulfilling lives.
But do physically attractive people actually exhibit the positive qualities
they are believed to possess? Feingold (1992) found that attractive people are less
lonely and more popular than unattractive people. Attractive people are also more
socially skilled and sexually experienced. Reis, Nezlek, and Wheeler (1980) also
found that a male college student’s physical attractiveness is associated with how
frequently he dates as well as with the number of women he interacts with. No
such association was seen among females. For both males and females, physical
attractiveness was related to the pleasantness of their interactions.

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 81

 People have their own judgment of what makes a person attractive. To some
extent, beauty is in the “eye of the beholder” (Brehm et al., 2002, p. 73). The interesting
phenomenon is that people end up pairing with others who are as attractive as they
are (Feingold, 1988). This phenomenon, referred to as matching, has been observed
among partners in long-term relationships, such as married couples. Even dating
partners and friends are strikingly similar in level of attractiveness. Do you see this
pattern in couples you know?
Shanteau and Nagy (1979) developed a formula for desirability based on
physical attractiveness and the likelihood that a person will accept or return one’s
interest:
Desirability = Physical Attractiveness X Probability of Acceptance

The formula suggests that more attractive people are perceived as more
desirable partners. But desirability depends on whether the person likes us in
return. If a person does not like us, even if he or she is extremely good-looking,
we will most likely not pursue that person. On the other hand, if a person is not
that attractive but likes us very much, we will not be that excited to date this
person. Instead, we will probably seek a person who is moderately attractive and
shows signs of reciprocal interest. As such, the matching phenomenon extends to
reciprocity. That is, we like those who like us. Think about the person you like. Do
you like him or her because he or she likes you?

Similarity or Compatibility
Familiarity and physical attractiveness influence our initial attraction and first
encounters. It is similarity, however, that shapes the development of an intimate
relationship in the long term (Brehm et al., 2002). Despite the romantic notion
that “opposites attract,” research has extensively shown that “like attracts like.”
Similarity appears to be one of the basic principles behind interpersonal attraction.
Sharing attitudes and beliefs, interests and tastes, and having similar backgrounds
promote attraction (Brehm et al., 2002).
Friends, couples, and spouses have been found to share beliefs and values
more than people who were randomly paired (Kandel, 1978). Whether they are
friends or lovers, people in happy relationships are more similar to each other
compared to strangers. Not only do happy couples share the same attitudes and
values, they are also similar in age, religion, race, social status, class, education,
intelligence, and appearance. Partners may even have similar personality traits.
We are more likely to like and love someone who shares our dreams, believes
in our ideals, has the same set of values, and generally likes the same things we
like. Intellectuals will pair up. A rocker will find another rocker. The religious will
journey together. Birds of a feather will flock together.
This principle of attraction appears to hold in the long run; that is, the more
similar people are, the more they like each other (Brehm et al., 2002). Relationship
experts believe that similarity or compatibility is one of the keys to a successful

82 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

relationship. From more than thirty years of experience as a practicing psychiatrist,
Dr. Theodore Isaac Rubin argues that one ingredient to the success or failure of a
relationship is commonality along crucial priorities. According to Rubin (1999),
couples who do not share the same crucial priorities suffer from great unhappiness.
They spend little time together because they have different priorities. But couples
who do have much in common are destined for happiness. Rubin lists fourteen
crucial priorities that can affect relationships: sex, religion, ethnicity, money,
pleasurable pursuits, concept of time, people, family life, children, romance,
excitement and peace, work, intellectual activity, and physical activity.
Similarly, to the question, “Will our love last?” marital therapist Dr. Samuel
R. Hamburg offers compatibility as the answer. Hamburg (2000) explains that
compatibility on the practical dimension, the sexual dimension, and the wavelength
dimension produces the mutual understanding that fuels lifelong love. Based on
hundreds of cases in twenty-five years as a marital therapist, Hamburg advises
couples to test their compatibility on three dimensions. Practical issues include
how you spend money, how you fill up your free time, and how you deal with
your own family. Sexual issues include how important sex is to you and how
comfortable you are with your sexuality. Finally, having the same wavelength is
having the feeling that you can talk about everything, look at things in the same
way, and agree on the most important things in life.

THEORIES

OF LOVE
Initial attraction may develop into a long-term intimate relationship—the
special kind of relationship that we associate with love. Though not all cultures
consider love as necessary for establishing a long-term relationship like marriage,
young adults in Western cultures increasingly see romantic love as a prerequisite
for marriage (Brehm et al., 2002). Among young Filipinos, ideas of romantic love
are also prevalent (Tan et al., 2001). Romantic love shapes young Filipinos’ views
of dating, courtship, and marriage as well as their ideas about sex across these
types of relationships. How important is romantic love to you? Will you enter into
a relationship even if you do not love the person?
What is love?
Research on love has shown that “love is a complex and multifaceted
phenomenon” (Berscheid & Reis, 1998, p. 212). At the moment, we do not have an
integrative theory of love. Instead, diverse theories of love have been developed
with each theory elaborating on the different types of love (Brehm et al., 2002). In
this section, we will look at three conceptualizations of love: the triangular theory
of love, styles of loving, and romantic love and companionate love.

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 83

Triangular Theory of Love
Robert Sternberg (1986) conceptualized love as comprised of three basic
components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy refers to warmth,
emotional closeness, and sharing in a relationship. Passion captures physical
attraction, sexual desire, and the romantic feeling of being “in love.” Commitment
is a decision to maintain a relationship and make it last. Each component
corresponds to one side of a triangle that describes the kind of love two people
share. Each component varies in intensity. To Sternberg, a type of relationship
emerges, depending on which component or combination of components is high
in intensity.

Table 4.1. Eight Types of Relationships according to the
Triangular Theory of Love (Rosenberg, 1986)

Intimacy Passion Commitment

Nonlove – – –
Liking ü – –
Romantic Love ü ü
Companionate Love ü – ü
Empty Love – – ü
Infatuated Love – ü –
Fatuous Love – ü ü
Consummate Love ü ü ü

Nonlove is the absence of intimacy, passion, and commitment that we find
in casual relationships or acquaintances. Liking occurs when only intimacy is
high as we see in friendship. When friendship or liking also involves passion,
people are now experiencing romantic love. For Sternberg, it is the combination
of emotional closeness and sexual desire that defines romantic love. As such, it
does not require commitment and may be as short-lived as a summer love affair.
Liking with commitment is companionate love and is often used to describe long,
happy marriages that are no longer passionate. Companionate love is similar to
a deep, long-term friendship. Elaine Hatfield’s (1988) conception of two types of
love—passionate love and companionate love —corresponds to Sternberg’s romantic
love and companionate love. According to Hatfield, an intimate relationship often
begins with passionate love as exemplified in “falling in love” and often ends with
companionate love characterized by deep affection. We will discuss these further
in the next section.
Commitment alone leads to empty love that may describe arranged marriages
and long-term relationships that have lost their warmth and passion. Passion alone
is infatuation. Passion and commitment together is the fatuous love of whirlwind

84 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

romance, with two people making a hasty decision in the heat of passion. Finally,
the combination of intimacy, passion, and commitment is the experience of
complete, or consummate love. According to Sternberg, this is the type of love that
many people wish for but is very difficult to maintain over time. Do you agree with
Sternberg that ultimate love involves intimacy, passion, and commitment? Are you
looking for consummate love? Or is there a component of love that you value the
most?

Styles of Loving
John Alan Lee (1977) used Greek and Latin words to describe six styles of
love. There are three primary love-styles in this model: eros, or erotic love; storge,
or friendship love; and ludus, or game-playing, uncommitted love. Erotic lovers
value physical appearance and believe in love at first sight. They seek intensely
passionate relationships. Storgic lovers seek genuine friendship that can lead to
long-lasting commitment. Ludic lovers are the players who see love as a game,
often having multiple partners at once. Combinations of these three primary love
styles create the next three love-styles: mania, agape, and pragma. The fourth style,
mania, is possessive love. Manic lovers are demanding and possessive toward
the beloved. The fifth style, agape, is selfless love. Agapic lovers are giving and
altruistic. The sixth style, pragma, is pragmatic love. Pragmatic lovers are practical
and use reason to find their perfect match. What kind of lover are you? Do you
agree with Lee that people have a dominant love style?

Romantic Love and Companionate Love

Numerous typologies of love have been proposed, but the most researched and
the most elaborated distinction is that between romantic love and companionate
love (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). Romantic love and its equivalents—passionate
love, erotic love, eros—has been included in all love taxonomies. The primacy
of romantic love in theories of love was empirically supported by Hendrick
and Hendrick’s (1989) factor analysis of responses to various love scales. Of the
five underlying factors they found, the first or primary factor turned out to be
passionate or romantic love. The second factor was closeness and the absence of
conflict that corresponds to companionate love. Fehr (1994) also found two basic
clusters of love types, the passionate and the companionate.
Romantic or passionate love involves an intense longing or desire to be with
another (Hatfield, 1988). Romantic love is what you feel when you not only “love”
someone, you are also “in love” with that someone. Being in love means to be
preoccupied with thoughts of one’s beloved and to be filled with the desire to be
with him or her. One feels ecstatic and elated when one’s love is reciprocated. And
feels empty and miserable when love is unrequited or lost. Hence, passionate love
is often described as a very intense and emotional experience often accompanied
by physical attraction or sexual desire.

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 85

 Hatfield explains that passionate love is the psychological experience of being
physically aroused by an attractive person. We label this physiological arousal as
the feeling of “love.” The excitement we feel when we see our crush or the person
we are in love with may be accompanied by increased heart rate, palpitations,
sweating, and trembling. But instead of describing these physical sensations as
fear or joy or anger, we attribute the physiological arousal to the experience of
passionate love.
The initial experience of passionate love often simmers down as the
relationship endures in the long term (Hatfield, 1988). The initial thrill of romance
slowly fades while the warm affection for the loved one deepens through the years.
Companionate love then is the affection and closeness we feel for another as our
lives become more and more intertwined (Hatfield, 1988). Couples continue to love
each other in a less sexual but more affectionate way. Shared interests, values,
and goals become more important than the intense desire for each other. Raising
children for one often becomes a primary goal rather than the desire to be a couple.
Hence, following Sternberg’s triangular theory, the relationship that began with
much passion often ends with the stability of intimacy and commitment.
But do people really see romantic love and companionate love as two distinct
types of love? Berscheid and Meyers (1996) found that people see companionate
love as corresponding to the generic term love. That is, love always includes
intimacy and liking. Within this generic category love are two types of love: (1)
love with sexual desire (companionate love + romantic love); and (2) love without
sexual desire (companionate love alone). As such, love may not be the contrast
between romantic and companionate love. Rather, love always involves friendship
or companionate love. The question is whether friendship is accompanied by sex,
passion, romance, and the experience of falling in love. In a sense, you can love a
person but not be in love with that person. Or you can love a person and be madly
in love with that person. What about you? Have you thought about the meaning of
love? Is love for you friendship? Is love for you romance? Is love with or without
desire?
Interestingly, the landmark study on the meaning of sex for Filipino adolescents
or young adults is entitled “Love and Desire” (Tan et al., 2001). Does this mean that
sexual desire is part of Filipinos’ conception of love? In the next section, we will
talk about sex and love. We will talk about love and what it means for Filipinos.
And we will talk about sex in the context of intimate relationships.

THE MEANING OF LOVE AND SEX FOR FILIPINO YOUTH

Tan, Batangan, and Cabado-Española (2001) conducted a pioneering study on
the context and meaning of sex for Filipino youth aged 16 to 24, using in-depth
interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions. From this study,
ideas of romantic love were found to be strong among Filipino adolescents or young

86 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

adults. Romantic love as described by Filipino youth follow the American notions
of romantic love, particularly that of spending time or being together, of missing
each other when apart, and of remembering anniversaries and special occasions.

The Meaning of Love

An intimate relationship allows a couple to know each other more deeply. It
starts with the acquisition of the M.U., until the point when the couple will agree
that they are now boyfriend and girlfriend. With time and constant companionship,
being together, and meeting each other’s needs, the loob, or the inner self, of two
young adults achieve a certain level of closeness. This is often characterized as
the falling of the inner self for the other (mahuhulog ang loob). Unlike the Western
conception of romantic love that is linked to passion and sexual desire, the Filipino
metaphor of “falling of the inner self” emphasizes emotional closeness and mutual
understanding. One falls for another as love deepens and intimacy develops.
For Filipino adolescents, love is shown through giving gifts, writing letters,
making phone calls, taking the person home, spending time together, saying “I
love you,” and showing concern for one another (Conaco et al., 2003). Love is also
expressed through physical affection, such as holding hands, hugging, kissing, and
sex. However, many females feel that sex is not acceptable because it could have
negative consequences for the woman (Conaco et al., 2003). Some females also think
that sex can wait until marriage if it is true love (Tan et al., 2001).

The Meaning of Sex

According to Tan and colleagues (2001), it is in the context of mutual
understanding and getting to know each other that sexual exploration is
incorporated. Though physical exploration is considered integral to building
relationships, Filipino young adults will not admit that they desire to have sex or
physical intimacy. Admitting to wanting sex would be considered bastos (lewd or
profane) in Filipino culture. Thus, sexual behaviors need to be described as ways of
expressing love in order to make sex sacred instead of profane. Sex in the context
of a loving relationship makes sex acceptable. In the presence of love and in the
possibility of marriage in the future, premarital sex becomes acceptable.
The word sex in the Filipino context refers to both gender and sexual acts
(Tan et al., 2001). Sex-as-gender is commonly articulated by upper-income youth.
The Tagalog word kasarian, which particularly means gender, is more often used
in formal discourse, while sex, or seks, alludes more to the main sexual act, which
involves penetration. Activities before penetration are not considered as sex but are
loosely categorized as romansa, as termed by lower-income groups. High-income
groups refer to it as “warming up,” or “conditioning,” or foreplay.
Significant gender differences are present in the discourse around sex (Tan et al.,
2001). Male discourses tend to emphasize sexual acts as sexual techniques. In both
Tagalog and Ilonggo words, sex is associated with physical force that is sometimes
violent. Using gender relations as a frame to understand the discourses revolving

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 87

around sex, men are described as using (gumagamit) while women as being used
(ginagamit). Female discourses, on the other hand, associate sex with reproduction
and expressions of love. Generally, women’s discussion about sex is linked to love,
intimacy, and marriage. For a woman, giving in to sex is to express love.
Tan and colleagues (2001) conclude that sex in the Philippines is described as
both sacred (sagrado) and profane (bastos). Sex is described as bulgar, malaswa, bastos,
suggesting lewdness and vulgarity. Perhaps because sex is so natural, reflective of
one’s animal instincts, it becomes too mundane and therefore vulgar. Sex is often
described as a sin. When sexual acts are discussed outside of marriage, for instance,
sex is considered profane. Again, this explains why Filipino youth will not admit
that sex is integral to intimate relationships. Surprisingly, some young adults even
find the word pagtatalik (which refers to intimate sexual intercourse, or making love)
as something vulgar. On the other hand, sex in the context of marriage becomes
sacred, banal, or sagrado. For Filipino youth, sex is tied to the task of reproduction in
marriage and is made sacred by love.

LIVE IN, MARRIAGE, AND SAME - SEX UNIONS

Beyond M.U.s, boyfriend/girlfriend relationships and adolescent same-sex
romance, we move to long-term committed relationships. Many of us would enter
into serious intimate relationships throughout our lives. For heterosexual couples,
a long-term commitment is exemplified by the institution of marriage but is also
practiced through cohabitation, or “living in.” From the 2002 YAFS-III data, 16
percent of Filipino youth aged 15 to 24 are either living in or are formally married
(Berja & Ogena, 2004). Similar to their heterosexual counterparts, lesbian and gay
couples also form long-term committed relationships (Brehm et al., 2002).

Long-Term Unions
For Filipino heterosexual couples, establishing a long-term union is not always
through formal marriage (Xenos, Raymundo, & Berja, 1999). In the 1994 YAFS-II
data of female youth currently in a union, 47 percent had been married in a church
(kasal sa simbahan), 26 percent are legally married (kasal sa huwes), and 27 percent
are “living in” with a partner. For the males in a union, 32 percent report living in.
Xenos and colleagues explain “living in” as a traditional Filipino form of marriage.
Contrary to the belief that “living in” is a trial marriage, or short-term commitment,
“living in” can be a life-long and public commitment.
“Living in” can also be a step towards formal marriage. Around half of married
youth had lived in with their spouse prior to formal marriage, or kasal, while 29
percent say that they eloped, or nagtanan (Xenos et al., 1999). Elopement, or tanan, is
also considered a Filipino marriage institution that is particularly common among
low-income classes but is practiced in all social classes (Dobson, 1988, as cited
in Xenos et al., 1999). Aside from tanan and “live in,” there is also the traditional

88 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

pamanhikan that involves formal marriage negotiations between families before the
wedding rites.
From the YAFS-II findings, Xenos, Raymundo, and Berja (1999) conclude that
marriage among most Filipino youth is a process rather than a singular event.
Between single as an initial status to married as one’s current status, there can be
many stages in the relationship process, from dating and going steady (De Guzman
& Diaz, 1999) to eloping and living in (Xenos et al., 1999). Elopement usually leads
to living in. Significant events may include a formal marriage ceremony, like a
church wedding or civil rites.

Sexual Relations
For majority of Filipino youth, sexual relations are part of the transition from
being single to being married. The precise occurrence of first sex varies. Among the
married youth respondents in the YAFS, majority have had sex before marriage.
Xenos, Raymundo, and Berja (1999) examined the patterns of premarital sexual
activity among the Filipino youth using the 1994 YAFS-II data. They identified
three types of premarital sexual experience: committed, commercial, and casual.
Committed sex is sex with a partner who eventually becomes the marital partner or
spouse. About two-thirds of married female and male adolescents reported having
had sex with their partner before marriage. Given this data, Xenos and colleagues
question the use of the label premarital sex when sex among couples who have lived
together or eloped is sex toward marriage. Instead, Xenos and colleagues recommend
the use of the label committed sex to characterize sex that occurs in committed
relationships. In contrast to committed sex (sex toward marriage), commercial sex
is the purchase of sex reported by 8 percent of males whereas casual sex is sex with
an acquaintance or boyfriend or girlfriend.

Same-Sex Couples
Though the research on intimate relationships has focused on heterosexual
couples, we now know that some people fall in love and are attracted to the same
sex. Lesbians, gays, and bisexuals desire intimate relationships just as much as their
heterosexual peers (Peplau, 1993). They fall in love in the same way as heterosexuals
and form committed relationships just like heterosexuals. And they succeed in
maintaining relationships similar to heterosexuals.
Contrary to the belief that gays and lesbians cannot have satisfying relationships,
studies have shown that lesbian and gay couples have the same levels of satisfaction
in their relationships as their heterosexual counterparts (Peplau, 1993). Lesbian and
gay young adults say that they are in love with their partners and feel very close
to their partners. Contrary to popular misconceptions, same-sex couples are not
necessarily vulnerable to problems or relationship dissatisfaction compared to their
heterosexuals peers. And though they may have unique issues, same-sex couples
can have happy and successful relationships.

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 89

 Brehm and colleagues (2002) conclude that the patterns in heterosexual and
homosexual relationships are the same. As such, theories that have been developed
on love and attraction are generally applicable to same-sex couples as well. The only
difference between heterosexuals and lesbians, bisexuals, and gays is in their sexual
orientation and the prejudice and discrimination that come with same-sex love.

MAKING RELATIONSHIPS WORK

What makes couples happy? What makes love last? Aside from compatibility,
two of the most widely studied predictors of relationship stability and satisfaction
are self-disclosure and equity (Brehm et al., 2002). To conclude this chapter on
love and attraction, we focus on these two factors to relationship success. In the
end, we look at gender inequality and violence in intimate relationships as a social
issue confronting Filipino couples today.

Self-Disclosure
Communication is an important part of intimate relationships. Self-disclosure
or revealing personal information about one’s self to another is a defining
characteristic of intimacy (Brehm et al., 2002). According to Berscheid and Reis
(1998), the idea that intimate relationships develop through the reciprocal exchange
of information was particularly influenced by Altman and Taylor’s (1973) social
penetration theory. According to this theory, most relationships begin with the
exchange of superficial information, or small talk, and gradually move to more
meaningful revelations. The exchange of information increases in breadth or
variety and depth or personal significance, making the relationship more and more
intimate.
Berscheid and Reis (1998) also point to Reis and Shaver’s (1988) intimacy
model, another theory that links self-disclosure to the growth of intimacy in a
relationship. The model proposes that intimacy develops when self-disclosure
leads to the feeling of being understood and cared for. It is the interaction between
partners that is crucial. When your partner responds to your sharing of personal
information in a positive way, you are more likely to feel validated. It is not the self-
disclosure per se that is important but the feeling of being understood, validated,
and cared for that is linked with intimacy.
Self-disclosure leads to relationship satisfaction (Hendrick, 1981). Couples
who self-disclose more are happier compared to couples who do not self-disclose.
Happy couples talk to each other differently compared to less intimate partners.
They know more about each other, they share more personal information with
each other, and they are more at ease when they talk to each other. Self-disclosure
generally leads to liking and contentment because we share more about ourselves
to those we like and we like others who share more about themselves (Collins &
Miller, 1994).

90 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 In a study on the meaning of love and sex among Filipino men, Aguiling-
Dalisay and Jagmis-Socrates (2000) found that frequent communication is important
to a loving relationship. Filipino men say that constant communication, such as
talking with each other every night, will lead to greater understanding in a marital
relationship. The men also talk about love as showing respect, being faithful, and
helping each other.

Equity
The social psychological theories on relationship satisfaction and stability
have focused on social exchange (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). That is, we will stay in a
relationship if the rewards are higher than the costs of staying in the relationship
(Brehm et al., 2002). This kind of economics, or cost-benefit analysis, of relationships,
though seemingly unromantic, has been found to predict how satisfied we are in
our intimate relationships. People feel happy when benefits are high and costs are
low, that is, when they profit from the exchange.
One of the prominent social exchange theories is equity theory, which
predicts that people will be satisfied in their relationship if what each person gets
is proportional to what each person gives (Brehm et al., 2002). If you give more,
you get more. If you give less, you get less. Equity theory does not require equal
rewards. Even if partners get unequal rewards, with one benefiting more than the
other, as long as their rewards are proportional to what they contribute, they are
expected to be happy. Fairness has to do with the perception that each is getting
what he or she deserves.
According to equity theory, people who think they are benefiting more than
they deserve will feel guilty. They can try to give more to bring balance to the
relationship. On the other hand, people who feel they are benefiting less than they
deserve will feel angry and resentful. They can try to make demands and ask more
of their partner or give less to restore equity in the relationship. Or people can try
to change how they view the relationship and make themselves believe that the
exchange is equitable and fair.
Is equity important to Filipino couples? In one study, Murillo (2004) found that
marital equality in decision making and housework responsibility are predictive
of women’s satisfaction in marital relationships but not that of men. Women are
happy when there is equality in the relationship but men are not affected by equity
considerations, possibly because they are often in a position of dominance or
power.
In another study on Filipino married couples, Aguiling-Dalisay, Mendoza,
Santos, and Echevarria (1995, 2008) found that married couples value mutuality.
Caring in a relationship appears to follow the principle of equity in terms of couples
fulfilling each other’s expectations and servicing each other’s needs. Couples see
mutual helping, understanding, respect, and affection as part of caring. Couples
see caring in terms of contributing to the relationship to the best that one can.

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 91

 In the same study, however, the meaning of caring follows traditional gender
roles with the man as breadwinner and the woman in charge of household and child
care. It is in the performance of their respective duties as husband and wife that
caring is manifested. Aguiling-Dalisay and colleagues note that gender stereotypes
are evident in what men and women expect of each other in a marital relationship.
Men expect their wives to attend to their needs like in preparing their things or
cooking their food. But women do not expect their husbands to care for them in
the same way. This seeming gender inequity in caring is unfortunate given that
women are already subordinate to their husbands in the area of sexual intimacy.

Gender Inequality and Domestic Violence

According to Aguiling-Dalisay and colleagues, equity or equality in a Filipino
marriage seems difficult to achieve, especially when it comes to sex. The wives in
their study are always expected to submit to their husbands’ desires. Many of them
feel obligated to have sex with their husbands whether they like it or not. They
reason that they do not want to risk losing their husbands, especially if only the
men are employed. Submitting to the husband’s demands to have sex could also be
a way to avoid getting beaten up.
Gender inequality in intimate relationships has been extensively documented
in the Philippines. According to Guerrero and Peñano-Ho (1999), estimates of
women who have been assaulted by their partners or spouses vary from 1 in 10,
based on the 1993 Safe Motherhood Survey, to 6 in 10, based on studies by Lihok
Pilipina and Kalakasan. Girlfriend or wife battering is reinforced by unequal
power relations that come with traditional gender roles in Filipino families (Delfin
& Vargas, 2001). With men as breadwinners and heads of the family and women
as caregivers and homemakers, men are placed in a position of dominance and
women are placed in a position of submission.
Illustrating how men control women in love and sex, Estrada-Claudio (2002)
examined Filipino stories about love, together with Filipino stories about rape. In
the love stories, women are the objects of men’s love (and/or lust). As such, women
have to be pure, virgin, untouched by any other man than the one who desires her.
In the event that she loses her virginity to another man, say through rape, she in
effect loses her honor. To keep her honor she must be kept by the man who de-
virginized her. It is therefore not uncommon for a Filipino woman to marry the
man who raped her. Even when making promises of love, the honorable actions
of men, not women, is the measure of true love. Oftentimes, honorable intentions
of men mean that they become possessive and controlling of the women they love.
Gay and lesbian relationships are more complex as they usually do not adopt
boy-girl or husband and wife roles; thus, the division of labor is more flexible in
same-sex relationships (Peplau, 1993). But like their heterosexual counterparts,
same-sex couples experience the same relationships issues like concerns with
equality, dealing with infidelity, and negotiating sex. Same-sex couples also
experience intimate violence (Ofreneo & Montiel, 2010).

92 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 To end, achieving equity in intimate relationships is tied to the broader
social change agenda of gender equality. In one innovative program, Filipino
men were involved in a domestic violence project to effect positive changes in
men’s knowledge, values and beliefs, and skills (Lee, David, & Naraval, 2000).
In the project, men were sensitized to their gender roles and beliefs in order to
change gender-related ideas that rationalize their use of violence on women. Lee
and colleagues conclude that individual change in men (and women) has to be
accompanied by larger structural changes, such as transforming the cultural beliefs
and norms that perpetuate intimate violence. Perhaps learning to value equality
in an intimate relationship can help future generations experience love between
equals.

In this chapter, we have learned the different types of intimate relationships

and unions in the Philippine context: from M.U. to live-in, from dating to marriage,
from same-sex romance to same-sex unions. We saw how principles of attraction
and theories of love may be relevant to Filipinos’ experience of falling in love and
staying in love. Interestingly, love and sex can have unique and diverse meanings
for Filipinos. Finally, factors to relationship success, including compatibility, self-
disclosure, and equity were highlighted to help us make our relationships work.

From “M.U.” To “I Love You”: Love and Intimate Relationships 93

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96 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

CHAPTER 5
KA-TRABAHO, KA-OPISINA,
PANGKABUHAYAN: PINOY WORK LIFE

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I FILIPINO WORK MOTIVATION:

WHAT MAKES FILIPINO WORKERS DO THEIR BEST?

II FILIPINO LEADERSHIP
• Ideal Filipino Leader
• Leaders as Gabay

III MAKING DECISIONS WITH OUR GROUPS

•Group Polarization
•Groupthink

IV NATURE OF LABOR RELATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES

V FILIPINO FAMILY BUSINESS

VI OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS: MGA BAGONG BAYANI

• Who are the Overseas Filipino Workers?
• Motivations for Working Abroad
• Coping with Life Overseas

97
 Ang tao kapag binigyan mo raw ng isda, mabubuhay lang daw siya ng isang araw.
Pero turuan mo raw siyang mangisda, at mabubuhay daw siya ng habang-buhay.
Ito ay tama, kung siya ay mangingisda. Pero, para sa akin, kapag ang itinuro
mo ay: mga tamang pananaw tungo sa maunlad at maligayang pagtratrabaho at
pamumuhay kahit hindi mo siya turuang mangisda, tatayo siya at magsisisikap
na gumawa ng paraan para makahuli ng isda.

They say if you give a person a fish, he will live for one day. But if you teach
him how to fish, he will live a lifetime. This is right, if you are a fisherman.
But for me, if you teach a person the right outlook for a successful and
happy work life, even if you don’t teach him how to fish, he will work
hard to find a way to catch fish.
—Rodolfo Martin Vitangcol 1998

Work is an integral part of our lives. For most of us it is an important part of our
self-concept (Baron & Byrne, 1994). It becomes part of how we define ourselves and
gives us a sense of purpose. When adults meet for the first time it is a safe bet that
their initial conversation would include an exchange about the kind of work they
do. In fact, those who do not have work feel ashamed or experience guilt if they do
not participate in such activities (Riggio, 2003). Think about it. If you suddenly won
the lotto, would you still consider working? You will probably say yes. Given the
importance of work in our lives, we will discuss in this chapter the social psychology
of this significant human experience.

FILIPINO WORK MOTIVATION:

WHAT MAKES FILIPINO WORKERS DO THEIR BEST?

What motivates the Filipino worker to produce high quality work? In other
words, what energizes the Filipino worker to spend sustained effort on their jobs, to
carry out their responsibilities as well and carefully as possible? Think about it. What
drives you to study hard?
Let us consider the case of Manuel V. Pangilinan, or MVP as he is more
popularly known. In 1998, he became the chairman of the Philippine Long Distance
Telecommunications Company (PLDT), one of the most profitable companies in the
country. He is also the owner of TV5 network and Smart Communications. This is
remarkable in the light of his humble beginnings. As a student, he got on by meager
means (Flores, 2007). During his grade school days, he said he had 10 centavos to
buy a bottle of soft drinks, 5 centavos for crackers, and another 10 centavos to take
the bus going home. He made sure he kept his last 10 centavos, otherwise he would
have to walk home. In college, his weekly allowance was P10.00 and that included
his jeepney fares. He said that for three generations of his family, life meant coping
with challenges, relying on one’s talent, hard work, and a determination to succeed.

98 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Successful as he is, MVP continues to work hard. He is known for his demanding
work schedule. He has amassed a great fortune worth several million pesos. Yet, he
still continues to work harder than almost anyone, even though he does not need
more money. What drives MVP to work hard? He says that the spirit of enterprise
and the passionate determination to succeed motivate him (Flores, 2007).
Just like MVP, the story of Ms Socorro Ramos—the founder of National Book
Store, which is the country’s largest and most successful bookstore chain—is that of
hard work, frugality, passion, and sacrifice. She also had humble beginnings. Born
to a poor family, she was always thinking of how she could make a little money to
help her parents support their family of six. Young as she was, she helped support
the family by selling candied brown sugar (panocha). During summer vacations, she
worked hard so she could save enough money to buy notebooks, paper, and pencils
for the coming school year. When she started National Book Store she did everything
from manager to helper (Alano, 2005). She mopped the floor, carried books from the
warehouse to the store, cleaned, and organized the book displays. In 2004, “Nanay
Coring,” as she is fondly called, was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year (Bitagun,
2005). In her 80s, she still reports to work daily and when necessary even on Sundays
(Alano, 2005).
Another inspiring story is that of the country’s “Retail King,” Mr. Henry Sy,
the owner of Shoemart, or SM. He came to the country as an immigrant at the age
of 12 (Patricio, n.d). Young as he was, he worked in his father’s small sari-sari store
for more than twelve hours a day. While working in the store, he devised ways to
increase their income by developing small portions of products, much like the sachets
we see today in supermarkets (which in all likelihood is one of his own). He devoted
so much time in the store that he had no time to go out and play with friends in the
neighborhood. In 2010, with a net worth of $5 billion, Forbes considered him the
richest person in the country. Despite being the wealthiest Filipino, he still continues
to work just as hard.
Few people work as hard as MVP, “Nanay Coring,” and Mr. Sy. Furthermore,
not everyone works for the challenge as they do. A variety of factors motivate people
to work hard. In general, workers are motivated by either intrinsic or extrinsic factors
(Brehm & Kassin, 1996). Intrinsic motivation originates in factors within the worker.
They are said to be intrinsically motivated when they engage in an activity for its
own sake, out of sheer enjoyment, pleasure without expecting tangible payoff for
their efforts. In contrast, extrinsic motivation originates in factors outside the worker.
They are said to be extrinsically motivated when they engage in an activity as means
to an end—to win, to get high grades or recognition, to fulfill obligations, or to avoid
punishment. Are Filipino workers motivated by intrinsic or extrinsic factors?
What do local studies say about the Filipino workers’ motivation? Franco (2008)
presents a model of what work means to Filipinos based on their feelings about their
work and the outcomes they receive. Building on these two dimensions of affect and
outcome, the model classifies meaning of work into 5 Cs, namely, calling, career,
chore, cause, and coast. Workers who consider work as a calling enjoy doing their

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work for its nonmaterial benefits like learning, growing, and feeling that they are
making a difference. Those who see work as a career see it as a means to get something
beneficial like prestige, status, and monetary rewards. Workers who regard their
work as cause look at it simply as performing an obligation or duty. Those who view
work as chore feel constrained to work for the tangible outcomes, such as money
to support one’s family. Lastly, workers who belong to the coast cluster consider
having a job simply answers a need to get started or provides them with something
to do for the meantime and for the extrinsic outcomes.
One of the key findings in Franco’s study is that even when work sometimes
evokes negative feelings, workers still find it possible to find meaning in their
work. The opportunities for socialization, forming friendships with coworkers
and monetary benefits can make up for the unpleasantness of work. What makes
work life tolerable, even enjoyable, is the presence of a work community that forms
a fertile ground for making friends and working with them. There are friendships
and relationships with people who share their working environments and on-the-job
experiences. In sum, work for Filipino workers is not simply for making a living, but
also for making a life (Francisco & Franco, 2003; Franco, 2006).
A study on Filipino corporate workers by Yao, Franco, and Hechanova (2005)
found that their work motivation is derived from both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
However, intrinsic factors are rated more highly than extrinsic factors. This means
that they tend to work more for internal rewards, such as self-satisfaction, self-
fulfillment, and value choice autonomy in their work. This suggests that majority of
employees work, not so much for the tangible rewards, but for personal satisfaction
they get from being productive, self-determining, and autonomous people in
their jobs. Two extrinsic factors, however, were especially salient, namely, career
advancement and money to support family. Despite one’s intrinsic orientation, the
practical expectation of work is that it will provide for basic needs for the self and
family. Other local studies support these findings. Majority of Filipino workers are
found to be more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated (Francisco & Franco, 2003;
Hechanova, Franco, & Peña-Alampay, 2008).
What about the work motivation of young Filipino workers? The study of
Hechanova and colleagues (2008) indicate that even young Filipino workers are
intrinsically motivated. A common reason for working, especially among single
workers, is self-fulfillment. Other reasons cited were to grow, to gain experience, and
to make use of their education and skills. Young workers today clearly place a high
value on family, which is evident in the fact that a primary reason for working is to
support or help their families. Like their parents, young workers today still place
much importance on family as source of inspiration and motivation (Hechanova et
al., 2008).

100 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

FILIPINO LEADERSHIP
Regardless of where you are going to be employed, your work experience will
depend in large part on the quality of leadership in the organization. How would
you define leadership? There are as many definitions of leadership as there are
leaders and no one definition has been universally accepted (Yukl, 1994). However,
a common thread that weaves through these various definitions is that leadership
requires social influence (Bass, 1990). Leaders influence their followers or group
members to attain specific goals (Yukl, 1994).
In any organization, a work group has two basic concerns: to achieve the goal
for which it was created as successfully as possible and to maintain a level of morale
among the team members so that their work sustains their spirits, and members
work harmoniously rather than hinder one another’s performance (Bond, 1994). In
general, research on leadership has consistently shown that leaders must perform
two types of activities that correspond to these two concerns (Bond, 1994; Taylor,
Peplau, & Sears, 2006). Task leadership concerns accomplishing the goals of the
group, that is, getting the work of the group done successfully. This involves giving
suggestions, offering opinions, planning, and providing information to the group
(Taylor et al., 2006). The leader controls, shapes, directs, and organizes the group
in carrying out a specific task. Social leadership, on the other hand, focuses on
the emotional and interpersonal aspects of group interaction. This entails creating
smooth interpersonal relationships among the group members and maintaining its
harmony. It is concerned about people’s feelings, relieving tension, and encouraging
group cohesiveness.
Within this framework, what makes a good or effective leader? Is it the one who
focuses on task aspects or the one who focuses on the social aspects? Think about
the leaders of the organizations you are members of. Think about the leaders you
admire.
Studies from Western cultures show that successful managers are high in either
task or social aspects (Bond, 1994; Matsumoto, 2001). The type of leadership important
for the group’s performance depends on the demands of the job on hand and external
environment. Similar research conducted in collectivist cultures, however, shows a
marked difference. In these settings a leader has happier subordinates and higher
outputs if he or she is high in both task and social leadership. In general, leaders who
emphasized both group productivity and group morale were more effective than
other types of leaders in a variety of settings (Misumi, 1995). Thus, to be an effective
leader entails not only overseeing the performance on a job but also involves taking
care of the well-being of workers and their families.

Ideal Filipino Leader

What traits do Filipino workers like in their leaders? A study by Jocano (1999)
found that the top traits workers like of their supervisors and managers are mabait
(kind), madaling lapitan (approachable), matulungin (helpful), and maunawain
(understanding). They like leaders who have good people skills. Filipino workers

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expect their leaders to be kindhearted, prudent, accessible, and always ready to help
those who are in need. They expect their leaders to understand their problems and
empathize with their situations. These suggest that employees do feel the need to
establish a personal relationship with the boss. He or she would like their leader to
know more than just what goes on in the office, but also about their personal lives.
Thus, an ideal boss is someone who is respectful, considerate, and understanding
of his or her subordinates (Pineda, 2007). Taken together, Filipino workers expect
their leaders or boss to take on a parental role. Because of this, it is not unusual
for workers to address their boss as kuya (older brother), tatang (father), or lolo
(grandfather), as though they are members of their kinship group (Jocano, 1999).
This type of leadership corresponds to Jocano’s concept of gabay (guide) leadership.

Leaders as Gabay (Guide)

According to Jocano (1999, 2006), Filipinos expect their leaders to behave like
guides. As guardians, leaders treat their employees as their wards. They attend to
their problems as parents are expected to do at home. Helping their subordinates
is an integral and important part of their jobs. As gabay in the corporation, they
need to behave as role models to get the confidence of their subordinates. They must
behave like elders in the family, as authority figures from whom employees can
seek guidance or counsel. They are expected to personally attend to their needs like
family members to show their malasakit (concern) and pakikiramay (to sympathize
with) (Jocano, 1999).
Gabay has the attributes of maka-magulang na pagpapansin (paternalism),
makamag-anak na pananaw (familism), and makapansariling pagmamasid (personalism).
Maka-magulang na pagpapansin means that the leader’s primary concern is the good
of the group like a good father. He exercises his authority by example. Makamag-
anak na pananaw means managing the work group with a spirit of collective concern
and sentiment as though the organization is one big happy family. As one big
family, it comes naturally for the members to come together in times of crises, share
another’s burdens, and help those in trouble (damayan). Through this collective spirit,
members are motivated to cooperate, share the work load, and work harmoniously
together to accomplish their goals or assigned tasks. Makapansariling pagmamasid
(personalism), or “personalized care,” means that the leader’s responsibilities extend
beyond the work environment. The boundaries between work and personal life are
not distinct (Matsumoto, 2000). Subordinates expect their leader to spend time with
them beyond the work environment. Consistent with this, a study by Pineda (2007)
found that it is a common practice for Filipino managers to spend some bonding
moments with their subordinates after office hours. Bonding activities may include
eating out, playing badminton or other sports, and watching movies. It is during
these times that that they talk about their personal lives. Subordinates will not
hesitate to consult with their boss about problems at home and to seek advice and
help from them about those problems. It is also acceptable and common practice
in the workplace to ask their boss to be a sponsor at their wedding or to be ninang
(godmother) or ninong (godfather) to their child.

102 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

MAKING DECISIONS WITH OUR WORK GROUPS
As members of work groups, we frequently make decisions ranging from the
relatively trivial (e.g., where to order our lunch) to those that significantly affect the
lives and well-being of our coworkers (e.g., firing an employee or closing a plant).
Group polarization and groupthink are two processes that influence the decisions
we make with our work groups. Let us consider each in the context of the workplace.

Group Polarization
Let us say your work group needs to make a decision on one of several courses
of actions. Will the choice involve greater or lesser risk than the choice you will make
alone or by an individual member of your group? In other words, is your decision
as a group going to be riskier or more conservative than the decision of individual
members of the group? Let us say you are a member of the Human Resources
Department and your group is deciding whether to suspend or terminate an erring
employee. Initially, your position may be to simply reprimand the employee. Upon
joining the group, and the position of the majority is to terminate the employee, we
go along with the more extreme (riskier) decision. On the other hand, if the position
of the majority in the group is to simply suspend the employee we go along as well
with the more conservative decision. This question has been addressed by hundreds
of studies comparing group decisions to the decisions of individuals. The result
is that that group decisions differ from the decisions of individuals (McShane &
Travaglione, 2007).
Typically in groups the majority position holds more weight than the minority
position, and the shift of the group is toward the majority view. If the majority of the
group members make a risky choice, the group decision is more likely to be riskier
than the mean of the individuals. If the majority of the group makes a conservative
choice, the group is likely to shift its decision in a conservative direction. This is
called group polarization, meaning the decision of the group is more extreme than
those initially held by the group members (Myers & Lamm, 1976).

Groupthink
Groupthink is a phenomenon that can occur when groups make decisions
that individual members know are poor ones (Janis, 1982). According to Janis,
groupthink is likely to occur in highly cohesive groups with strong leaders when the
social pressures to maintain conformity and harmony in the group take precedence
over sound decision making. Thus, in a work setting where we look up to our leaders
as our guardians and we are concerned with maintaining harmonious relationships
with our colleagues, groupthink is most likely going to affect our decision-making
process. Let us consider the following sequence of events.
Let us say the leader of your group presents an idea to the group. You suspect
that the idea is a poor one. You look around to have a feel of what others think
of the boss’s idea. In all likelihood, your work colleagues may have reservations
too about the boss’s idea. Yet, given the value of pakikisama and the importance

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of maintaining social harmony, we know that disagreeing with the boss will be
considered disrespectful. Thus, no one dares question the boss’s decision for fear of
embarrassing or offending him/her. As you look around the room and notice that
everyone is silent you may begin to doubt your initial judgment. After all, if everyone
else seems to be going along, perhaps the idea is not that bad. As the decision process
gets going, any criticism is quickly rationalized away, and consistent with our
collectivistic orientation and primary affiliation with our groups we go along and
conform with the group consensus.
Janis (1982) identified some symptoms of groupthink, including group members
overestimating their group’s might and right, giving them an illusion that the group
is invulnerable and that their group is moral and ethical. Group members become
close-minded, often discounting challenges and defending their decisions, as well
as thinking their enemies are evil. Finally, the group feels pressured to conform and
may thus experience self-censorship, creating an illusion of unanimity among group
members and even having mind guards or members protecting the group from
information that would question the effectiveness or morality of the group decision.
Considering the importance we give to group harmony and maintaining
smooth interpersonal relationship, are there ways for us to avoid groupthink?
Janis (1982) offers several suggestions for avoiding groupthink. Two major themes
appear throughout these suggestions. First, group leaders should serve as objective
moderators in group meetings rather than attempting to control the alternatives
that are recommended. Second, group members should critically evaluate decision
alternatives and continually seek information that might support or refute the
wisdom of a decision. Janis discusses specific actions that groups should periodically
break into smaller subgroups to discuss critical issues, and members of the decision-
making groups should discuss issues with subordinates. These actions can help
groups avoid getting caught in a cycle of groupthink that can result in making the
wrong decision.

NATURE OF LABOR RELATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Labor relations, or industrial relations, is the dynamic process of interaction
between workers represented by their union and employer to achieve their respective
goals (Edralin, 2003). Generally, the goals of the union (e.g., higher wages, better
working conditions, and power at the workplace) run counter to the employer’s
goal (e.g., higher profit, market expansion, and sole control of business operation).
Of course, the union and employer have objectives in common like having workers
with high organizational commitment, loyalty, and high motivation.
There are three major actors in Philippine industrial relations system (Edralin,
2003). These actors are the (1) employer and employers’ organizations, (2) workers
and their unions or labor organizations, and (3) government in its role as regulator
or arbiter. Industrial relations in the country deal mainly with the workers’ rights

104 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

to self-organization, collective bargaining, strikes, and participation in policy and
decision making within the legal framework of law. Also, laws and regulations
strictly govern the union-employer relationship at the firm level, which may not
be mutually acceptable to either party. Various patterns of labor-management
relationship could exist. The defining characteristic of Filipino industrial relations is
the adversarial nature of labor-management relations (Erikson, Kuruvilla, Ofreneo,
& Asuncion-Ortiz, 2001).
The Philippine labor relations system is influenced by a configuration of the
interrelated and interdependent domestic economic (labor market, inflation),
political (corruption, cronyism), and social factors (Edralin, 2003). Let us discuss the
social environment that influences Philippine labor relations.
An understanding of Philippine industrial relations would not be complete
unless some of the predominant cultural values are considered (Edralin, 2003).
Pakikisama, or personalism, dominates our social relationships. We tend to engage
in actions that will ensure the maintenance of harmonious relationships. Thus, a
worker may hesitate to join the union because he/she do not want to offend the
owner or the employer who may be his/her ninong or a relative. Utang na loob (debt
of gratitude), or being grateful, is a positive trait. Because of utang na loob, a worker
may refuse to join the union since he/she does not want to go against an employer who
gave him/her the job. Employees’ high regard for authority makes them subservient
to leaders and officials and are not likely to raise issues or to question decisions. This
makes workers become leader-oriented in their union. Consequently, they are not
able to participate in the democratic process in union administration because they
always rely on the decision of lawyers who run the organization (Edralin, 2003).
Their deep faith in God and religiosity make Filipino workers persevere in their
work despite difficult conditions. Their faith that God will take care of them and
their belief that personal sacrifices will be rewarded in the future may lead them to
tolerate unfair labor wages and accept hazardous types of jobs. In difficult times,
their faith tends to cushion them from the impact of disappointments. This attitude
may lead to fatalism, which is our tendency to leave things to fate. Filipino workers
say bahala na (it is up to God) and would rather let things be instead of fighting for
their rights. This leads them to allow things to happen as the events unfold for they
believe that such is their destiny (Edralin, 2003).

FILIPINO FAMILY BUSINESS

Eighty-five percent of all corporations in the country are family-owned
(Mendoza, 2005). Think Shoemart (SM). Yes, “they who got it all.” SM started the
“malling” phenomenon in the country. It has changed the way Filipino families spend
their weekend bonding activity. When you need to buy books or school supplies,
what is the first name that comes to your mind? In all likelihood, you will think
of National Book Store. As the country’s most successful bookstore chain, National

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Book Store has served generations of Filipinos (Bitagun, 2005). Like the malls of SM,
National Book Store has become a part of every Filipino life. SM and National Book
Store are examples of successful family-run business in the country. Other equally
successful family-run businesses are the Ayala’s Greenbelt and Glorietta as well as
Gokongwei’s Galleria. Not to be missed is Tan Caktiong’s Jollibee.
Family-owned businesses offer professionals challenging and unique
opportunities (Pangan, Hechanova, Franco, Mercado, & Lopez, 2006). For one,
leadership in the organization may be limited to family members. Nonfamily
members may be perceived as untrustworthy (Lee, 1995), hence managerial positions
are usually reserved for family members. This may limit the nonfamily members’
career growth in the company (Franco, Hechanova, Mercado, & Lopez, 2004). Family
businesses are more likely to lack formal written policies to guide the management
of workers. A worker’s relationship with the founder may be the basis for promotion
rather than performance and competence. In terms of empowerment, Filipino
family businesses have paternalistic cultures where the founder or the most senior
family member makes the final decisions. Even when the family business seeks to
professionalize, the owners find it hard to hand over management of the organization
to nonfamily professionals (Lee-Chua, 1997). Furthermore, in small Chinese- Filipino
family-owned businesses, critical management practices and operations remain
within the control of the owners. However, one of the main reasons professionals
join family firms is they get exposed to a wide range of decision-making situations
(Lee, 1995). If you were given a choice, would you consider working in a family-run
business?
Pangan, Hechanova, Franco, Mercado, and Lopez (2006) examined the work
attitudes of professionals in family and nonfamily businesses. They explored
differences in perceived job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational
commitment of professionals in family and nonfamily businesses. Results of the
study has shown that professionals in family businesses feel more empowered,
they have reported greater job and career satisfaction and greater commitment to
their organizations compared to those in nonfamily-run businesses. Specifically,
professionals in family businesses perceive themselves as being more satisfied
with the progress they have made toward meeting their career goals and what is
normally expected for the success of their organization. They feel proud of being
part of their organization and believe their organization inspires the very best in
them. Professionals in family businesses show more willingness to put in a great
deal of effort, perceiving their jobs as giving them the chance to be recognized as
“someone” in the organizational community. They are also more satisfied with the
nature of relationships between coworkers.
Results of the study are surprising considering that Western literature suggests
that working in family organizations is more disadvantageous than advantageous
for nonfamily members (Pangan et al., 2006). The results may be better understood in
terms of our culture. The values of Filipino workers may resonate with the cultures
of family businesses (Pangan et al., 2006). Collectivist and family-oriented, a feeling

106 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

of belonging and the solidarity of purpose may be more evident in Filipino family
businesses. One characteristic of the family corporation is the strong sense of kinship.
Nonfamily members are not treated as outsiders but are made to “feel at home”
in the business (Lee, 1995). Filipino hospitality is offered not only to kin, but also
to colleagues and kababayans (town mates) (Lee, 1995). Probably one of the reasons
family businesses succeed in the country is because it is deeply rooted in bonds of
a basic social group, the “family” (Pangan et al., 2006). Since the family is highly
prized, much loving attention and care are given to make relationships work (Chua-
Lee, 1997).

OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS: MGA BAGONG BAYANI (NEW HEROES)

Filipinos are said to be everywhere. In any part of the world, you can see a
Filipino. Nearly 20 percent of the population of the Philippines is working abroad
(Graceffo, 2008). In 2007 there were more than 8 million Filipinos, or about a tenth of
the Philippine total population, working abroad (E. Laquian & A. Laquian, 2008). The
Philippines has become one of the world’s biggest sources of foreign workers and
the total remittances of overseas Filipino workers channeled through the banking
system was estimated at about $11.44 billion per year, constituting about 13 percent
of the country’s gross domestic product (E. Laquian & A. Laquian, 2008). It is for this
reason that the government has lauded overseas Filipino workers as the country’s
“new economic heroes,” or mga bagong bayani (de Guzman, 2003).

Who are the Overseas Filipino Workers?

According to the results of a survey the number of overseas Filipino workers
(OFWs) who worked abroad at anytime during the period of April to September
2007 was registered at 1.75 million (Ericta, 2008). Most of the OFWs were from
the CALABARZON and the National Capital Region (NCR). Caraga reported the
smallest share of OFWs.
More than half of the OFWs (55.2%) were below 35 years old, and the largest
number was observed in the age group 25 to 29 years. Females were generally younger
compared to the males. Of the total number of females, 28.8 percent belonged to
the age group 25 to 29 years and 21.3 percent were in the age group 30 to 34 years.
Meanwhile, the males were almost evenly distributed among the age groups 25 to
29, 30 to 34, and 45.
One out of three (35.0%) OFWs were laborers and unskilled workers, which
included domestic helpers, caregivers, cleaners, and manufacturing laborers. Those
who worked as service workers and shop and market sales workers made up 14.3
percent, trades and related workers 13.8 percent, and plant and machine operators
and assemblers 13.4 percent. Saudi Arabia remained to be the top destination.
Europe, North and South America, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan were
also popular destinations.

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 Since the early 1990s, news reports abound of victims of abuse and of the death
of overseas contract workers (Gonzalez, 1998). These include the much talked-about
execution of Flor Contemplacion in Singapore, the death of Maricris Sioson, the
rape of Sarah Balabagan, and numerous others that remain unreported.
According to de Guzman (2003) these news reports reflect the current face of
Philippine overseas labor migration. It is increasingly female and service-oriented.
The majority of female OFWs are still in “traditional” work, such as domestic work
and cultural entertainment, health care and nursing, where the pay is low and the
nature of the work involves a higher exposure to physical, sexual, and other abuses.

Motivations for Working Abroad

Several studies of international migration have concluded that workers seek
employment abroad for economic reasons (A. De Guzman, 1993; Gonzales, 1998;
Perfecto-Ramos, 2008; Tsuda, 2003). For the Filipino workers, working abroad
means getting ahead and enhancing one’s social status (Samonte, 2003). Crossing
national boundaries is intertwined with economic deliverance (A. De Guzman,
1993; Gonzales, 1998). For the OFWs, economic security means being able to
finance the education of their children and to provide their family with a better
life. Filipinos are known to work hard for their families, to do anything just to
send their kids to school, give them a better life, and offer them the things they
did not have when they were still kids. It is common to find a significant portion
of an OFW’s income and savings earmarked for their family’s present and future
educational investments (Gonzales, 1998). The quest for higher income and a better
future motivates them to tolerate negative factors they encounter overseas as they
grapple with loneliness, homesickness, or maltreatment from their employers.
Life of a Filipino overseas is not easy. Can you imagine the feeling of working
abroad, caring for other person’s children while your own children are living alone
in the care of another person? It is not easy to work abroad while you worry about
how your family is doing back home. As an overseas caregiver, you take care of
other people while you cannot even take care of your own family. These are the
things many Filipinos sacrifice just to give their family a better life. How do they
cope with the difficulties?

Coping with Life Overseas

As we learned in chapter 3, proximity and prolonged encounters among people
tend to foster strong bonds of friendship and camaraderie (Arkin & Burger, 1980).
This is particularly true when the individuals in question undergo a shared social
experience (Perez & Asis, 1993). For the overseas workers, it is the pain of being
away from their family, homesickness, or adjusting to a foreign culture. Through
their shared experiences abroad they foster strong bonds with their fellow overseas
workers, or kababayans. They make these bonds of friendships into family-
like relationships that are mutually supportive (Perez & Asis, 1993). Such close
relationships provide them with psychological support. They acquire a sense of

108 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

security that they can always count on somebody to assist them in times of need.
The community of fellow OFWs provides a family-like atmosphere, cushioning the
hardships and difficulties of overseas work. It is through this community abroad
where Filipino overseas workers experience damayan (solidarity) and the bayanihan
(cooperativism) spirit.
Another source of strength for the overseas workers is their religiousity.
Various studies have investigated the various roles of a Catholic church in the lives
of OFWs in a central district in Tokyo (Mateo, 2003) and Australia (Perfecto-Ramos,
2008). The study has revealed that the traditional religious practices of praying
the rosary, novena, and panata (devotion) become important components of their
adaptive and survival strategies. They attend church services and participate in
religious traditions to ask God to aid them in their psychological and spiritual needs
as they take on the challenge of working and living in a foreign land. The church
and religious rituals help Filipino overseas workers assert their identity and redeem
their self-esteem as they bear the burdens of mostly menial work done in a foreign
land (Mateo, 2003).

In sum, both intrinsic and extrinsic factors motivate Filipino workers to do

their best. A Filipino leader may exhibit either task or social leadership but the ideal
Filipino needs to exhibit gabay leadership. Group polarization and groupthink are
two processes Filipino workers experience in the organization. The Filipino values
of pakikisama, pakikipagkapwa-tao, utang na loob, high regard for authority, and
fatalism need to be considered in labor relations in the Philippines. The flourishing
Filipino family businesses and overseas Filipino workers are also significant
developments that need to be recognized.

Ka-trabaho, Ka-opisina, Pangkabuhayan: Pinoy Work Life 109

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112 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

CHAPTER 6
SARI-SARING KASARIAN!
GENDER AND SEXUALITY

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I THE BIOLOGY OF SEX

• A Multidimensional Model of Sex
• Biological Sex and Gender Identity
• The Intersexed and Transsexuals

II GENDER ROLES AND GENDER STEREOTYPES

• Masculinity and Femininity
• Transgenders, the Bakla, and the Tomboy

III THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO GENDER

• Essentialist Approaches
• Socialization Approaches
• Social Constructionist Approaches
• Structuralist Approaches

IV GENDER INEQUALITY AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

• Sexism and Androcentrism
• Violence against Women (VAW)
• The Philippine Feminist Movement

V SEXUAL ORIENTATION
• Models of Sexual Orientation
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual: Tomboy, Bakla, Silahis
• Heterosexism and Discrimination against Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals,
Transgenders, and Intersexed (LGBTI)

113
 Rustom Padilla, Filipino, comes from a family of actors. He was
previously married to an actress. In 2006, he came out as gay in the reality
series Pinoy Big Brother. He then became famous for his transgender role
as Zsazsa Zaturnah, a gay salon owner who becomes a superheroine.
After returning from the US, he recently changed his name to BB (Bebe)
Gandanghari and proclaimed that Rustom Padilla is dead. He now
presents himself as a woman.
—http://telebisyon.net/Rustom-Padilla/artista/

Aiza Seguerra is a Filipino singer, actress, and guitarist. She is known

for her beautiful and soothing voice. She was first a child star who began
in Eat Bulaga’s Little Miss Philippines 1987 before becoming an award-
winning singer. Her most famous single is the song Pagdating ng Panahon.
Aiza has openly confessed that she is a lesbian. Recently, she confirmed
that she is looking for a sperm doctor. She says that she is still very much
in love with a woman but wants also to be a mother someday.
—http://www.filipinomusica.com/aiza-seguerra.html and
http://www.yehey.com/lifestyle/culture.aspx?artid=28319

What does it mean to be a man or a woman? What does it mean to be lesbian

or gay? In this chapter, we explore concepts that fall within the general domain
of gender and sexuality. Shively and De Cecco (1993) conceptualized a model of
sexual identity as comprised of four parts: (a) biological sex, the genetic material
encoded in chromosomes; (b) gender identity, the psychological sense of being
female or male; (c) social sex role or gender role, the adherence to culturally created
behaviors and attitudes deemed appropriate for females or males; and (d) sexual
orientation, the sexual and emotional attraction to the same and/or opposite sex. We
will follow this model as we try to understand sex, gender, and sexual orientation.
First, we will examine biological sex and gender identity; second, we will delve into
gender stereotypes and gender roles, or masculinity and femininity; and third, we
will explore sexual orientation and sexuality.
Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are important concepts in social psychology
because they pervade our everyday lives. They shape how we think, feel, and act
toward each other. How we understand biological sex will reflect how we treat
individuals who dress or act like the opposite sex. How we value masculinity and
femininity will determine how we act as women and men. How we understand
sexual orientation will influence how we relate to lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.
On one hand, feminists are confronting the social issues of gender inequality and
gender-based violence. On the other hand, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
and intersexed individuals and LGBTI activists are fighting for equal rights and
struggling to end discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation. As
we try to understand the meaning of sex, gender, and sexual orientation, we hope
to gain awareness of how these concepts play a crucial role in Filipino everyday life.

114 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

THE BIOLOGY OF SEX
Sex is a primary category of human social perception (Stangor, Lynch,
Duan, & Glass, 1992). Judging if a person is male or female has been described
as an automatic social-cognitive process, that is, it is effortless, unintended, and
involuntary (Bargh, 1989). It is as if we have a built-in sex radar or sex detection
device. And without knowing it, we automatically process the sex of a person along
with other characteristics. When we cannot automatically identify a person’s sex,
we experience a seeming jolt in our sex radar. “Is that a male or a female?” “Lalaki
ba ’yan o babae?” Our two-sex system may not be as adequate as we once thought it
was. But what is sex, anyway?
At birth, each individual is classified by biological sex. As such, the first question
we often ask when a child is born is, “Is it a girl or a boy?” Generally, the term sex
has been defined as biologically prescribed characteristics that differentiate males
and females, such as reproductive organs or chromosomes (Howard & Hollander,
1997). In this two-sex system, a male is characterized by having a penis and XY
chromosomes whereas a female is defined by having a vagina and XX chromosomes.
Inherent in this commonly accepted definition of sex are the assumptions that there
are only two sexes, that sex is fixed and unchanging, and that each person can be
classified under one and only one of these categories.
Though the process of sex assignment (classifying an infant as either male or
female) may seem straightforward, there are situations where it is not as simple
as looking at an infant’s genitals. Stories of individuals classified as males and yet
identifying as women abound; as well as stories of persons classified as females at
birth and growing up male in their teenage years. According to geneticist Fausto-
Sterling (2000), not all individuals are born male or female. Are there really more
than two biological sexes? Is there really a third sex?

A Multidimensional Model of Sex

Sex can be defined using (1) chromosomes (XX or XY); (2) gonads (ovaries or testes);
(3) gonadal hormones (estrogens or androgens); (4) internal accessory organs (fallopian
tubes, uterus or vas deferens, seminal vesicles); and (5) external genitalia (clitoris,
labia minora, vaginal orifice or penis, scrotum) (Crawford & Unger, 2000). These
chromosomes, gonads, hormones, internal sex structures, and external genitalia
vary more than people realize. Individuals with mixed sexual configurations using
these different biological criteria are known as intersexed, or intersexuals (Fausto-
Sterling, 2000). We will talk more about intersexuals in the next section.
Given the above model, human beings are not perfectly dimorphic, meaning not
only composed of two sexes. Instead, Fausto-Sterling (2000) argues that the two-sex
system that we have long believed to be adequate cannot fully encompass the full
spectrum of human sexuality. She suggests that sex is best conceptualized as points
in a multidimensional space, as one’s sex may vary according to each dimension.
This means that there can be so many types of people according to biological sex.

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 115

 To simplify this multidimensional model, Fausto-Sterling (2000) proposes a five-
sex system consisting of (1) males; (2) females; (3) herms, or true hermaphrodites, born
with both a testes and an ovary; (4) merms, or male pseudohermaphrodites, with testes
and some aspect of female genitalia; and (5) ferms, or female pseudohermaphrodites,
with ovaries and some aspect of male genitalia. However, the medical or scientific
community is yet to develop the appropriate language to represent such diversity
in biological sex. As such, we still follow the male-female sex system.

Biological Sex and Gender Identity

Biological sex may appear to be an objective means of classifying people.
Gender identity, on the other hand, is perceived as subjective and based on self-
identification (Shively & De Cecco, 1993). Gender identity is often assumed to match
one’s biological sex (i.e., males will identify as males and females will identify as
females). However, human experience shows proof that one’s biological sex may
not always match one’s psychological gender (Golden, 2000). A boy may feel that he
is female and a girl may think that she is male. Some males refer to this experience
as being a “woman trapped in a man’s body.” Conversely, some females feel being
a “man trapped in a woman’s body.” A conflict between one’s biological sex and
gender identity may now be resolved through a sex-change operation. Individuals
who have changed their sex are known as transsexuals (Golden, 2000). We will talk
more about transsexuals in the next section.
With the multidimensional model of biological sex presented above, people
can have more than two gender identities. For instance, people can identify as the
third sex, or the third gender. Gender identity presumably emerges from the multiple
dimensions of biological sex (cellular, hormonal, anatomical) via some poorly
understood interaction with the environment and experience (Fausto-Sterling, 2000).
But because we live under the two-sex system, individuals are constrained to identify
as either male or female.
Interestingly, Nepal, a country in South Asia, now legally recognizes the third sex,
or the third gender, identity (www.sindhtoday.net). After sexual minority activists
demanded equal rights for the third sex, the Nepalese Supreme Court ordered the
government to end discrimination on the basis of sex by legally recognizing the third
gender identity. Thus, Nepalese people can now carry a third sex identity instead of
the usual male and female categories in their official identification cards.
In the Philippines, a landmark case granting a change of sex from female to
male was awarded by the Supreme Court to an intersexed individual in 2008 (www.
tsphilippines.com). A change of sex from male to female was also granted to a
transsexual woman who underwent sex-reassignment surgery, but this was later
overturned by the Supreme Court in 2007 (www.tsphilippines.com).

The Intersexed and Transsexuals

People who fall outside the male and female dichotomy are generally called
intersexuals. For every 1,000 children born, 17 are intersexual in some form; that is

116 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

1.7 percent of the population, or roughly 2 in every 100 people (Fausto-Sterling, 2000).
An example of an intersexed individual is the male pseudohermaphrodite who has
a defective androgen receptor (Diamond, 1992). Male pseudohermaphrodites look
like normal women, with well-developed breasts, long legs, flawless complexion,
with the added height of a man. Many of them have turned up among female
fashion models. Their intersexuality is discovered when they fail to menstruate. It
is soon discovered that their vagina ends blindly with no uterus, fallopian tubes, or
upper vagina. Instead, a normal testes is buried in the groin or labia.
What physicians have been doing in the past century is to “remedy” infants
born with mixed genitalia (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). Intersexuals subjected to surgery
as infants are estimated to be 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 2,000 live births. The medical
practice of surgical gender reassignment follows the work of psychologist John
Money of the 1950s, on the belief that gender identity is completely malleable for
about eighteen months after birth. After determining an infant’s sex based on mixed
genitalia, medical doctors perform genital surgery and tell parents to raise the child
either as a boy or girl. Cases of failed reassignment surgery and the emergence of
intersex activism led to the abandonment of correcting genital ambiguity at birth.
Transsexuals, on the other hand, are people who have literally changed their
sex— they have been surgically and hormonally altered so that they appear to be
a sex different from the one they were born in (Howard & Hollander, 1997). The
desire to change one’s sex often emerges from one’s gender identity or inner sense
of oneself as female or male. Because society believes in a two-sex system, a person
can only identify as either male or female. A crisis over gender identity may be
present for individuals who wish to cross-dress, live as the opposite sex, or have a
sex-change operation (Moore & Rosenthal, 2006).
In the Philippines, there is now a group of transsexual women who call
themselves transpinay. The Society of Transsexual Women in the Philippines, or
STRAP, advocates for transsexual women’s right to define their gender identity.
They describe a transpinay as a female human being who was assigned a male
sex at birth. A transpinay is neither a homosexual nor a gay man. Nor is she a
cross-dresser. She may want to undergo a sex reassignment surgery (pre-op), has
undergone sex change (post-op), or may not desire to undergo reassignment (non-
op). Transpinay identify as females regardless of their assigned sex at birth (see
www.tsphilippines.com).

GENDER ROLES AND GENDER STEREOTYPES

Rarely do we check each other’s reproductive organs or chromosomes to know
each other’s sex. When we automatically process the sex of a person using our
built-in sex radar, we use cues like the person’s body shape and structure, hair
length, shoulder width, breast size, and others. We also distinguish between the
sexes by observing the way people dress and behave along with other nonbiological

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 117

characteristics. As such it can be said that the assignment of a sex category to a
person is a social process that overlaps with the concept of gender (Howard &
Hollander, 1997).
There are some scholars who would use gender interchangeably with sex,
believing that the two terms carry the same meaning. Others make a clear distinction
between sex and gender, rejecting the notion that gender is automatically determined
by biological sex. Howard and Hollander (1997) refer to these as the essentialist and
nonessentialist views of gender. The essentialist perspective asserts that the social
roles and behaviors performed by women and men are determined by their biology.
The nonessentialist view believes that socialization or mediating processes in society
shape how people behave in gendered ways. This nonessentialist perspective does
not see gender as fixed or unchanging but rather as changing and fluid. Generally,
social psychologists opt to use the term gender because it encompasses the range
of difference between men and women and emphasizes the social construction of
maleness and femaleness (Burn, 1996).

Masculinity and Femininity

Unlike sex which is based on biological criteria and gender identity that is
based on subjective experience, social sex roles, or gender roles, are based on
social or cultural norms (Shively & De Cecco, 1993). As such, gender is commonly
defined as socially or culturally prescribed characteristics, behaviors, and interests
appropriate for women and men (Howard & Hollander, 1997). Males are expected
to be masculine in appearance, behavior, and personality, and females are expected
to be feminine. But are all men masculine? Are all women feminine? What happens
to feminine men and masculine women?
Gender belief system. People’s expectations about what it means to be male
or female comprise society’s gender belief system (Kite, 2001). This gender belief
system reflects and shapes notions of masculinity and femininity through gender
stereotypes and gender roles. The gender belief system also includes sanctions
for not following these social roles. In general, there is a social expectation that a
male will fit the package of masculine physical characteristics, attitudes, behaviors,
and roles, making him the stereotypical man. In the same way, a female is socially
expected to fit the package of feminine physical characteristics, attitudes, behaviors,
and roles, making her the stereotypical woman (Kite, 2001).
Gender stereotypes. General beliefs about the characteristics of men and
women are referred to as gender stereotypes (Deaux & Lewis, 1984). These gender
stereotypes are often strongly held overgeneralizations about women and men
(Howard & Hollander, 1997). Deaux and Lewis found four components of gender
stereotypes: (1) personality traits, for example, emotional expressiveness in women
and self-confidence in men; (2) role behaviors, like caring for children done by women
and household repairs done by men; (3) occupations, such as nurse for women and
construction worker for men; and (4) physical appearance, small and graceful for
women and tall and muscular for men.

118 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Gender roles. The set of prescriptions about what is appropriate behavior
for women and men are called gender roles (Howard & Hollander, 1997). Gender
roles, sometimes taken as synonymous to sex roles, are sets of social rules or norms
(Burn, 1996). If social norms are basically social rules that dictate what behavior
is acceptable and what behavior is not acceptable, then it follows that there is
normative pressure to conform so as to avoid social rejection. The social punishment
for deviating from one’s assigned gender roles varies in degrees, manifestations,
cultures, and contexts. In some cultural contexts, punishment for nonconformity
to gender roles can be severe (Burn, 1996). Therefore, gender nonconformity or
gender-inappropriate behavior is generally avoided.
Western gender roles and stereotypes. Lahey (2001) describes traditionally
appropriate gender roles for men and women in Western society. Traditional gender
roles for men have been as worker, primary breadwinner, head of the household,
and holder of leadership roles in the community. These activities are assumed
to be parallel to typically male personality characteristics, such as assertiveness,
confidence, bravery, and independence with associated interests in sports, active
pursuits, and competition. Traditional gender roles for women have revolved
around the bearing and nurturing of children as well as taking responsibility for
household duties. Assumed female traits are warmth, expressiveness, nurturance,
dependence, and cooperation, with interests focused around interpersonal concerns
rather than those in the intellectual or practical domain.
Filipino femininity and masculinity. In the Philippines, femininity is strongly
associated with the mother and homemaker role whereas masculinity is tied to the
father and provider role (Jimenez, 1981). Major responsibilities of females have to
do with the house, primarily keeping it clean, fulfilling all household duties, and
taking care of children and husband’s daily needs. Predominant role for the male is
that of being the provider or earning for the family, disciplining the children, and
ensuring the education of the children.
Certain traits are expected from women and men as well. Jimenez (1981) found
that femininity was generally thought of in terms of being mahinhin (modest/
decent), pino ang kilos (refined), and mabini (modest). Masculinity was generally
conceived of in terms of being malakas (strong), matipuno (stocky), malaki ang katawan
(large body), maskulado (muscled), and malusog (healthy).
Filipino adolescents also refer to desirable traits of females and males in
describing the tunay na lalaki (real man) and the tunay na babae (real woman) (Tan,
Batangan, & Cabado-Española, 2001). Tan and colleagues found that young Filipinos
described a real man as a good provider to his family, a good father, responsible,
loving, and trustworthy. A real woman, on the other hand, was described as
malambing (affectionate), mahinhin (refined), mabait (good), and faithful. These
gender traits of women and men were linked to their biological characteristics and
often described as natural lang, or only natural.
Do you subscribe to these gender stereotypes? Do you follow gender roles?

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 119

Transgenders, the Bakla, and the Tomboy
Transgenders. Some people do not subscribe to socially prescribed gender roles.
In general, people whose gender identity or gender expression differs from what is
associated with their assigned sex at birth are referred to as transgender (APA, 2009).
Many transgender people live as members of the other sex or gender. Transsexuals
are transgender people who live or wish to live as members of the opposite gender
(Israel & Tarver, 1997). Biological females who wish to be recognized as men are
called female-to-male (FTM) transsexuals, or transsexual men; whereas biological
males who wish to live as women are called male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals, or
transsexual women (APA, 2009). Transsexuals usually seek medical interventions,
such as hormones and surgery, to transform their bodies into their preferred gender.
Individuals who choose to dress or appear in ways expected of the opposite sex
or gender have been referred to as cross-dressers, or transvestites (Golden, 2000). Some
individuals who cross-dress do so for emotional satisfaction or erotic pleasure, or
both (Israel & Tarver, 1997). Majority of cross-dressers are biological males who are
sexually attracted to women (APA, 2009). Drag queens and drag kings cross-dress
primarily to perform or entertain (APA, 2009).
Other categories of transgender people include transgenderists, androgynes,
intersexuals or hermaphrodites, masculine women, feminine men, gender benders,
gender blenders, bearded women, women body builders, and the like (Israel &
Tarver, 1997). Broadly speaking, anyone who deviates from gender roles can be
considered transgender. However, not everyone whose appearance or behavior
is gender-atypical or different from their prescribed gender will identify as a
transgender person.
The bakla and the tomboy. In the Philippines, males who are feminine, or
effeminate, and who cross-dress are referred to as bakla, a contraction of the words
babae (female) and lalaki (male) (Tan, 1995a). Interestingly, bakla also refers to the
male homosexual, or gay man. Conversely, females who are masculine and who
cross-dress are referred to as tomboy (Josef, 1997, 1999; Tan, 1998). Tomboy also
refers to the female homosexual, or lesbian. Thus, it seems that gender and sexual
orientation are fused into the same words or labels in Filipino culture (Ofreneo, 2000).
This means that a person’s gender expression is used to signify sexual orientation.
Though femininity and homosexuality are two different behaviors, they meet in the
bakla; although femininity is immediately observed while homosexuality is implied
(Garcia, 1996). In the same way masculinity and homosexuality seem to meet in the
tomboy, whose homosexuality is assumed. (We will discuss sexuality and sexual
orientation later on.)

THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO GENDER

Howard and Hollander (1997) identify four theoretical approaches to the
social psychology of gender: (1) the essentialist perspective, (2) the socialization
perspective, (3) the social constructionist perspective, and (4) the structuralist

120 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

perspective. Each approach proposes a different explanation of gendered behavior,
the causes of gender inequality, and the ways in which inequality might be reduced.
Each perspective also reflects the sociopolitical and historical climate in which they
were generated. (A discussion of gender inequality comes after this section.)

Essentialist Approaches
According to Howard and Hollander, the essentialist approach to gender was
the most prevalent among social psychologists and other social scientists in the first
half of the 1900s. Essentialism asserts that innate and fixed differences between the
two sexes shape gendered behavior. Essentialism is the idea that the differences
observed between males and females are biologically determined, hence part of
human nature (Burr, 1998). Essentialist accounts of gender focus on hormonal,
genetic, and evolutionary factors to explain the differences between the sexes in
psychological and social phenomena.
Essentialist approaches have been heavily critiqued for being reductionist and
deterministic, reducing social behaviors to psychological characteristics that are in
turn reduced to biological causes (Burr, 1998). A major criticism of purely biological
accounts is how they serve as an explanation (it’s only natural) and justification
(they can’t help it) for the current status and power of men over women (Berscheid,
1993). For instance, male domination and violence against women is considered
as emerging from the male traits of dominance and aggressiveness that are then
believed to be biologically rooted.

Socialization Approaches
A shift from biology to socialization occurred in the 1960s (Howard & Hollander,
1997). According to the Socialization perspective, children are not innately gendered
but rather learn gendered behavior from their environment through a variety of
processes, including modeling and imitation, the gender-specific application of
rewards and punishments, or the intrapsychic processes facilitated by parenting
practices. Through these, children learn to internalize appropriate masculine and
feminine norms resulting in gendered personalities and patterns of behavior (Moore
& Rosenthal, 2006). Gender differences are not essential but the result of social and
cultural forces.
Gender socialization in the Philippines has been extensively studied. In a
comprehensive review of the literature on Filipino child-rearing attitudes and
practices, Liwag, de la Cruz, and Macapagal (1997, 1998) found that sons and
daughters are raised differently in accordance with society’s prescriptions for what
is appropriately masculine and feminine. These are reflected in parental preferences
for children of one gender or another, parental expectations, child-rearing practices,
family investments, responsibility training, and parental modeling.
For instance, in some Filipino families, daughters are preferred over sons
because girls are seen as an extra hand in the household work. Play is heavily
differentiated by sex, with girls playing house (bahay-bahayan) and role-playing

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 121

games that imitate the home and boys playing rough and action-filled games like
toy gun-fighting (baril-barilan). Boys are given greater freedom in their activities
while girls face more restrictions and rules.
Liwag and colleagues conclude that gender socialization puts the girl child in
a disadvantaged position compared to the boy child. For example, girls face more
restrictions and rules and are given more household tasks compared to boys. Given
society’s view that household work, a traditionally feminine role, is inferior, the
girl child is socialized to limit her future options and carry the double burden of
housework and career as an adult. Such socialization is further reinforced when
girls and boys witness the division of labor among their parents, with their mother
doing much or all of the housework while their father does little or none at all.
Socialization approaches are able to explain how specific gendered behaviors
are acquired (Burr, 1998). They also account for diversity within genders and
suggest that change is possible (Howard & Hollander, 1997). For instance, Liwag
and colleagues recommend efforts to promote gender-equal child-rearing attitudes
and practices in order to change gender stereotypes and roles that put women and
girls at a disadvantage.
What is most important from social learning or socialization accounts is the
evidence that the social environment is a strong force that influences our gender
beliefs and expectations and dictates how males and females should think, feel, and
behave. Being aware of the power of social forces to shape gender differences and
consequently gender inequality, we can change our gender beliefs and expectations
toward gender equality to possibly create a gender-free world (Berscheid, 1993).

Social Constructionist Approaches

Social constructionism argues that our understanding of the world and each
other is socially constructed in our interactions, particularly in our use of language
(Burr, 1998) Unlike essentialist and socialization approaches that see masculinity
and femininity as stable traits or relatively stable roles and stereotypes, social
constructionist approaches view gender as created through our social interactions
(Howard & Hollander, 1997). Through interaction, we create the meaning of gender
and negotiate its particular interpretation/s. The social constructionist approach
emphasizes the social context of gendered behavior.
The experiences of transgendered people, such as gender benders, masculine
females, feminine males, transsexuals, cross-dressers (or transvestites), lesbians, gays,
bisexuals who cross gender lines, and boys and girls who are gender nonconformists
support the idea that people can move across or beyond culturally defined gender
boundaries (Golden, 2000). People can move away from the gender they have been
taught as children and can move away from the gender dictated by their bodies.
Gender is not only something that exists within a person or something society
imposes on an individual. Women, men, and transgendered people enact gender;
that is, they choose what gender to do or not to do (Howard & Hollander, 1997).

122 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Gender then can be conceptualized as a performance (Butler, 1990, 1997). With
gender as a performance, men, women, and transgender are seen as doing gender.
That is, to be feminine is to perform femininity and to be masculine is to perform
masculinity. Gender then is something we do consciously or unconsciously and
is interpreted by others as masculine or feminine. A male classmate may decide
to wear his hair long and wear a hairband on purpose. This may be labeled by
friends as masculine and by strangers as feminine. Wearing a hairband may be cool
for boys in some contexts but not in others. A female friend may wear a skirt and
high heels one day and then rubber shoes and a T- shirt the next day. This may
be interpreted as changing gender by some but as not reflecting her real gender
by others. Gender constructed as a performance implies that there is no one right
way of performing gender, sex is irrelevant to gender performance, and gender
performance can change (Golden, 2000). Gender then is fluid.
This conception of gender emphasizes individual agency more strongly
compared to essentialist and socialization approaches. It means that people can
choose the gender they want to perform regardless of existing social norms or their
own biology. If specific gender roles are perceived as disempowering, people can
choose not to follow these roles and perform their gender differently. Constructing
gender as changing and fluid destabilizes the power relations that come with fixed
gender roles, creating the possibility of gender equality through diverse gender
expressions. Because a social constructionist approach stresses the power of people
to construct gender, it tends to minimize the constraints of social structures and the
effects of power inequities on the enactment of gender.

Structuralist Approaches
Finally, a structuralist approach conceptualizes gender as a form of social
structure or the basis for the systemic allocation of resources (Howard & Hollander,
1997). A structural approach to gender examines the gendered distribution of
resources in social institutions, from small groups, such as families, to large
organizations to society itself. It also looks at how these resources shape gendered
behaviors. In effect, differences between women and men are attributed to the
differential access of men and women to material and social resources. Hence, it
emphasizes the profound effects of a pervasive system of male dominance. The
structuralist approach has not been popular in social psychology, though it can
possibly complement social constructionist approaches to reflect the interaction
between individuals and social structures.

Integrating the Approaches

Pingol’s (2001) study on Filipino men who became househusbands because
their wives had to work overseas integrates the socialization, social constructionist,
and structural approaches to the study of gender. First, reflecting the role of social
structures, Pingol looks at patterns of gender relations among couples whose lives
have been transformed by global labor migration. In the last few decades, there

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 123

has been increasing demand for overseas workers in areas deemed more suitable
for women’s traits and characteristics. These include a range of highly skilled jobs
to the domesticated levels of work (e.g., domestic helpers, entertainers, assembly-
line work, receptionists, teachers, and so forth). Thus, the economic conditions have
made it difficult for men to play out their role as primary economic providers for the
family, and instead have allowed the opportunity for women to take on this role.
From a socialization perspective, masculinity is seen as framed by the local
culture where traditional norms, beliefs, and values are embedded. Pingol found
that masculinity is associated with men as good providers, virile sex partners, and
responsible fathers. Masculine identity is rooted in economic and sexual dominance.
When the wives became overseas workers, the husbands consequently lost their
role as main providers. The wives’ absence also deprived men of their sexual lives.
Having lost the traditional sources of their masculine identity, these Filipino men
had to redefine their masculine identity.
Finally, this remaking of masculinity is understood from a constructionist
view where masculine identity is seen as an active project. Pingol describes how
men redefine their masculinity through their active interpretation and construction
of reality. Going outside the bounds of the traditional male role and performing
traditional female roles, these men maintain their masculine identity by being in
control. Confronting critical situations as househusband or having an erring wife,
the men detach themselves, reflect, and take action. They do not lose themselves.
They remain in control. In assuming traditional female roles, role reappraisal means
that the men look at themselves in new ways to arrive at new definitions of being
men.
Despite the challenges encountered in maintaining their position of
dominance and control, Pingol describes these men as satisfied in their new role as
househusbands. Women, too, are said to enjoy more power and satisfaction in their
new role as primary breadwinners, namely, in decisions on family investments and
the children. However, women are also described as looking for ways to downplay
their position of power or status when with their husbands. This act of downplaying
is cited as often done in the sexual sphere of the relationship. Women will purposely
take on a submissive role during sexual encounters with their husbands to allow their
husband to feel in control of the marriage and the family by extension. Although
there is a recomposing of some masculine and feminine identities and roles, men’s
position of dominance and women’s position of subordination, particularly in the
family, is generally maintained. Women themselves, though considerably more
empowered with their new role as primary economic provider, are among the main
actors to insist that their male spouses remain the more dominant and powerful in
the family.

124 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

GENDER INEQUALITY AND GENDER - BASED VIOLENCE
Today, the roles of women vis-à-vis men are still the subject of debate. Although
some things have changed for the better, gender equality has not yet been achieved.
Negative stereotypes and myths about women abound. Women still earn less than
men worldwide; women are still underrepresented in positions of power; and
women continue to face significant problems in relation to gender-based violence. It
seems that one of the most important causes of discrimination and violence against
women is gender inequality, or women’s lack of power relative to men. Whenever
people are categorized into groups, such as male and female, differences between
groups are usually transformed into disadvantages for the less powerful group,
in this case, women (Crawford & Unger, 2000). (We will discuss violence against
women, or VAW, in the next section).
As the global women’s movement of the late 1960s made gender a focal
social issue, the field of psychology began to examine the scientific knowledge
about women. They found that women had been left out of many studies and
that psychological theories were constructed from a male-as-norm perspective.
This means that women’s characteristics and behaviors were generally explained
in relation to men, with the male as the standard. Psychologists began to realize
that most psychological knowledge about women and gender was androcentric, or
male-centered (Crawford & Unger, 2000).

Sexism and Androcentrism

Bem (2000) calls the process by which society transforms male-female
difference into female disadvantage androcentrism. Picture a human being in your
head. Is your image of a human being a man or a woman? In androcentrism, the
male is treated as the universal representative of human beings. The male becomes
the norm and the standard. Examples of androcentrism include the generic use
of “he” to mean “he or she” and the use of “man” to refer to all human beings
including women, such as in the words “mankind,” “manpower,” and “chairman.”
Androcentrism refers to how societies privilege males, male experience, and male
perspectives. If we think of life as a story, the males are always the main characters,
the heroes or the lead; while the females always play supporting roles.
An example of androcentrism can be seen in the workplace and how it is
organized on the assumption that the worker is male, meaning he will not get
pregnant and he does not need to take care of children. If work is organized around
females, work hours will correspond with childcare and school hours, and pregnancy
leaves and paid childcare will automatically be part of a worker’s benefits. This
androcentric, or male-centered, social system leads to gender inequality wherein
women have less economic, political, and social resources (Bem, 2000).
Berscheid (1993) argues that what makes the study of gender controversial and
of consequence is not that the attributes of men and women are widely believed to
be different; rather it is because these different attributes are differentially valued.

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Attributes ascribed to males are regarded as better and superior, whereas attributes
ascribed to females are seen as less or inferior. For instance rationality, which is
associated with maleness, is seen as superior to emotionality, which is linked to
femaleness. Sex differences are used to justify discrimination against and oppression
of women by men. Sexism then is the valuing of one gender over the other, leading
to the subordination and devaluation of women (Ellis & Murphy, 1995).

Violence against Women (VAW)

An extreme and sadly prevalent result of gender inequality is gender-based
violence. The United Nations defines violence against women as any act of gender-
based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, or psychological
harm or suffering to women (Ford Foundation, 2003). Violence against women, or
VAW, includes physical, sexual, and psychological violence occurring in the family,
such as battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related
violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices
harmful to women, nonspousal violence, and violence related to exploitation. VAW
also includes physical, sexual, and psychological violence occurring in the general
community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation
at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women, and
prostitution. VAW can also take the form of physical, sexual, and psychological
violence perpetrated or condoned by the government or the state.
The World Health Organization (2000) considers VAW a global public health
concern with every large-scale, reliable study in every country, indicating that 10
percent to 50 percent of women report having been physically abused by an intimate
partner in their lifetime; and 12 percent to 25 percent of women experiencing
attempted or completed forced sex by a partner or former partner in their lifetime.
In the Philippines, the Women’s Crisis Center (1995) estimates that 7 out of 10 rape
survivors were raped by men they know; 60 percent of rape survivors were forced
into marriage or live-in arrangements with their assailants; 60 percent of incest
survivors were abused by their own biological fathers; and that 1 out of 3 incest
survivors were abused when they were below 11 years old. Counseling, medical
services, legal assistance, shelters, and other services are available for survivors of
violence (Felix & Dela Paz-Ingente, 2003). For example, women can seek help from
the Women’s Crisis Center (WCC) through their helplines at 926 7774 and 922 5235
or through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Women’s
Help Desks across the country.
Gender-based violence has been explained using models that look at the
sociocultural, interpersonal, dyadic, situational, and intrapersonal levels (Crawford
& Unger, 2000). The sociocultural refers to how societies or cultures accept or
endorse male dominance and tolerate violence against women through cultural
myths, norms, and scripts. The interpersonal includes gendered norms and
expectations that are reinforced by social institutions. The dyadic refers to power and
status differences between women and men in specific situations or relationships.

126 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

The situational includes factors that make violence conducive, such as time, place,
and absence of others. Finally, the intrapersonal includes attitudes, motivations,
personality characteristics, and individual needs as well as internalized gender
roles. Addressing gender-based violence then means taking on these multiple levels
where gender inequality may be manifested.

The Philippine Feminist Movement

To confront the social issue of gender inequality and address gender-based
violence, women have come together under the banner of feminism. Feminism is
the awareness of women’s oppression in society, at work, and within the family,
and the collective action to change this situation (Bhasin & Khan, 1986). The
feminist movement fights for women’s rights, gender equality, freedom of choice,
and women’s liberation and empowerment (Pineda-Ofreneo, Narciso-Apuan, &
Estrada-Claudio, 1997).
In the Philippines, feminism began as the struggle for women’s rights
(University Center for Women’s Studies, 1996). During Rizal’s time, Filipino women
began asserting their right to education (Pineda-Ofreneo et al., 1997). At that time,
women could not be trained to be professionals; instead, they were only taught to
do household work. In the 1930s, the first Filipino women who were educated and
became professionals fought for women’s right to vote. Through the years, feminists
in the Philippines advocated for gender equality at work, at home, and in society
in general. For instance, feminists advocated for women’s right to own property,
equal access to education, equal pay at work, women’s participation in all levels
of decision making, shared domestic and parenting responsibilities, among others
(Pineda-Ofreneo et al., 1997).
In the 1980s, women’s NGOs (nongovernment organizations) became
increasingly concerned with VAW. Through their efforts, remarkable breakthroughs
have been achieved by the feminist movement, including the enactment of laws
penalizing violence against women; the setting up of women and child-protection
desks in police precincts and family courts; and the expansion of social services
to include shelters for women in crisis as well as support services for women and
children survivors of violence (Ford Foundation, 2003).
In the recent decades, Philippine women’s groups focused on women’s
freedom of choice like the right to control one’s own body (which includes choosing
when, how, and with whom to have sex and children) and the right to be free
of violence (Pineda-Ofreneo et al., 1997). Beyond women’s rights and gender
equality, women’s movements work toward the empowerment of women through
organizing, consciousness-raising, capacity-building, and participation in decision
making. Today, the Philippine feminist movement remains a strong and vibrant
force that makes gender equality a social concern (University Center for Women’s
Studies, 1996).

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 127

SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Close your eyes and imagine your ideal partner in a romantic, intimate, or
sexual relationship. Did you imagine yourself with the same sex or the opposite
sex? Can you imagine yourself in a relationship with either a man or a woman? The
sex of the person you imagine yourself to be with reveals a great deal about your
sexual orientation.
What is sexuality? Sexual orientation is the last component of Shively and De
Cecco’s sexual identity model. Before we define sexual orientation, let us first clarify
the meaning of the term sexuality. Sexuality is a fuzzy term used to refer to sexual
behaviors (what you do), eroticism (what turns you on), sexual orientation (who
turns you on), as well as desires to engage in sexual activity (Howard & Hollander,
1997). Sexuality has also been used to refer to sexual acts, sexual partnerships,
sexual drives, and sexual meanings (Dixon-Mueller, 1993). Hence, all of a person’s
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to sexual acts comprise sexuality. Sexual
orientation is only one aspect within the broad umbrella term sexuality.
What is sexual orientation? Sexual orientation is “an enduring emotional,
romantic, sexual or affectional attraction to another person” (APA, 1998, p. 1). Sexual
orientation is defined by the sex of the person to whom one is sexually attracted to
and has the potential of loving (Hyde, 1990). Following gendered expectations of
sexuality, males are expected to fall in love and be sexually attracted to females and
females are expected to fall in love and be sexually attracted to males (Howard &
Hollander, 1997).
And yet current conceptions of sexual orientation now recognize the possibility
that men can fall in love with men and women can be attracted to women. According
to Hyde (1990), persons who are attracted to and love only or predominantly
members of the opposite sex are called heterosexual. Persons who are sexually and
romantically attracted to both sexes are bisexual. And persons who are sexually
attracted to and romantically love only or predominantly members of the same
sex are referred to as homosexual. Female homosexuals are commonly referred to as
lesbians while male homosexuals are called gays (Bohan, 1996).

Models of Sexual Orientation

Kinsey’s continuum. One of the most famous scientific researches on sexual
behavior was conducted by Alfred C. Kinsey and his associates in 1948 (Gonsiorek
& Weinrich, 1991). Kinsey’s group conceptualized sexual behavior as falling on a
seven-point continuum from exclusively heterosexual (score of 0) to exclusively
homosexual (score of 6) (Ruse, 1988). A person in the middle of the scale (score of
3) would be more or less equally bisexual. The Kinsey continuum highlights the
diversity in sexual behavior in the population, allowing sexual orientation to vary
in terms of gradations (Plummer, 1981).

128 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Figure 6.1. The Kinsey Continuum of Sexual Orientation

0 -------------- 1 -------------- 2 -------------- 3 -------------- 4 -------------- 5 --------------- 6

exclusively largely largely equally largely largely exclusively

heterosexual hetero, hetero, hetero & homo, homo, homosexual

incidental distinct homo distinct incidental

homo homo hetero hetero

You can now locate yourself in the Kinsey continuum based on your sexual
behavior. But is the sex of the person with whom you have sex with the sole
determinant of sexual orientation? Present conceptions of sexual orientation are
now multidimensional, illustrating that it is not just sex that matters.
Klein’s sexual orientation grid. Klein, Sepekoff, and Wolf (1986) view sexual
orientation as a constellation of seven components. Each of these components may
be rated along Kinsey’s seven-point scale from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6
(exclusively homosexual). In addition, these ratings refer to the past, the present,
and the ideal (future), allowing for variations in the ratings over time. Keppel and
Hamilton (1998) give the details on how to define each variable of the Klein Sexual
Orientation Grid (KSOG):
1) sexual attraction — to whom are you sexually attracted?
2) sexual behavior — with whom have you actually had sex?
3) sexual fantasies — whom are your sexual fantasies about?
4) emotional preference — do you love and like only members of the
same sex, only members of the other sex, or members of both sexes?
5) social preference — with members of which sex do you socialize?
6) lifestyle preference — what is the sexual identity of the people with
whom you socialize?
7) sexual identity — how do you think of yourself?

Sexual and emotional attraction. From the seven components above,

Weinberg, Williams, and Pryor (1994) use the dimensions of sexual attraction, sexual
behavior, and emotional preference to determine a person’s sexual orientation.
In the Philippines, Ofreneo (2003) identifies a person’s sexual orientation using
sexual attraction and emotional preference, corresponding to Hyde’s (1990) earlier
definition that sexual orientation is a person’s erotic and romantic orientation.
The idea that sexual orientation refers to an enduring pattern of sexual/erotic and
emotional/romantic attraction is the most widely accepted definition of sexual
orientation among psychologists today (APA, 1998, 2008).
Aside from being a personal characteristic of an individual, people express
their sexual orientation through their intimate relationships (APA, 2008). It is very
much linked to how people form romantic relationships and meet their needs for

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 129

attachment, intimacy, and love (APA, 2008). Not only do we express our sexual
orientation through emotional or physical intimacy with romantic and sexual
partners, we also relate to groups of people who share our orientation and can
affirm our sexuality.
Gonsiorek and Weinrich (1991) recommend the use of the term sexual orientation
over preference or lifestyle to emphasize that orientation is not a conscious or
deliberate choice. This is supported by research which shows that sexual orientation
emerges most of the time in early adolescence, some even in childhood (APA,
1998). Most people experience little or no choice over their sexual orientation (APA,
2008). And attempts at changing a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual
to heterosexual have not been shown to be effective or safe. Even if people may
change their outward sexual behaviors and engage in heterosexual relationships,
they cannot change the homosexual attractions they feel inside.
People often ask, “Why do people become homosexual?” It is interesting
that people do not ask, “Why do people become heterosexual?” This reflects the
common perception that people are normally born heterosexual and something
abnormal must have happened to make a person homosexual. Various theories have
been proposed including genetic or inborn hormonal factors and life experiences
during early childhood (APA, 1998). Research findings show that environmental
explanations of the causes of homosexuality have not been empirically supported;
and that it is likely that there is a biological basis for homosexuality (Hyde, 1990).
Many scientists share the view that sexual orientation is shaped at an early age
through a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors (APA,
1998).

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual: Tomboy, Bakla, Silahis

According to Tan (1998), Philippine culture has no term for sexuality, which
is a largely Western construct. There are no local terms either for the different
categories of sexual orientation, that is, homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual (Tan,
1995a). The term most widely used to refer to the male homosexual, or gay
man, is bakla, which earlier has been explained as also referring to men who
are effeminate, with cross-dressing as a major feature (Tan, 1995a). For the
female homosexual, or lesbian, the term most commonly used is tomboy, or its
derivatives (Josef, 1997, 1999; Tan, 1998). Tomboy has also been earlier explained as
referring to stereotypically masculine women, also with cross-dressing as a major
characteristic. Thus, homosexuality in Philippine culture appears subsumed under
gender constructions (Ofreneo, 2000).
The most visible segment of the homosexual population is the low-income bakla
and tomboy (Tan, 1995b). The bakla is also known as the parlorista because many of
them work in beauty parlors. The tomboy stereotypically works as a bus conductor
and security guard. Because of the fusion of gender and sexual orientation in the
words bakla and tomboy, a male is not perceived as gay if he is not effeminate and
a female is not considered a lesbian if she is not masculine.

130 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 The lesbian and the tomboy. Filipino labels for the lesbian are indeed naturally
grouped in terms of gender roles (Josef, 1997, 1999). Most pervasive are masculine
labels, implying that Filipinos do view the tomboy, or the butch lesbian, as the
“real” lesbian. Filipino lesbians who are stereotypically feminine do not identify
as tomboy (Ofreneo, 2000, 2003). Instead, they self-identify as lesbians and stress
their womanhood that supposedly makes them different from tomboys; as reflected
in the term woman-loving-women. Stereotypically masculine lesbians, on the other
hand, would accept the term tomboy and express a desire to be male; though
some express reservations in identifying oneself as tomboy given its negative
connotation. Ofreneo concludes that there seems to be two subgroups of lesbians
in the Philippines, those who identify as tomboy and those who identify as lesbian.
The gay and the bakla. Similarly, Filipino gay men who are stereotypically
masculine do not identify as bakla (Tan, 1995b). Some Filipino middle-class and
upper-class gay men self-identify as gay, homosexual, or bisexual; making them
distinct from the lower-class bakla or parlorista (Tan, 1995a). This gay population
tend to keep their sexual orientation discreet at home and in their workplace;
hence, the moniker discreet gays. Tan (2001) concludes that the gay community
in the Philippines is diverse. Instead of a homogenous gay community, there are
diverse gay communities or different subcultures of being gay. Most prominent are
the bakla-identified or cross-dressing effeminate men, often visible as they provide
entertainment through beauty pageants and Santacruzans (religious processions)
where parloristas come out in drag. And then there are the self-identified gay men,
who would cruise gay bars and adopt the more Western masculine gay identity.
There is also the MSM, or men who have sex with men, a term coined with the AIDS
pandemic to identify men through their sexual behavior.
The bisexual and the silahis. Finally, we have the Filipino indigenous term
silahis (Tan, 2001). Silahis refers to a male who is erotically attracted to both males
and females, possibly denoting the Filipino male bisexual (Garcia, 1996). Garcia
explains that unlike the bakla who is defined less by his sexual object choice and
more by his gender expression, the silahis is clearly a term that refers to a person’s
sexuality. Culturally, however, the silahis is depicted as the real man, who may even
be married with children, but actually wants to be like a woman. Again, gender is
fused with sexuality. There is, however, no distinct term for the Filipino female
bisexual; making female bisexuality invisible. Similar to gay and lesbian identities,
there are Filipinos who self-identify as bisexual. Bisexuals engage in sexual or
romantic relations with both males and females though not at the same time. Some
are attracted to both sexes but only have relationships with the same sex, similar
to lesbians and gays; or only relate romantically with the opposite sex, similar to
heterosexuals.

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 131

Heterosexism and Discrimination against Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals,
Transgenders, and Intersexed (LGBTI)
Filipino lesbians, gays, and bisexuals suffer from prejudice and discrimination.
Prejudice refers to negative attitudes toward a group of people, in this case
lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and intersexed, or LGBTI (Bohan, 1996).
Discrimination refers to the actual behaviors that are harmful or produce negative
effects on LGBTIs (Bohan, 1996). The forms of discrimination that Filipino lesbians,
gays, and bisexuals experience include being the subject of ridicule, getting fired
from one’s job, being the object of sexual harassment, getting expelled from school,
getting rejected by peers, being disowned by one’s family, being forced to remain in
the closet, being pressured to conform to traditional gender roles, and becoming the
victim of violence, assault, and sexual assault.
Underlying prejudice and discrimination against lesbians, gays, and bisexuals
is heterosexism. Heterosexism is a world view or value system that prizes
heterosexuality, assumes that it is the only appropriate manifestation of love and
sexuality, and devalues homosexuality and all that is not heterosexual (Ellis &
Murphy, 1995). Heterosexism and its corresponding homophobia, biphobia, and
transphobia (or the prejudice and discrimination directed toward lesbians, gays,
bisexuals, transgenders, and all others considered deviant) are so embedded and
so pervasive in culture that they escape notice (Bohan, 1996). Heterosexism refers
not only to prejudice against lesbians, gays, and bisexuals but also ignorance of
alternatives to heterosexuality (de Vela, 2001). In essence, heterosexism imposes
heterosexuality on everyone. This heterosexual assumption and the teaching
of heterosexuality as the sole, legitimate expression of sexuality and affection is
ingrained in society’s norms, institutions, laws, cultural expressions, media, and
science.
To understand what heterosexism means, consider the privileges of living as a
heterosexual that most heterosexuals take for granted (Bohan, 1996). Heterosexuals
can marry and get public recognition and social support for their intimate
relationships. Heterosexuals grow up with positive role models and with the
knowledge that their sexual orientation is acceptable. Heterosexuals are able to date
the person he or she is attracted to, able to talk about his or her relationship, and
able to express pain when a relationship ends and seek support when this happens.
A lesbian, gay, or bisexual is deprived of these privileges that heterosexuals enjoy.
In the Philippines, the prevalent concept of homosexuality is that of sickness
(from the American biomedical model) and sin (from the Spanish Roman
Catholicism) (Tan, 1995b). In Josef’s (1997, 1999) study, words used to describe how
lesbians are generally viewed by society include sinners, genetically deformed, and
psychologically imbalanced. Though there seems to be an attitude of tolerance for
the male homosexual, or bakla, this is at best patronizing (Garcia, 1996). Garcia
describes Filipino gay culture as very much out in the open but it does not mean that
homosexuality is normalized, tolerated, nor given the same acceptance and respect
as heterosexuality. In two nationwide surveys in 1991 and 1998, 92 percent and 95

132 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

percent, respectively, of Filipinos disapproved homosexual relations (Dayag-Laylo
& Montelibano, 2000; Sandoval, 1992).
It is in this context of prejudice and discrimination that gay and lesbian
political organizing in the Philippines emerged (Ofreneo, 2005). Fleras (1993) notes
the emergence of politicized gays and lesbians and their efforts to collectivize
their struggle for social acceptance and equal rights in the 1990s. Numerous LGBT
organizations now exist, tackling the diverse issues confronting LGBT persons,
including self- and community empowerment, legal rights, access to social services,
consciousness-raising, education, economic rights, and sexual, emotional, and
mental health. Recently, the first LGBT political party was formed. The growth of
the Philippine LGBT movement continues to this date together with the struggle to
end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender
expression.

In this chapter, we have presented a model of sexual identity comprised of

biological sex, gender identity, gender role, and sexual orientation. We examined the
meaning of this model in light of the experience of the intersexed, the transsexual,
the transgender, the tomboy, the bakla, and the silahis. We looked at the meaning of
gender through the essentialist, socialization, social constructionist, and structuralist
perspectives. Finally, we saw how gender inequality and violence against women
alongside discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and
intersexed (LGBTI) continue to be relevant gender issues in the Philippines that
need to be addressed today.

Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 133

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Sari-saring Kasarian! Gender and Sexuality 137

CHAPTER 7
BUHAY-PAMAYANAN AT PULITIKA:
PINOY COMMUNITY AND POLITICAL LIFE

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF HELPING

• Theories of Helping
• When will We Help?
• Who will Help?
• How Do We Increase Helping?

II POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

• Political Psychology Defined
• Political Culture
• Research before and during Martial Law
• Political Psychology of Democratic Transition
• Psychology of Corruption

III FILIPINO STYLE ELECTORAL BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDES

• Political parties and coalitions
• Personality and Leadership
• Social Influence of the Church in Politics
• Women in Politics

138
 Gawad Kalinga (GK), which means “to give care” in English, started in 1995
with the goal of having a slum-free, squatter-free Philippines by providing land and
homes for the poor and homeless Filipinos. The GK eventually became a movement
for nation-building.  It invites volunteers to participate in building houses and also
engage in community-building activities. Its mission is to end poverty for 5 million
poor families by 2024.
Pathways to Higher Education is a social-involvement program that identifies
intelligent but financially underprivileged public high school students and trains
them with the necessary skills to ensure they get a fair chance at college education. It
is not only a scholarship program, but also applies a holistic approach in addressing
the problem in public education. The program likewise provides values formation
and livelihood training opportunities for the parents of the student participants.
GK and Pathways are only two examples of programs that engage Filipino youth
to reach out and help the disadvantaged in society. Clearly, Filipinos’ social sphere
does not end with the family, friends, school, and work. Filipinos also contribute to
and are actively involved at the community and even at the political level. In this
chapter, we shall look at how Filipinos engage in community and political life.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF HELPING

When we engage in community work, such as Gawad Kalinga, or volunteering
for relief operations of typhoon victims, we are essentially helping, or exhibiting
altruistic behavior. Helping, or altruism, is a behavior intended to aid or assist
another without self-regard. Other examples of altruism include a behavior as
simple as picking up a classmate’s things when they are accidentally dropped or
opening a door for someone. More heroic acts of altruism include saving somebody
drowning or donating an organ for someone who needs it. But what motivates one to
help another? Social psychologists often draw on three explanations on why people
help: social exchange (psychological), social norms (sociological), and evolutionary
psychology (biological).

Theories of Helping
Social exchange. Social exchange theory asserts that a person uses a “minimax”
strategy in deciding whether to help or not, that is, minimizing costs and maximizing
rewards for helping. Consider volunteering for Gawad Kalinga or Pathways. Some
costs would be your time and effort away from other things you could do, the
discomfort and fatigue of building houses, and possibly money as well (e.g., travel
costs, food, etc). But the rewards would be feeling good about helping a child or
family getting a home, meeting new friends, and possibly extra credit for class. If
you feel that the benefits outweigh the costs, then you would probably volunteer;
but if you feel that the other way around is true, then you would probably opt not
to volunteer.

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 139

 The rewards of helping may be internal (sense of self-worth and self-
satisfaction) or external (to improve your image or gain friends). Studies have shown
that youth engaged in community service projects, service learning in schools, and
tutoring children actually develop social skills and positive values (Piliavin, 2003).
Volunteering also boosts morale and even health of adults.
Social psychologists have also focused on internal factors in explaining helping
behavior. These factors include alleviation of guilt or distress, sustaining a happy
mood, and overcoming a bad mood.
Negative mood. Have you ever felt guilty for doing something bad? It must have
been a negative emotion and for many people, helping another person relieves the
guilty feeling. It’s as if helping another person will lighten our negative emotions.
A study was done by Cialdini, Darby, and Vincent (1973) wherein participants were
induced to be guilty by having them accidentally ruin a student’s thesis data. They
found that subjects who experienced negative guilty feelings were more motivated
to help than those who experienced neutral emotion. Studies such as these have
shown that a person in a negative mood may decide to help after all because they
want to overturn their negative emotions. By helping someone, they would feel
good about themselves and thus forget their initial bad mood.
Positive mood. Many people help because they don’t want to feel guilty
afterwards. How about happy people? Are happy people helpful? Research
suggests yes, they are (Salovey, Mayer, & Rosenhan, 1991; Dolinski & Nawrat,
1998). A positive mood is also shown to improve helping. Yinon and Landau (1987)
found support in their experiments among Israeli students that after offering help,
subjects reported that they were in a more positive mood than subjects who were
not given the opportunity to help. The study suggests that helping indeed results in
a happy mood. In sum, helping softens a bad mood but also sustains a good mood.
In other words: feel bad-do good, and feel good-do good (Myers, 2008).
Social norms. For many Filipinos, helping the community is a responsibility,
an obligation. It is usually expected, for example, to help a lost person. This is an
example of norms or social expectations. They prescribe appropriate behavior.
There are two types of norms that particularly explain why we help others: the
reciprocity norm and the social-responsibility norm.
When someone gives you a Christmas gift, won’t you feel bad if you didn’t
have a gift for this person? It’s the same thing with helping. When someone
helped you previously, it is expected that you return the favor. This is known as
the reciprocity norm (Gouldner, 1960); utang na loob, as discussed in chapter 1.
Politicians often rely on this norm—that the one who gives a favor can later expect
a favor (Berkowitz, 1972). For instance, it is not uncommon in the Philippines that
politicians would support a colleague’s bill knowing that someday, he or she might
need the colleague’s support in another project.
Another norm that can explain helping behavior is the social responsibility
norm, the belief that people should help others who are in need (Berkowitz,
1972). This norm would explain why we help children, the poor, the homeless, the

140 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

disabled. We believe that we should help those who need help. According to a study
by Baron and Miller (2000), people in India support the social-responsibility norm
more strongly than in the individualist West. They believe that it is their obligation
to help even when the person is not their family member, whether or not he or she
is not in a life-threatening situation.
Does this mean then that we tend to help all those in need? Studies have shown
that it also depends on the situation. The norm says that we should give to those
who deserve it (Weiner, 1980). Would you help your classmate who is always cutting
classes and does not do her homework or another classmate who was sick and was
absent for a long time? Would you be willing to tutor a poor child knowing that
he always cuts classes and takes drugs? Would you help a family build its home
after you are told that its members are part of a syndicate gang? If its members are
victims of situations beyond its control, such as a natural calamity or illness, it is
easier to help; but if it is of its own doing, like laziness, it is more difficult to help. It
is easier to sympathize with the former than with the latter.
Evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology studies how natural
selection predisposes cognitions and behaviors that enhance the preservation
of one’s genes (Buss, 2005). A contention of evolutionary psychology is that
gene survival is the essence of life (Schmitt & Pilcher, 2004). When our ancestors
passed away, their genes lived on in us. Evolutionary psychology posits that we
are predisposed to behave in adaptive ways that will allow the genes to continue
into future generations. So how does this explain helping behavior? Two types of
helping illustrate the evolutionary explanation: kin protection and reciprocity. Kin
protection is the idea that we tend to help family members to enhance the survival
of shared genes. It thus makes sense why parents put their children’s welfare ahead
of their own. It is not surprising if a mother or father would die just to save his or
her children. But that would definitely be unusual if a stranger would die for others.
Kin protection also explains why we are more prone to help out relatives, and
even those who are physically similar to us (like our kababayans, or town mates).
In the aftermath of a natural disaster or life-and- death situation, the order of who
gets helped would be children before the old, family members before friends, and
neighbors before strangers (Burnstein, Krandall, & Kitayama, 1994). This is all
the more evident in the Philippines where family is very important. Through an
evolutionary psychology lens, political dynasties in the Philippine are motivated
by kin protection or the need to protect one’s own genes.
The other type of helping is reciprocity. An organism helps another because
it expects help in return. Unlike in the reciprocity norm, this explanation is due
to genetic self-interest. In other words, the theory—explained by evolutionary
psychology—states that we are born selfish because this is what will win in a genetic
contest (Binham, 1980). Helping thus usually works best in small groups where
people expect to see one for whom a favor was given. For example, small towns and
small schools are often more conducive to a community environment where people
care for each other.

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 141

When will We Help?
Although the above theories provide insight on the thinking process that
happens prior to helping, they do not predict when helping will occur. Studies have
found that situational influences play a very important role in explaining helping
behavior. Often studied are the bystander effect, role modeling, time pressure, and
similarity.
Bystander effect. Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old Italian-American girl, was
attacked and murdered in Queens, New York, on March 13, 1964, at 3:20 A.M. What
was more unusual about her death was that she cried out for help but thirty-eight
of her neighbors who supposedly heard her, did not help her. Does this mean that
New Yorkers are indifferent and apathetic? Her story became popular and inspired
social psychologists to study the bystander effect, particularly Bibb Latane and John
Darley (1970). They conducted several experiments and consistently found that the
presence of a bystander in different situations resulted in decreased intervention.
Examples of situations they simulated include dropping coins or pencils in an
elevator and smoke coming out of the other room. Blair, Thompson, and Wuench
(2005) found similar results thru email. Respondents were more likely to help
someone asking for help when each one believed he/she was the only one receiving
the email as opposed to being only one of the recipients.
Latane and Darley (1970) hypothesized a decision tree: noticing the event,
interpreting the event as an emergency, and, finally, assuming responsibility for
taking action. Chances are, you would be able to notice an emergency if there were
less people around than if you were in a crowded room. The next step is once you
notice an ambiguous event, you need to interpret it as an emergency. How do I
know if that man trying to open a car door just left his keys inside or is a carnapper?
I don’t want to be embarrased and call his attention when in fact he owns the car.
Or if I see somebody get a laptop from a cubicle in the library, how do I know
this is the rightful owner or a thief? When you are with other people in the room
who also observe the same event and do nothing about it, chances are you would
interpret the event as a nonemergency. This pluralistic ignorance (i.e., ignorance that
others are thinking and feeling what we are thinking and feeling) can influence our
interpratation of an event, and thus may lead us to inaction (Miller & McFarland,
1987). “Since no one else is doing anything, I guess there’s no problem.”
The third and final step in the decision tree is to assume responsibility.
Sometimes, we notice and interpret an event as an emergency and yet we do not
help. Those who heard and saw Kitty Genovese clearly knew she needed help yet
they did not do anything. The reason is they probably believed that someone else will
help Ms. Genovese. With many bystanders present in an emergency, responsibility
is clearly diffused.

142 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Figure 7.1. Steps in the Decision Tree of Helping

Notices the incident    Interprets incident as emergency     Assumes responsibility      Attempts to help

Would we expect the same outcomes in the Philippine context? It is interesting

to note that a field experiment conducted by de Guzman (1979) contradicted the
bystander effect. A confederate acted as a lost jeepney passenger who asked the
participants, who were either alone or with another passenger, where the jeepney
will pass and the “lost passenger” did not stop the jeep upon reaching his destination.
The quality of helping was found to be better with the presence of a bystander than
when the participant was alone. He found that paired bystanders were likely to
influence each other’s behavior. When one member intervened, the other was likely
to follow. It may be that among Filipinos, high regard for social acceptance was a
factor that may explain why despite having another person present, Filipinos would
still offer to help. However, the same experiment found significant differences in
helping behavior among rural and urban context. Rural bystanders helped much
faster compared to the urban passengers.
Role modeling. As discussed in chapter 3, aggressive behavior can be observed
and imitated by others. Wouldn’t the sample principle apply to helping? Indeed,
observing someone else motivates one to follow the good action. There is research
evidence that shows that helping increases when someone else helps. For example,
Rushton and Campbell (1977) found that adults in Britain were more likely to
donate blood if they observed someone else doing so.
Time pressure. Time pressure is another situational factor often studied by
social psychologists to explain helping or nonhelping for that matter. People in a
hurry often do not have the time to help (Darley & Batson, 1973).
When you are late for class, you would probably not notice that a person in the
corridor was hurt and needs to be brought to the clinic. If you had all the time in
the world, you would probably reach out and help others. For example, you may
have time to volunteer for Gawad Kalinga or other sociocivic organization. On the
other hand, if you are very busy with work or school, you would not prioritize
volunteering for these foundations.
Similarity. We tend to be more helpful to people similar to us (Miller, Kozu, &
Davis, 2001). If you are in another country, chances are you would be more willing
to help a kababayan than a foreigner. Lamug (1984) conducted a study among
Filipinos in Chicago and found that the more ethnically similar an individual was
to a person in need (either Filipino, Indian, or white), the greater the tendency to
offer help. She found that being ethnically similar to the person in need affects their
attribution of responsibility that in turn determines helping.

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 143

Who will help?
Is there a single personality trait that can predict helping behavior? Is there
such a trait as being matulungin (helpful)? Unfortunately, social psychologists have
not been able to determine this. The social context seems to be a more powerful
determinant of whether a person would help or not. However, new evidence
indicates that some are more helpful than others, but these personality or gender
effects depend on the situation as well. Religious faith also seems to predict long-
term altruism. College students who reported being religiously committed were
found to volunteer more as tutors or relief workers (Penner, 2002).
Studies have also shown that there exist cultural differences with regard to
helping behavior. A study by Whiting and Edwards (1988) comparing six countries
found that children from the Philippines, Mexico, and Kenya exhibited the highest
levels of prosocial behavior; followed by those from Japan and India; then finally
the United States. They explained this as a case of socialization. Filipinos at an early
age are already socialized to help others, such as involvement in the responsibilities
within the family. It is not uncommon for Filipino families to expect older siblings
to care for the younger ones, for example. Filipinos are taught early on to help the
family and the larger community not so much for material rewards but because it is
the correct thing to do.

How do We Increase Helping?

How then do we increase helping behavior? How do we encourage more
people to donate blood or volunteer for Gawad Kalinga? Myers (2008) suggests
three strategies:
(1) reduce ambiguity in an emergency situation and increase responsibility of
bystanders; for instance, it may be a good idea to individually invite people to join
a community organizing activity rather than open the invitation to all; in that way,
responsibility will not be diffused; (2) make people aware of their image and possibly
guilty feelings by reprimanding them; and (3) socialize or teach altruism.
People may also want to know why they should be responsible for helping others.
We could continue to encourage and teach altruism in schools by incorporating
this into the curriculum. The NSTP (National Service Training Program) is a good
example of how community helping is socialized in schools. The program aims at
enhancing the civic consciousness of Filipino youth.

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Beyond helping in emergency situations and the community, Filipinos also
engage in political activities that seek to transform society. Let us now look at
the political life of Filipinos. Let’s begin by discussing political psychology in the
Philippines.

144 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Political Psychology Defined
Political psychology is a field that examines the relationship between political
and psychological processes. It focuses on the role of human thought, emotion,
and behavior in politics and examines the psychological processes and behaviors
of individuals as well as groups engaged in power situations (Barner-Barry &
Rosenwein, 1985; Hermann, 1986). Politics does not only refer to the government,
as shown by political behavior that includes political activities of NGOs, such as the
women’s movements, People Power Revolution, and the political experiences of the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
In political psychology, there is a bidirectional relationship between politics
and psychology such that psychological processes can affect the political
environment. Similarly, political context can influence thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors of its members (Stone & Schaffner, 1988). Examples would be the People
Power Revolutions of 1986 and 2001. A political psychological perspective would
evaluate how the dictatorship of Marcos and the corruption of Estrada created
troubled individuals, and likewise, how politically traumatized and upset social
influentuals shaped the anti-Marcos and anti-Estrada movement that led to the
People Power Revolution. Examples of research areas that a political psychologist
would be interested in studying include political culture, democratic transitions,
political leadership, political and social participation, and corruption. We shall now
discuss in greater detail some of these topics.

Political Culture
Political culture refers to the socially created aspects involving the production,
allocation, and use of decision-making powers among large groups of individuals
(Montiel, 2002). Political culture involves both subjective or mental elements (i.e.,
thoughts and feelings) and objective aspects or concrete constructions (i.e., material
symbols, artifacts, and group-related practices).
An example of a subjective component of Filipino political culture that is
activated during political exercises is when volunteer campaigners carry a widely
accepted belief that those who help in a candidate’s campaign get rewarded with
a job and/or government contracts if the candidate wins. On the other hand, an
example of an objective component of Filipino political culture would be the practice
of local leaders in asking politicians to act as the godfather (ninong) at the wedding of
their children. What does this political practice really symbolize? The local leader’s
family can expect to be given job opportunities and other special politico-economic
favors by this powerful politician. In turn, the politician can expect the leader’s
family to help out during the campaign period (Hollnsteiner, 1962).
Political culture is embedded in a time-sensitive and structural context (Montiel,
2002). The political beliefs and practices interact with historical situations and are
thus receptive to the prevailing technologies of the times. For example, politicians
have recently used information and communication technologies in campaigning
(e.g., use of cellphones, email, social networking sites, etc.). Political culture is also

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 145

structure-embedded such that political cultures may differ among those who hold
power and those who are marginalized in society (Montiel, 2002).

Research before and during the Imposition of Martial Law

Montiel and Macapagal’s (2000) review of political psychology in the Philippines
reported that Filipino scholars focused on research topics that varied, depending
on the political context. For example, in the 1960s, the kinship (or relationship)
system and political power were the focal points of research. An important finding
was that relationship ties affected political party alliances at the small-town level
(Hollnsteiner, 1962; Lande, 1968). A vertical relationship existed between the
politician and the voters. The politician who controls local resources distributes
jobs and money to one’s poor constituents. In turn, the local poor guarantee the
politician their voters’ loyalties during election time. The relationship between the
two is thus strengthened and the cycle continues.
When Martial Law was declared in the early 1970s, social scientists looked
at how the authoritarian government’s policies influenced the Filipino’s political
behavior. Researchers examined whether mass media, schools, and the peer group
influenced the Filipino’s political character. One of the findings showed that school
teachers provided Filipinos with the most political information (Sicat, 1976). Within
the school, a second agent of political socialization was the peer group (Youngblood,
1972). The Filipino family, however, played a vital role in the socialization of
political values (Ortega, 1984; Sicat, 1976; Youngblood, 1972). Adolescents saw the
Filipino family structure as authoritarian. Furthermore, they did not see themselves
carrying on the authoritarian style but instead transforming the family decision-
making system into a more democratic system (Sicat, 1976).

Political Psychology of Democratic Transition

The Philippines is a nation undergoing a democratization process having been
under authoritarian or dictatorial rule since 1972. In general, the democratization
process follows five stages, namely, control by an authoritarian, or dictatorial,
regime; toppling an authoritarian regime; power shift; state building; and nation-
building (Montiel, 2012). From 1972−1986, the Philippines was under the Marcos
dictatorship where there was control by an authoritarian regime. By February 1986,
People Power toppled Marcos, ushering in an unstable power-shift period marked
by failed coup attempts. As of this writing, our country continues to grapple with
issues of state- and nation-building.
Research in political psychology has focused on democratic-authoritarian
value systems, political and social participation of Filipinos, local governance,
people empowerment, and more recently, positioning theory as a conceptual lens
in understanding democratic transitions. Let us discuss each of these themes.
Democratic-authoritarian value systems. Research has been carried out on
the democratic concepts of Filipinos vis-à-vis their authoritarian culture (Licuanan,
1989; Nebres, 1988). Nebres (1988) points to a mismatch between Philippine culture

146 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

and the democratic forms inherited from the United States. Firstly, the American
style of democracy is antagonistic and full of conflict, whereas Filipinos tend to avoid
conflict and criticism. Secondly, the American democratic paradigm emphasizes the
individual as a rational thinker, yet Filipinos tend to identify themselves in relation
to their groups, and are emotionally predisposed. Hence, a democratic form that is
rational rather than affective will fail to draw Filipinos into the participatory system
(Nebres, 1988). Thirdly, Filipinos accept democracy as a theoretical construct
and a romantic ideal, but still have a fundamental cultural tendency toward
authoritarianism (Licuanan, 1989). In other words, though Filipinos say they want
democracy, in reality the Philippine culture reinforces authoritarianism more. Just
look at the Filipino family and schools. Parents and teachers apparently reinforce
authoritarianism more than democracy.
Political and social participation of the Filipinos. Have you ever experienced
joining a rally or writing to your town mayor about an issue affecting your
community? These are examples of political participation. Using data from the 2001
National Survey on Filipino Citizenship, Sucgang (2006) sought to determine the
types of political participation among Filipinos. Two types of political involvement
surfaced, namely, political participation as proactive engagement in the public arena
(e.g., running for public office, joining political rallies and street demonstrations)
and political participation as public problem solving (e.g., contacting local and
national officials on problems, community organizing). Other forms of political
participation Filipinos engaged in were also identified, such as volunteering in
nonpartisan activities during elections, press opinion through broadcast media (i.e.,
radio and television shows), discussing and injecting humor into political issues,
and offering prayers with political intentions.
Are you a member of a civic organization like many of the Filipino youth?
According to Yacat (2006), many of these youth organizations are community-based
with advocacy as an important activity (e.g., landownership, health and sanitation,
drug abuse). The youth engage in projects, such as cleanliness campaigns, organization
of youth-oriented activities like sportsfests and other types of competitions (e.g.,
dance contest or Battle of the Bands). However, some regional-/national-based
organizations also provide direct services, such as SUMAPI (Samahan at Ugnayan
ng mga Manggagawang Pantahanan ng Pilipinas), which reaches out to domestic
workers in parks, schools, and other areas where these groups congregate. Other
youth organizations are considered to be counterparts of existing groups for adults.
For example, ZOTO (Zone One Tondo Organization) initially organized the adult
members of the community and then later formed an organization composed of
children of the adult members. This was also true for BBK (Bantay Bata sa Komunidad)
whose members are groomed to succeed the adults in their people’s organization.
Not only do most young people’s organizations depend on adult organization for
survival and development, they also derive their sense of identity and direction
from these groups. Key areas of support provided by the adult organizations include
facilities, funding, capability-building, and technical support and guidance.

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 147

 Aside from civic organizations, Filipino youth also engage in student activism.
But is there a difference between values of Filipino student activists of Martial Law
and the EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) youth protesters? Montiel (1991)
found that the leaders of Martial Law valued daringness and excitement while
EDSA leaders considered control and personal tranquility as more important. The
latter reflects the active nonviolence theme of the EDSA revolution. What about the
activists of the extreme left, left of center, and center of the political spectrum? How
do they differ? Clamor (1991) found that all of these groups have strong democratic
tendencies, with the left of center having the highest democratic tendencies.
Local governance and people empowerment. A new politics, which is a synthesis
of People Power and old politics, emerged in the 1990s (Clarke, 1993). Several shifts
and trends had been observed. First, the Local Government Code gave more power
to local officials, such as mayors and governors (Lacaba & Coronel, 1995; Nebres,
1995). Thus, these local positions became more lucrative in maintaining the power
of the warlords and local politicians. The patronage system that was very evident
during the Marcos regime declined a little in the presidential and senatorial levels
but remained on the local level (Clarke, 1993).
The patron-client or landlord-tenant framework has remained wherein the
relationship between politicians and constituents is similar (Lacaba & Coronel,
1995). Political violence was still evident in post-EDSA elections, as well as the
continued dominance of political families at the local level.
People participation also became a trend after EDSA where wider democratic
space provided new opportunities for people’s participation in both electoral
and nonelectoral arenas with the holding of regular elections every three years
as well as opportunities to express one’s political freedom. Political participation
implies achieving social transformation through the exercise of power (Zialcita,
1995). It is a people’s struggle against exploitation and oppression, requiring
the redistribution of access to economic resources as well as to existing scientific
knowledge. Empowerment is a dynamic process of increasing the social power of a
marginalized group or class.
Social representations, positioning theory, and democratic transitions. More
recent studies use a social cognitive lens to explain democratic transitions. For
example, a survey of military and civilians showed that both groups claim different
social representations of EDSA. As discussed in chapter 1, social representations are
socially shared ideas about the world around us (Moscovici, 1961). For civilians, the
social representation of EDSA was a peaceful democratic transition characterized
by courage, success, strength, admiration, and goodness. On the other hand, in the
collective mind of the military, EDSA was a military coup that turned civilian-led,
and was cowardly, unsuccessful, weak, not admirable, and bad (Montiel, 2010).
Montiel and Christie (2008) proposed a conceptual frame for democratic
transitions by fusing an ecological lens (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) with
positioning theory (Harre & Moghaddam, 2003). Positioning theory proposes looking
at the flow of talking and writing that characterizes conflict between groups. Davies

148 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

and Harré (1990) remarked that positioning explains how talk enables speakers
and listeners to constitute themselves in certain ways and how speakers and
listeners negotiate new positions. This new model for understanding psychological
phenomena during transition sees interdependent layers of analysis, such as the
individual collective movement, state and global forces that interact dynamically
and position themselves with each other, as in one macropolitical conversation.
In a subsequent work, Montiel and Rodriguez (2009) apply positioning theory to
analyze Philippine liberation movements during the volatile period of democratic
transition. The Philippine case shows that liberation movements can transform
authoritarian systems to more open systems.

Psychology of Corruption
The issue of corruption became a focal point of interest in political psychology,
especially after EDSA. Corruption in government is not just a private act but also
a social act (Coronel, 1998). The low probability of being caught reinforces corrupt
actions, which seem to be embedded in hierarchical structures of bureaucracy. This
results in low morale and inefficiency of government workers. Many culturally
acceptable practices and beliefs operate in government agencies that facilitate
corrupt transactions, such as in pork barrel projects and bidding practices (Barbo,
2002). A shared corrupt-related belief is that supporting a particular candidate will
facilitate award of contracts in the future.
To help people make sense of the language of corruption in the country,
Corruptionary—a dictionary of about 400 corruption-related terms in the
Philippines—was developed by a group of volunteer students and researchers
(Ilagan, 2008). They interviewed various government agencies, businessmen, media
personalities, and victims of corruption, and compiled this list that includes the
following: hidden budget (a budget allocation that is not specified and not obvious so
that the money could easily be pocketed); Drakula (a corrupt official who is able to
drain off public funds for his own personal gain); Doktor (a person who is an expert
at making fake documents); and bacteria (employees and officials who are engaged
in corruption).
Bureaucratic corruption was studied by Amorado (2007) who conducted an
ethnographic study on the phenomenon of fixing, or lagay, in the Philippines.
Fixing has developed a distinct set of cultural norms and conventions over time.
Fixers often share a common culture, language, symbols, and metaphors. Amorado
recorded more than two hundred words, symbols, and gestures in a dictionary
of fixers. For example, the word kickback refers to a bribe out of the proceeds of a
questionable transaction. There is also kotong, an extortion activity where money
is solicited via intimidation of arrest or confiscation of license. There is also payola,
a contraction of “pay” that refers to paying of cash or gifts in exchange of a favor.
What other terms of fixers are you aware of?
Focus group discussions among professional fixers were also conducted and
to them, fixing meant helping the people in their transactions in government so

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 149

that procedures would be easier for the clients. They did not see anything illegal
or unlawful in the act of fixing. They saw it even as important and noble in
helping people. They viewed fixing as good if it helps the public, but also bad if
the fixer cheats and misuses the money of the client. Aside from corruption in the
bureaucracy, election time also gives rise to possible corruption because the need
for political patronage becomes intense.

FILIPINO-STYLE ELECTORAL BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDES

A discussion of Philippine political psychology would not be complete
without looking into elections. Although voting for the national president occurs
only every six years in the Philippines and elections for senator and congressmen/
congresswomen occur every three years, it seems that every year is an election year
for Filipinos. People constantly talk about politics and politicians. Let us now look
at research on Filipino electoral behaviors and attitudes.

Political Parties and Coalitions

Before Martial Law, there were only two main candidates for Philippine
president, representing the Liberal and Nationalista Parties. Post-EDSA presidential
elections, however, saw a new trend in Philippine politics, that of having multiple
presidential candidates, from seven in 1992, eleven in 1998, five in 2004, to eight
in 2010. This long list can be confusing to voters (IPC, 2005). There is also the
practice of having political coalitions where two or more political parties merge
to form a new party (e.g., Lakas-CMD-Kampi which is a coalition of three political
parties). Moreover, the winning vice president no longer had to come from the same
political party (e.g., President Ramos with VP Estrada, President Estrada with VP
Arroyo, and President Aquino with VP Binay came from different parties). These
trends indicate the lack of focus on platform and issues and continued emphasis on
personality politics.

Personality and Leadership

Filipino social scientists have written about political figures and their
personalities, leadership styles, and how people perceive them. In general, Filipino
voters prefer a leader with the following personality traits: morally upright (marangal),
God-fearing, loyal, responsible, intelligent, principled, and trustworthy (IPC, 2005).
In a study of post-Marcos Congress in the Philippines, Coronel, Chua, Rimban, and
Cruz (2004) described the typical Filipino legislator as male, middle-aged, college
educated, has previously held a local government position, and is a member of a
political family. The congressman is also most probably into business with multiple
sources of income. These descriptions are probably not representative of a typical
Filipino. However, changes were observed in the last few years with more women in
Congress, and also better educated, richer, and older congressional representatives.

150 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

The entry of progressive-minded legislators, particularly with the introduction of
party-list representatives is also a marked change in Philippine Congress.
But how do Filipino voters evaluate political candidates? Studies show that
voters use several criteria when they select their candidate. Montiel (1986) and
Sy (2001) studied preferred characteristics in politicians. Montiel’s 1986 study of
nontraditional political leadership showed that Filipinos preferred politicians who
were democratic, kept promises, held consistently political views, were for the
masses, did not lie or cheat, and were not sexist. Sy (2001), on the other hand, found
that urban poor voters use several candidate-related variables, such as background,
sociopolitical status, promises, popularity, and behavior in evaluating political
candidates. Voters also consider whether the candidates are godly (maka-Diyos),
relates well with people (maka-tao), is capable (may kakayahan), has principle (may
paninindigan), for the country (maka-bayan), keeps one’s word (may isang salita),
for the poor (maka-mahirap), approachable (madaling lapitan), and does not hide
true self (di pakitang tao). These findings concur with the results of a study on the
voting attitudes of the Filipino poor by the Institute of Philippine Culture (2005).
When asked what comes to mind when they hear the word leader, the Filipino
poor reported mostly personal traits, such as being matapang (courageous), kayang
harapin ang lahat (with strong will and determination), matalino (smart), and mautak
(cunning), not corrupt, and may palabra de honor (true to one’s word). With regard
to leadership style, Filipinos prefer it when the leaders are approachable and
accessible, or madaling lapitan, as well as one who acts swiftly and is professional.
Carroll’s research (1994) likewise reveal that regardless of socioeconomic status,
Filipinos tend to vote on the basis of personality and not on issues. They tend to decide
early on who to vote for even without knowing the candidates’ platform. Moreover,
a major factor of voting is regionalism and language (Lande, 1996). Voters tend to
vote for candidates who are similar to them in terms of province and language. This
shows the importance of having shared identities with voters and candidates. This
is known as identity politics, the formation of political allegiances on the basis of
some demographic similarity, such as sex, race, and religion (Plutzer & Zipp, 1996).
Macapagal (2006) found evidence of gender identity politics among female Filipino
voters who tend to think more favorably of female political candidates than their
male counterpart.
Being in show business also became an important factor, which began in the
1992 elections. Actors Joseph Estrada, Ramon Revilla, and Tito Sotto won in the
national elections while numerous other actors/actresses won in the local levels.
This continued to be a factor in the succeeding elections as more actors and actresses
sought electoral positions. However, in more recent elections, being an actor or
actress was no longer a guarantee of votes. To illustrate, many popular actors did
not win in the 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013 national elections (e.g., Fernando Poe Jr.,
Cesar Montano, Richard Gomez, Edu Manzano, Aga Muhlach). Even the immensely
popular boxer Manny Pacquaio did not win when he ran for Congress in 2007 in his
own province although he later won a congressional seat representing Saranggani

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 151

in 2010. This illustrates that voters are more discerning in that it is not enough that
a candidate is popular. Voters have begun to recognize that other personality traits
and competence are important factors to consider in the decision to vote, and not
just one’s likeability or popularity.
The role of family as influencing voting behavior was also noted in many
researches. Majority of families voted for the same candidates (Carroll, 1994). There
were also new and unconventional means to influence the voters, such as the help of
nongovernment organizations and student volunteers (Lande, 1996; Clarke, 1993).
A study by the Institute of Philippine Culture (2005) has revealed that the poor
are cognizant of the relevance of elections as a democratic process and see voting as
an obligation. Being propoor was an important trait sought in a candidate that has
to be demonstrated not only during the campaign period but also over an extended
period of time. The Filipino poor found the following attributes of candidates as
most important: education, leadership experience, platform of government, moral
uprightness, and help given to people.

Social Influence of the Church in Politics

The political role of the Church has become a topic of interest and concern
(Carroll, 1995). One such interest is whether religion is a factor to consider during
elections. Since 1992, religion did not play a significantly powerful role (Lande,
1996). Although the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) voted as instructed, their small number
did not influence the outcome of the elections. For example, in 1992, Eduardo
Cojuangco Jr. did not win for president and in 2010, Mar Roxas did not win for vice
president although the INC openly endorsed them. Moreover, Ramos, a Protestant,
had won in a predominantly Catholic country.
Beginning 1998, religious groups became even more involved in electoral
politics (Laquian, 1998). Several Church groups openly endorsed particular
candidates, such as the Jesus is Lord movement (for Jose de Venecia); Jesus Miracle
Crusade (for Jose de Venecia); and Iglesia ni Cristo (for Joseph Estrada). The El
Shaddai movement gave its followers freedom to choose their candidate, but many
believed that its leader Mike Velarde had preferences for certain candidates. It was
also known that the Catholic Church was against Joseph Estrada in 1998.
In recent years, religious personalities have also sought public office, such as
Christian evangelist Eddie Villanueva who ran but lost for president in 2004 and
2010. A Catholic priest, Fr. Ed Panlilio, ran and won as governor of Pampanga in
2007 although he lost for reelection in 2010 and 2013.
Aside from research on religion’s influence on voting behavior, the Church,
particularly the Catholic Church, actively resisted political attempts to amend the
Constitution. The Catholic Church was openly against charter change (cha-cha)
during the Ramos administration, during Joseph Estrada’s proposed Constitution
Correction for Development (Concord), then again during Arroyo’s term.
Another way in which the Catholic Church in particular is said to have a role
in politics is through pastoral letters. Montiel (1988) studied pastoral letters during

152 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

the Marcos-Aquino transition while Concepcion (1992) content analyzed pastoral
letters from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), dealing
with elections and the Constitution. He noted that the message first addressed
the politicians themselves, then later on appealed to the Filipino people. The
main message of these letters was to succeed in ending old politics. Other issues
included the death penalty, kidnapping, peacemaking, population, and election
reforms (Carroll, 1995). The Catholic Church also issued pastoral letters against the
Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. Some priests even campaigned against politicians
who were known to support the RH bill.

Women in Politics
Power and decision making in the Philippines continue to be male-dominated.
In the Senate, the highest ratios of elected female senators since 1946 has only been
3 out of 12 senators in 1995 and 4 out of 12 senators in 1992 and 2013. Based on
the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) data, the average participation rate
of women in the House of Representatives and local government is roughly 10
percent. Moreover, female politicians tended to be associated with male politicians
(i.e., these women are family members, either wife or daughter of politicians). For
example, Corazon Aquino was the widow of Sen. Benigno Aquino while Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo is the daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal.
Despite these, women have continued to be active in other forms of political
activities, such as in the case of lobbying-cause-oriented groups. A majority of
these women have limited themselves to voting and joining rallies only for fear
that in seeking public office, they would put themselves higher than their husbands
(Tapales, 1994).
Women politicians are also perceived differently from male politicians
(Macapagal, 2006). Filipino respondents believe that female politicians are more
attractive, emotional, intelligent, and religious while male politicians are more
corrupt. Moreover, males from the lower classes tend to prefer male politicians.

In sum, Filipinos engage in community life by helping others. They also engage
in political activities that have experienced marked changes as a result of the
historical landscape of the country. Despite these changes, politics in the Philippines
has remained predominantly focused on collective behaviors and social movements
rather than behaviors within stable political institutions.

Buhay-Pamayanan at Pulitika: Pinoy Community and Political Life 153

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CHAPTER 8
HIDWAAN AT KAPAYAPAAN: CONFLICT
AND PEACEMAKING IN THE PHILIPPINES

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I WHAT IS CONFLICT?

II CAUSES OF CONFLICT
• Social Dilemma
• Competition
• Perceived Injustice
• Misperception

III THEORIES OF INTERGROUP CONFLICT

• Social Identity Theory
• Realistic Group Conflict Theory
• Relative Deprivation Theory
• Social Dominance Theory
• Positioning Theory

IV SOCIAL CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE

V PEACEFUL CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS

• Resolving Social dilemmas
• Contact
• Cooperation
• Communication
• Conciliation

VI FILIPINO PEACE PSYCHOLOGY

• Peaceful Conflict Resolution of Political Conflict in the Philippines
• People Power
• Peace Education
• Peace Organizations and Peace zones
• Sociopolitical Forgiveness

158
 Peace be with you. Kapayapaan. As-Salāmu `Alaykum. Almost everyone, Filipinos
and other nationalities alike, claims concern for peace. But ironically, the country
is beset with conflict. If you read the newspaper every day you will find many
examples of conflict, most notable of which, in recent years, is the Muslim-Christian
conflict in Mindanao. After the conflict between Southern and Northern Sudan in
Africa that dates back to the tenth century, the Mindanao conflict is the second
oldest internal conflict in the world (Schiavo-Campo & Judd, 2005). This conflict
continues to be a major concern for Filipinos. What is the cause of this conflict? Is
there any hope for peace?

WHAT IS CONFLICT?
Have you ever been in conflict with another person? If your answer to this is
no, then that would really be unusual. Conflict is part of our interactions with other
people. A relationship between two people or within a group without any conflict
at all may be a warning signal of indifference or apathy with each other. You are
said to be in conflict with another person or group if your actions or goals are not
compatible. Conflict is a perceived divergence of interests, where parties believe
in the incompatibility of their desired aspirations, interests, and positions (Rubin,
Pruitt, & Kim, 1994). In a conflict situation, the nature of the parties’ interaction
is such that one party’s achievement of desired goals, interests, and positions
implies another party’s failure with regard to its desired aspirations, interests, and
positions. For example, you want to eat at Jollibee but your friend wants to eat at
KFC. You want to study in UP but your parents want you to go to the Ateneo. Your
group wants to support the Divorce Bill but you don’t want to. These are only a few
examples of real life social conflict.
There are many levels of conflict: interpersonal (between two people, such as
you and your parents or boyfriend/girlfriend or your boss); intergroup (e.g., La Salle
versus [vs.] Ateneo or San Beda vs. Letran in basketball, Muslims vs. Christians,
pro- vs. anti-Divorce, NPA vs. Philippine military, landowners vs. tenants; and
international (US vs. Iraq, India vs. Pakistan, Syria vs, Israel). Let us now discuss
the causes of such conflicts.

CAUSES OF CONFLICT
Whether the conflict we experience is interpersonal, intergroup, or even
international, social psychologists have identified common causes of conflict.
These include social dilemma, competition, perceived injustice, and misperception
(Myers, 2008).

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 159

Social Dilemma
A social dilemma is a situation in which two or more parties must choose
between their self-interest and the interest of the community (Pruitt, 1998). For
example, many Filipinos think it is desirable to have several children. “The more,
the merrier,” as the saying goes. Having many children would mean more hands to
assist in the family chores and more importantly, to help work for family income.
Having many children also means that the parents will be cared for in their old age.
But if most Filipino families would have many children generation after generation,
the result would be overpopulation that would be detrimental to the country.
Having several children may be individually rewarding but collectively punishing.
It becomes a dilemma because what may be good for the self may not be good for
the community. A decision that favors self-interest is called defection, whereas a
decision that favors the collective interest is known as cooperation (Pruitt, 1998).
Social psychologists have used laboratory games to study the phenomenon
of social dilemmas. An example is the prisoner’s dilemma wherein a hypothetical
situation is given (Rapoport, 1960).
Imagine you are a criminal, and you and your partner have just been caught.
But the police does not have sufficient evidence to convict both of you. The two
prisoners are then isolated from each other and the police visits each of them and
offer a deal:

• If you confess but your partner doesn’t, you will be freed and your partner
will be convicted with a maximum offense of ten years (and vice versa if
your partner confesses and you don’t);
• If you both confess, each of you will receive a moderate sentence of two
years;
• If neither of you confesses, each of you will receive a light sentence of six
months.

The table below summarizes the choices. Since the two of you are not allowed
to communicate with each other, the dilemma resides in the fact that you have a
choice of confessing or keeping silent. You cannot make a good decision, however,
without knowing what your partner will do. Many people say they would confess
to be freed even though not confessing would be more beneficial for both of you
because of the light sentence.

Table 8.1. The Prisoner’s Dilemma. What would you do in this situation?
Prisoner B stays Silent Prisoner B Betrays

Prisoner A serves 10 years

Prisoner A stays silent Each serves 6 months
Prisoner B goes free

Prisoner A goes free

Prisoner A betrays Each serves 2 years
Prisoner B serves 10 years

160 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 To illustrate how the prisoner’s dilemma may be applied in real world conflicts,
consider the two competing communication giants, say Smart and Globe, as they
decide whether to advertise or not. Consider the hypothetical conditions illustrated
in the table below.
Table 8.2. Prisoner’s Dilemma as Applied to Globe and Smart.
If GLOBE won't advertise If GLOBE advertises

GLOBE gets P5 B profit

If SMART won't advertise Each gets P4 B profit
SMART gets P2 B profit

GLOBE gets P2 B profit

If SMART advertises Each gets P3 B profit
SMART gets P5 B profit

If we look at the diagram, both Globe and Smart are better off advertising if they
want to maximize their profits. However, by advertising and thus not cooperating,
both companies would end up worse off than if they had trusted each other and just
decided not to advertise collectively. If they had only communicated and trusted
each other, there would be cooperation and both companies would mutually profit.
Another example of a social dilemma concerns a burning public place, such as
a movie theater or club. The automatic reaction would be for everyone to rush out
the exit door. Because of self-interest, this may result in tragedy like what happened
several times in the Philippines. The most notable in recent history is that of the
Ozone Disco Club fire of 1996, where 162 people perished. If everyone would think
of the collective interest, the best approach would have been for everyone to walk
to the exit taking turns. But who wants to be the last in line? We all want to be first.
Besides, if I line up, what is my guarantee that the others will follow? There is so
much mistrust that it is truly a challenge for people to cooperate. It is more natural
for people to think of their own self-interest first.
Tragedy of the commons. Why are we experiencing global warming? Why is
there a global environmental crisis? Another example of a social dilemma specifically
addressing environmental concerns is the Tragedy of the Commons. Garret Hardin
(1968) noticed that pastures in New England were always overgrazed. These were
common pastures, but each herder had a dilemma: Add a sheep and increase
profits; but if everyone adds a sheep, the pasture would be ruined. He called this
the Tragedy of the Commons. Why is this a dilemma? There is no perfect choice—
what’s best for the group is not what’s best for the individual. As a farmer you may
increase profits but then the pasture will be ruined, eventually affecting all the
other farmers in the long run.
Examples of “commons” include water, air, streets, or any shared and limited
resource. If the resources are used in moderation, it may replenish itself regularly. If
everyone uses water in moderation, everyone will have enough water until the next
rainy season. However, if you take an hour in the shower and use up more water
than your neighbors in the subdivision, eventually everyone will run out of water.
The same goes for other limited resources.

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 161

 Is the tragedy of the commons only found in individualist cultures, such as
the US? Sato (1987) found evidence that in a more collective culture, such as Japan,
the same results were found. Do you think in the Philippines the tragedy of the
commons exists? We only have to look at the country’s denuded forests, lack of
water supply, or garbage on the streets to conclude that this social dilemma exists.

Competition
Ateneo vs. La Salle, San Beda vs. Letran, Talk n’ Text vs. San Miguel. When
we think of competition, we may associate it with sports. Groups compete for a
scarce resource; in the case of sports, there is only one champion, only one gold
medal. The win-lose competition of boys in a classic study of Sherif (1966) had
produced intense conflict, negative images of the outgroup, and strong ingroup
cohesiveness and pride. Hence the taunts “Ateneo bulok (inferior),” “La Salle bulok”
from the opposing teams. Ironically, sports is supposed to foster camaraderie, but
competition seems to heighten conflict and, sadly, may bring out the worst in us.
It is not only in sports where we see competition resulting in conflict. In the
case of the Mindanao conflict, the Muslims and Christians are fighting for land,
a scarce resource. Competition for land was also a cause of conflict between the
Sumilao farmers (Lumads, or indigenous people) in Bukidnon and the San Miguel
Corporation. The conflict escalated in 2007 when the farmers walked 1700 kilometers
from Sumilao to Malacañang. They were the early settlers of a piece of ancestral
land in Sumilao, which was placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP) in 1988. The CARP mandated that the land be distributed to the
Sumilao farmers. After several years of court dispute as to whether the land could
be converted and thus be exempted from CARP, the owners sold the land to San
Miguel Corporation that had plans of converting the land into an industrial site.
Competition for land is thus one root cause of this particular conflict.

Perceived Injustice
“Di makatarungan!” “Unfair!” These are cries of people in conflict with
others as a result of perceived injustice. Justice is often equated with equity—the
distribution of rewards in proportion to one’s contribution. If you worked hard in
a class but received an F, you will probably feel angry at your teacher and think
that there was injustice done. An employee might feel the same way if she felt she
contributed much to the company but received less than the others. A conflict with
the employer might ensue.
At the intergroup level, perceived injustice is another cause of the conflict
between the Sumilao farmers and the San Miguel Corporation. According to de
Guzman (2009) who studied the storylines that emerged from the news reports
of both parties, the Sumilao farmers believe they rightfully own the land, but San
Miguel likewise believes it rightfully owns the land. The Sumilao farmers believe
that they are victims of injustice because the land belongs to them and yet there
is a possibility that they will lose the land to San Miguel. On the other hand, the

162 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

people from San Miguel believe that the land should be given to them because they
bought the land legally and they could provide economic benefits from the land and
provide help to many people, aside from the Sumilao farmers. To them, it is just that
the land be given to them. In essence both claim injustice.

Misperception
Recall that a conflict is a perceived incongruity of actions or goals. Perception is
thus an important consideration. In reality, conflicts may have minor incompatible
goals while misperceptions of the others’ motives exacerbate the issue. It is not
surprising then that people form distorted images of the “enemy.” It is interesting
to note that misperceptions of those in conflict are actually mutual. Jervis (1985)
reveals a mirror-image perception that persisted in the 1980s between Russians and
Americans. This enhances the ingroup-outgroup bias that we are good people and
they are bad people. It’s us vs. them. This may be the same case for Ateneans and La
Sallians perceiving each other as mayabang (arrogant).
Do groups involved in a social conflict see the causes of their conflict from
different angles? A study by Montiel and Macapagal (2006) examined the causes
of the Mindanao conflict from the Muslims and Christians’ perception and indeed
found significant differences in how they perceive the Mindanao war. The Muslims
recognize social inequities whereas the Christians do not. Moreover, Christians,
the dominant group in the conflict, claim that the war stemmed from internal,
subjective orientations of the conflicting groups. Hence, if they were to think of
peacemaking and peace building, they may propose education interventions (e.g.,
values education), to transform the subjective orientations of the local population.
On the other hand, Muslims, perceiving themselves at the bottom of the inequitable
system, trace the causes of the local war to unjust political structures. If they
address conflict resolution issues, their peace dividends may be in terms of political
restructuring like the establishment of a Bangsamoro (homeland of the Moro), and
political independence. We see here how differences in perception of the causes of
conflict may lead to different solutions for peace building.

THEORIES OF INTERGROUP CONFLICT

Rather than having only two individuals in a heated conflict, intergroup conflict
involves conflicts between people that occur in terms of their group identities.
Aside from the general causes of conflict discussed earlier, intergroup conflicts also
have to consider group-level processes (Fisher, 2000). Groups have identities, and
a group’s sense of its particular identity will influence how it interacts with other
groups. When groups display cohesiveness, members tend to be attracted to and
want to remain in the group and this cohesiveness can lead to strong pressures to
conform to group norms, especially in conflict situations. All of these processes tend
to escalate conflicts.

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 163

 Several social-psychological theories have been developed with the intent of
understanding the factors and processes involved in intergroup conflicts (Alexander
& Levin, 1998). These include the social identity theory, realistic group conflict theory,
relative deprivation theory, social dominance theory, and positioning theory. Such
theories provide different explanations regarding the social psychological factors
and processes underlying intergroup conflict. Let us briefly look at each theory.

Social Identity Theory

Social identity theory refers to a person’s self-concept derived from the status and
accomplishments of the various groups to which the person belongs, and not only
from personal identity and accomplishment (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). As mentioned
in chapter 1, the social identity theory was originally developed to understand
intergroup discrimination (i.e., what conditions would lead members of one group
to discriminate in favor of the ingroup to which they belonged and against another
outgroup). The theory cites the need for a positive and distinct identity as the basis
of social competition between groups. When we belong to a group, we are likely to
derive our sense of identity, at least in part, from that group. For example, students
often have a strong identity with their school (e.g., Ateneo, La Salle, UP, UST, etc.).
Thus, belonging to an ingroup makes one aware of the outgroup (other schools) that
heightens the competition. But without identifying yourself with an ingroup, you
will not experience the conflict.

Realistic Group Conflict Theory

As formulated by Muzafer Sherif (1935), the realistic group conflict theory posits
that hostility between two groups results from real or perceived conflicting goals
that generate intergroup competition. This theory was validated by the famous
study of Sherif and colleagues (1961) involving boys in a summer camp. The
boys were randomly split into two groups engaging in competitive activities with
conflicting goals. For example, the two groups had to compete with each other in
a tournament of games like football, tug-of-war, among others. Very quickly and
almost automatically, intergroup hostility emerged between the two camps.

Relative Deprivation Theory

Relative deprivation is a feeling of deficiency based on comparison with relevant
others who are seen as doing better than yourself (Crosby, 1976). A person or group
may feel deprived when comparing themselves with another person or group. We
tend to decide how well-off or deprived we are, not from any absolute standard but
by comparing ourselves with other people. You may be satisfied with the grade or
salary that you received until you find that your classmates or officemates received
higher grades or salaries than you. This theory can explain collective violence of
coups during the Aquino administration (Gonzalez-Intal, 1991). The coup leaders
were discontented with the lack of power they had. There was a misperception that
the Cory Aquino government owed its position to the Reform the Armed Forces of

164 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

the Philippines Movement, or RAM, which was part of the group that began the
People Power revolt in 1986. Moreover, Cory Aquino was perceived to have failed
to live up to her promises that resulted in this discontent. Gonzales-Intal (1991) thus
suggested some ways for the government to minimize collective violence, such as
maintaining an equity of benefits of economic progress and not promising more
than what the government can deliver.

Social Dominance Theory

Social dominance orientation is the desire to see one’s own group dominate
others (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). In the social dominance theory, the focus is on both
individual and structural factors that contribute to the hierarchical organization
of society (Sidanius, Pratto, van Laar, & Levin, 2004). Societies are often stratified
by gender, ethnicity, religion, age, among others. Some groups in society are more
dominant (e.g., males over females; Christians over Muslims). More powerful
social roles are increasingly likely to be occupied by a dominant group member. For
example, a male Christian in the Philippines possesses more political power than
a female Muslim. The theory argues that the major forms of intergroup conflict,
such as racism and patriarchy, are all basically derived from the basic human
predisposition to form and maintain hierarchical and group-based systems of social
organization that tend to be oppressive.
In Mindanao, Muslims and Christians significantly differed in their beliefs
about social dominance, with Muslims believing more in the presence of group
dominance in society (Macapagal & Montiel, 2007). Moreover, only the Muslims
in Mindanao reported themselves in a significantly low-power position whereas
Christians in Mindanao did not see the social inequality (Montiel & Macapagal,
2006). These findings suggest that dominant groups are unaware of the inequalities
in social structures because of the advantages of their position.

Positioning Theory
Certain limitations of the above-mentioned theories have led to the development
of the positioning theory in understanding intergroup conflict. Positioning theory
is a conceptual and methodological tool by which to study how psychological
phenomena are produced in social interactions (Harré & van Langenhove, 1999).
The theory begins with the idea that the flow of everyday life is divided into social
episodes with three features: the participants’ rights and duties, or moral positions;
their conversational history, or sequence of interactions; and the specific dynamics
of that one single episode.
Mainstream theories often ignore differential power relations between groups,
thus leading to the lack of insight regarding how groups negotiate and contest
dominance and subordination as a result of power differentials in a group relation.
Another important limitation of current research on intergroup relations pertains to
the seemingly fixed nature of intergroup relations (Tan & Moghaddam, 1999).

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 165

 Positioning theory aims to analyze social interactions over time and provides
an alternative to static and internal explanations of intergroup conflict by providing
us with a framework for analyzing complex and dynamic social interactions
(Moghaddam, Harre, & Lee, 2008). In particular, positioning theory proposes looking
at the flow of talking and writing that characterizes conflict between groups. Davies
and Harré (1990) explained that positioning explains how discursive talk enables
speakers and listeners to constitute themselves in certain ways and how speakers
and listeners negotiate new positions. The positioning theory proposes the analysis
using the positions of the conflicting parties, speech acts, and storylines.
For example, de Guzman (2009) studied storylines of newspaper reports
of the Sumilao-San Miguel conflict and found that the San Miguel Corporation
can be seen as promoting the storyline wherein they are positioned as providing
economic benefits to the people of Bukidnon, to government, and to the Sumilao
farmers themselves through its agro-industrial estate. By doing this, they are also
positioning the Sumilao farmers as having no legal rights to land, given that they
are neither landless farmers nor tenants of the land. San Miguel Corporation seems
to describe the Sumilao farmers as greedy and deceptive. On the other hand, the
Sumilao farmers evoke the storyline where they are positioned as advocating for
social justice. An interesting insight regarding this storyline concerns how the
Sumilao farmers appeared to redefine the conflict as a conflict between the interests
of the farmers and those of the rich.
Ofreneo and Montiel (2010) also used the positioning theory in studying same-
sex intimate violence. They interviewed gay and lesbian couples and found that
episodes of physical violence ensued only after the initiator attributed guilt or
blame on the other while claiming innocence as the aggrieved.

SOCIAL CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE

Social conflicts are often associated with violence, whether the unit of analysis
be the individual, group, or structural (Joxe, 1981). Violence involves actions that
are harmful to human life, health, or well-being that has both structural and direct
forms (Schiller & Fouron, 2003). Direct violence is physical violence, such as harming
or killing people (Christie, Wagner, & Winter, 2001). Interpersonal conflicts may
lead to direct violence, such as in the case of domestic violence between husband
and wife. Direct violence may also be large-scale and a result of intergroup conflict,
such as in the case of genocide.
The other type of violence is structural violence that is relatively permanent
and built into the social structure (Galtung, 1981). This is a more subtle form of
violence and the perpetrators are not clearly identifiable because the violence is
normalized and unnoticeable. Structural violence is experienced when structures in
society are oppressive either economically or politically. Moral exclusion (i.e., us-
them thinking) may be the key social psychological process that justifies violence

166 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

(Ofreneo & de Vela, 2006). They propose a multidimensional model of moral
exclusion in understanding structural violence with structural hierarchies and
power relations, maintaining the violence and cultural norms that justify it.

PEACEFUL CONFLICT RESOLUTION

We have seen how conflict can arise from different reasons. We have also
discussed the different theories that explain why intergroup conflicts exist and how
it can lead to violence. The challenge for social psychologists is to identify strategies
to successfully resolve conflicts and eventually achieve peace.

Resolving Social Dilemmas

If the automatic response of people is to promote their self-interest, how then
do we encourage people to cooperate? Gifford and Hine (1997) have provided some
solutions based on their laboratory research. For example, one strategy they suggest
is to come up with regulations. If taxes were voluntary, would you pay taxes? If the
number coding scheme of Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to ease
traffic was voluntary, would you follow? Societies need rules to ensure the common
good. Enforcement of these rules is also necessary. If the MMDA would not enforce
the number coding scheme, people will most probably not follow it.
Another way to resolve social dilemmas is to keep groups small. In small
communities, it is easier to foster cooperation (Kerr, 1989). If you know your
neighbors in the subdivision, you will feel embarrassed (or reluctant) to throw
your garbage on the streets (Nakakahiya ito [This is embarrassing]). We feel more
responsible for each other when we know our neighbors. That is why it is more of a
challenge to promote cooperation in large cities such as Metro Manila.
If we make cooperation more rewarding, a lot more people would be more
cooperative (Pruitt & Rubin, 1986). In the US, there is an incentive for carpoolers,
which is the use of a faster lane. Carpooling would help declog traffic. The Philippine
government also provides incentives for environment-related projects to encourage
cooperation for the environment. For example, under the Ecological Solid Waste
Management Act of 2000, local government units and private organizations are
exempted from paying taxes when importing machines and equipment for the
collection of solid waste until 2010.
The above strategies pertain specifically to social dilemma. What about resolving
the other causes of conflict? Myers (2008) has suggested the 4 Cs of peacemaking:
contact, cooperation, communication, and conciliation. We will briefly discuss each
strategy.

Contact
If you put Ateneans and La Sallians or Muslims and Christians into close
contact with each other, would this enable them to know and like each other? We

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 167

saw in chapter 3 that proximity enhances liking. Thus, it is safe to predict that
having contact with a supposed “enemy” would result in more tolerant behavior.
There is some research evidence that shows this. For example, Morton Deutsch
and Mary Collins (1951) found that whites who lived with blacks in their public
housing units reported that their attitudes toward blacks improved. However, there
are studies that contradict the contact hypothesis. Stroebe and colleagues (1988)
found that American exchange students in France did not change their stereotypes
about the French. We also observe that even if conflicting parties were together, the
disagreement remained. So what accounts for the contradictory findings?
Might the frequency of contact be an important factor? Research has shown
that this might be the case. Prolonged and personal contact with the outgroup
tend to produce more positive attitudes toward them (Hewstone, 2003; Pettigrew
& Tropp, 2000). If you have a Muslim roommate or Chinese-Filipino best friend,
chances are you’ll have more positive attitudes toward these ethnic groups, as long
as you recognize that your best friend or roommate represents these groups. If you
have gay friends, you will also probably have more positive feelings toward them.
Aside from friendships with members of the outgroup, it is also important that
the contact be of equal-status. If our contacts with Muslims are limited to those
selling pearls and DVDs, do you think your stereotypes toward Muslims would
improve? It may be important that the contact be equal-status, such as having a
Muslim classmate or coworker whom we see as being equally intelligent and
responsible.
A study of community-based peace-building program in the Bual Zone
of Peace in Sultan Kudarat, Southern Mindanao, illustrates how the contact
hypothesis may be effective (Arviola, 2002). The program encouraged Muslims and
Christians of Bual Peace Zone to participate in the community through continuous
involvement in multisectoral consultation, interfaith dialogues, solidarity projects,
and organizational meetings. The program was found to promote cultural tolerance
between Muslims and Christians and renewed their rapport and friendship with
one another.

Cooperation
Equal-status contact may not be enough to bring about peace. Another “C”
that may promote peacemaking is cooperation. Competing groups may learn
to cooperate with each other given a common goal (Dion, 1979). Muslims and
Christians, NPA and military, La Sallians and Ateneans, all became one while
watching the boxing fights of Manny Pacquiao against his Mexican rivals. All
outgroups seemed to disappear during People Power I when everyone’s goal was to
oust Marcos. Everyone shared a common external threat, a superordinate goal and
thus cooperated. Having a common enemy unifies groups (Sherif, 1966). In these
moments the participants felt pride in being a Filipino.
Elliott Aronson and his colleagues (1978) developed the jigsaw technique to
illustrate the success of cooperative learning in schools. He and his colleagues

168 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

assigned children to varied racial and academic groups with six members each.
The subject matter in school was divided into six and each member of the groups
was responsible for becoming an expert in his or her part. The students not only
learned the subject matter from each other, they also learned how to interact with
each other.

Communication
Another way to resolve conflict is to communicate with the parties involved.
Communication enables people to cooperate. Remember the example of Globe and
Smart? Had the two companies communicated with each other, mistrust would have
been reduced. The same goes for the two prisoners. Whether the conflict is between
a boyfriend and girlfriend, employer and employee, NPA and military, there are
three possible ways of communicating: bargaining, mediation, and arbitration.
Bargaining. Arriving at an agreement to a conflict by directly negotiating with
the other party is known as bargaining. An example would be talking directly to
your professor and negotiating for a higher grade, or when labor deals directly with
management on labor issues. Not much research in the Philippines is conducted on
bargaining, except perhaps in relation to pagtawad, or haggling behavior between a
customer and vendor (Du & Paysu, 1986).
Mediation. In mediation, a neutral third party facilitates communication
between the parties and offers suggestions, but the decision still lies with the
conflicting parties. The role of the mediator, or peacemaker, is thus very crucial.
Researches on the role of the mediator have been conducted in the Philippines.
For example, Montiel and Boehkne (2000) examined variations in preferred
personality attributes of conflict resolvers among the youth from Malaysia, Japan,
China, Philippines, Australia, Germany, and the United States. A compassionate
peacemaker was preferred by respondents from developing societies rather than by
those from the wealthier countries, and by women more than men.
Another example would be conflict resolution efforts between the coup leaders
and the Aquino government. Throughout her six-year term, Pres. Cory Aquino
faced seven military revolts. Montiel (1995) analyzed the bargaining processes of
the three military uprisings that concluded with the active intervention of peace
emissaries acting as mediators. Teams of local peace intermediaries included
politically biased mediators and Church representatives perceived to be neutral.
Crucial to the negotiation process were the coup participants’ perceptions of the
third party’s trustworthiness and political potency.
In the West, the preferred attributes of mediators include being impartial,
neutral, and competent with professional training in mediations (Batistiana, 2001).
The mediation process is formal and face-to-face encounter between disputants is
preferred. However, in the Philippines, a credible and compassionate person of
authority is the preferred mediator. It is not surprising that in the Philippines, a
priest or a barangay captain is often called on to mediate. It is not important either
that a face-to-face encounter between the two parties occur. What is more crucial is

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 169

that the meeting is not threatening to either party and they will not be embarrassed
in the encounter. In Filipino,walang mapapahiya. Mediators in the Philippines are
often people with high positions, such as representatives of the Church, the mass
media, the military, and the local government (Beloso, 1985).
In the Philippines, civil society peace organizations have also consciously
acted as third party to armed conflicts (Ferrer, 2005). An important attribute given
to civil society groups is their autonomy from the state. Similarly, the third party
is autonomous from the nonstate armed group. The third party has its own peace
agenda and strategies and may choose to adopt a confrontational mode with
reference to the specific policy issue. For example, when the Estrada and Arroyo
administrations launched offensive attacks in known Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) areas in 2000 and 2003, civil society peace groups condemned the policy
even as political negotiations were under way.
A final example of successful mediation in the Philippines is the landmark
agreement on March 29, 2008, by the Sumilao farmers and the San Miguel
Corporation with Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales serving as the mediator. The
series of negotiations between the two parties finally ended with the signing of a
memorandum of agreement that gives the farmers a total of 144 hectares of land in
Sumilao, Bukidnon. Under the agreement, the farmers will gain 50 hectares within
the contested 144-hectare property through a deed of donation by San Miguel
Corporation while the remaining 94 hectares will be taken from properties outside
but within the vicinity of the contested area. The 94 hectares will be distributed to
the Sumilao farmers through the voluntary offer for sale (VOS) scheme under the
CARP.
Arbitration. In some cases, especially those involving legal issues, arbitration
may be necessary. In this case, a third party studies both sides and makes a decision.
This is usually the last resort taken when bargaining and mediation attempts are
futile. Such is the case for labor-management cases where the parties may resort to
voluntary arbitration to solve the conflict.
An example of a conflict resolution strategy that used arbitration is Beloso’s
1985 case study of landowners and farmers of Hacienda San Miguel in Tabaco,
Albay. To solve the conflicts, both parties used different strategies and techniques.
These strategies were either formal or informal. The most helpful was the dialogue
in the presence of third party interveners who acted as mediators. The dialogues
resulted in negotiations and compromises. However, when one of the parties did
not come up with the terms in the negotiation, legal assistance was sought and
the case was filed in court. Pending court decision, the stronger party used threats
and harassments. The farmers preferred to use metalegal techniques like prayer
rallies, protest rites, picket, and marches. The case was finally settled when both
parties agreed to abide by the decision of the arbitrator. Filipinos are less prone to
violence when they try to solve their conflicts (Beloso, 1985). Both parties employed
dialogues and negotiations.

170 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Conciliation
Sometimes, all conflict resolution efforts are unsuccessful. Some parties may
coerce or intimidate and strike back against the other. Regrettably, these acts may
be reciprocated, escalating the conflict even further. Those who are cooperative
tend to be exploited. Charles Osgood (1962) suggested GRIT, or graduated and
reciprocated initiatives in tension reduction. GRIT requires that one side initiate a
few small steps at reconciliation. Morton Deutsch (1993) advised negotiators to be
“firm, fair, and friendly” in resisting intimidation, exploitation; fair in holding on
to one’s moral principles and not reciprocating the other’s immoral behavior, and
friendly in the sense that one is willing to reciprocate cooperation.
Examples of reconciliatory gestures include a smile, a text, sending flowers.
This would open the door for contact, cooperation, communication, and eventually
peace.

FILIPINO PEACE PSYCHOLOGY

Is peace the absence of war? What exactly is peace? For Filipino researchers,
peace includes justice, respect for life, equality, total well-being, and total human
development (Garcia, 1994; Ferrer, 1997). Filipinos also include God, oneself, others,
one’s nation, and the world in their framework for peace (Clemeña, 1995). Focusing
on the national dimension, Filipinos perceive peace as having an awareness of the
nation’s goals and working toward national development. Moreover, peace comes
from service to one’s country and striving for equality and justice, progress, and
unity.
Three dimensions or attitudes toward peace and violence among Filipinos
include the power factor (wealth, force, respect); recognition of the other as coequal
(time, patience, listening); and justice (social equity) (Perez, 1994). Gender was
found to be significantly related to peace and violence attitudes with women having
more peaceful tendencies than men. Socioeconomic status was also a significant
factor with those in the higher socioeconomic status having more peaceful attitudes
(Perez, 1994).
The Philippine peace process is anchored on the main goal of finding a just
and peaceful solution to the armed conflicts in the Philippines (Ferrer, 2005).
Researches on peacemaking in the Philippines have focused on peaceful conflict
resolution, people power, peace education, peace organization and peace zones,
and sociopolitical forgiveness. Let us look at each of these issues.

Peaceful Conflict Resolution of Political Conflict in the Philippines

Political conflict in the Philippines is expressed in electoral forms (election
campaigns, legislative involvement, constitutional involvement, and constitutional
amendments); street politics (rallies, marches, strikes); and underground modes

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 171

(armed encounters, city-based bombings, arson, coups d’ etat) (Montiel, 1995).
With such a violent context, Filipinos have begun to experiment with local ways of
creating political peace.
Two case studies were conducted in Eastern Samar and North Cotabato to
determine the politico-psychological dimensions of peacemaking (Montiel, 1997;
Montiel & Briones, 1995). This peace process was citizen-based, utilizing unarmed
efforts of communities in conflict to stop armed encounters between government
troops and the New People’s Army within their territories. Five sociopsychological
steps emerged in the peace-making process: (1) experiencing a history of political
violence, such as the ambush of a close friend; (2) utilizing one’s position of social
influence to stop the shooting; (3) drafting a peace document, in cooperation with
as many key people and groups; (4) implementing the peace document; and (5)
establishing efficient livelihood projects to address the problem of poverty among
the community members (Montiel, 1997).
Research findings indicate that Philippine peacemaking can be enhanced by
local creative ways of discussion and direct trial-and-error practice among political
and military groups, and actively supporting peace-oriented local community
leaders in their political bids for electoral victory and peace efforts (Montiel &
Briones, 1995).

People Power
For four days in February 1986, millions of Filipinos gathered along EDSA
to protest against the Marcos dictatorship. On February 25, 1986, Marcos left the
Philippines and ended his twenty-year regime. Cory Aquino became the new leader
of the nation. This event became popular worldwide and is now known as People
Power.
People Power is a mass-based political phenomenon wherein large collectivities
of individuals and social movements unite to transform an oppressive political
condition (Montiel & Berba, 2012). It involves a psychological change from
helpless individuals to a self-confident, empowered group (Licuanan, 1987). One
is motivated to join a group of other powerless individuals because the strength in
number compensates for the feelings of individual political inadequacies.
This single political moment spurred revolutionary changes in the world,
including the victory of Solidarnosc in Poland and the Tiananmen Square protest
in 1989. In 2001, Philippine Pres. Joseph Estrada was ousted thru another People
Power. Many observers believe that People Power presented a model of nonviolent
political action during democratic transitions where the main goal was to overturn
strong authoritarian regimes. However, People Power, in recent years, has also
become a state-building tool. For example, in Ukraine, a mass sit-in at the city’s
main airport in 2004 helped unseat an unpopular leader and fraudulent polls were
annulled after mass protests.

172 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Let’s now discuss the social psychological nature of People Power.
Active nonviolence. One of the most compelling elements of People Power
is the collective actions that insist on being nonviolent despite facing military and
political powers (Montiel & Berba, 2012). Active nonviolence refers to methods of
protest, noncooperation, and intervention in which the activists do or refuse to
do certain things and not use physical force (Sharp, 1973). It is active rather than
passive. An example of nonviolence during People Power was to stay firmly in
position while facing military armored tanks, rather than hiding in fear. Faced with
guns and tanks, people in EDSA negotiated with the soldiers, and offered them
food and flowers (Licuanan, 1987).
Organizational dynamics. An organization is a group of people coming
together to accomplish a common goal and this is what transpired during People
Power. Filipinos gathered together with a common goal and certain organizational
features facilitated this process. EDSA I participants initiated their own collective
actions as they organized food brigades, medical stations, prayer groups, and
even dialogues with the soldiers (Licuanan, 1987). In EDSA II, civil society groups
utilized mass media and information technology to network, mobilize, and raise
consciousness among the public-at-large (Macapagal & Nario-Galace, 2003).
Numerous nongovernment organizations helped in the political education of
Filipinos in active nonviolent ideology. The mass media emphasized the discrepancy
between the ideal and the actual leader that was Joseph Estrada (i.e., they showed
evidence of Estrada’s corruption and inability to lead the government).
Shared spirituality. A shared sense of spirituality is important in achieving
active nonviolence that entails a willingness to sacrifice one’s self for the collective
purpose of political change (Montiel & Berba, 2012). Such spirituality operates both
on a personal level and a collective level. On a personal level, spirituality makes an
individual ready to give up one’s life, without harming anyone else. On a collective
level, spirituality provides people with a space to collectively identify themselves
as one body (Montiel & Berba, 2012). In People Power, participants prayed together
and celebrated the mass every day. Other religious groups held their own prayer
services and rituals.
Collective behaviors involved in active nonviolence. Filipinos employed
varied and creative protest and persuasion techniques during People Power.
Protesters made use of catchy slogans, eye-catching banners, posters, and stickers.
Many individuals and groups used symbols, such as pins and buttons, and yellow
ribbons. In People Powers I and II confetti, or paper cut into strips, rained on big
demonstrations against Marcos and Estrada. Because band music was popular
among the young during EDSA II, protesters held song and dance concerts and
street parties with demonstrators singing and dancing.
Filipino cultural values. Many aspects of Filipino culture were activated
during People Power, such as the tendency to celebrate, to fiesta, and the Filipino’s
ability to improvise during problematic circumstances (Lagmay, 1986). Although
there was fear among Filipinos in EDSA, there was also a happy mood where people

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 173

brought lots of food and shared it with everyone. EDSA became a picnic ground.
EDSA showed how Filipinos respect authority. In the case of People Power I, it was
Cardinal Sin who called on people to proceed to EDSA. Psychological antidotes to
fear were Filipino cultural dispositions, such as bahala na (leave it to God) and lakas
ng loob (inner strength). Despite the threat of real danger, people came and even
brought their kids as well as relatives and left their fate to chance (Macapagal &
Nario-Galace, 2003).

Peace Education
Social psychologists in the Philippines have also focused on the effect of peace
education that refers to initiatives to promote a culture of peace among Filipinos.
For example, Montiel (1996) found that Philippine peace education focuses on
intrasociety forces (i.e., the haves vs. have-nots) and is affected by the political
environment. Milligan (2001) for his part advocated for a multicultural approach
to educational policies and practices of the government as a tool to mitigate the
Muslim-Christian conflict in Mindanao.
Nario-Galace (2003) in a laboratory experiment found that a peace education
program was effective in reducing prejudice among students. Students who were
given peace education modules had significantly lower prejudicial attitudes (e.g.,
enthnocentrism, heterosexism, looksism, and sexism) compared to a control group
that went through their usual homeroom lessons. Moreover, peace education was
found to be more effective in significantly reducing female over male attitudes of
prejudice.
Ofreneo and De Vela (2006) proposed a peace agenda that includes
psychological, cultural, and structural components. It is not enough to change one
without addressing the other components. The challenge is to encourage moral
recognition, change cultural values and norms that promote peace, and changing
structures to redistribute power and achieve equitable relations.

Peace Organizations and Peace Zones

Several Philippine social movements and organizations fight against injustice,
oppression, and senseless violence in order to restore peace (Ferrer, 1997; Garcia,
1994). These peace organizations’ activities include peace constituency building,
conflict reduction, conflict settlement, peace research and training, and social
development work.
In recent years, we have observed an increase in peace zones in the country. A
(Peace Zone) community declares its desire to be free of violence and the presence
of arms and armed groups and to deal with its problems in nonviolent ways. As
of 2000, a total of eleven Peace Zones was established throughout the country. The
first of these is the Naga City Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality established
in September 1988 in the province of Camarines Sur. All of the peace zones were
established between the late ’80s and the early ’90s when the armed conflict was at its
height in the country (1998 Accomplishment Report of the Office of the Presidential

174 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Adviser on the Peace Process). Some peace zones are located in educational
institutions that aim to build a culture of peace. Through their declaration of their
areas as peace zones, the people have empowered themselves to establish peace in
their communities.
Research on peace zones in the Philippines include Sta. Maria’s (2000) study
of the Sagada Peace Zone in the Mountain Province, the Tulunan Peace Zone in
North Cotabato, and the Cantomanyog Peace Zone in Negros Occidental. (The
latter peace zone was also studied by Briones [2000]). Significant activities of these
peace zones include the preservation and declaration of unity, enforcement of peace
through community-based coordinating structures, their stance of neutrality, and the
enforcement of peace through community moral agents. Briones (2000), on the other
hand, looked into the role of the grassroots Church, or Basic Ecclesial Community
(BEC), in local peacemaking. Peacemaking behaviors of key actors modified the
community’s social organizational structures and emphasized closer interpersonal
interactions that, in turn, further reinforced such behaviors. Salient among these
behaviors are the residents’ respect for reflection and process, participatory decision
making, promotion of positive values, spiritual and moral integrity, deep awareness
of a divine presence, and a perspective of the zone of peace as a legacy to future
generations.

Sociopolitical Forgiveness
Finally, a new concept in Filipino peacemaking is sociopolitical forgiveness. Peace
psychologist Cristina Montiel (2002) has defined a form of sociopolitical forgiveness
that occurs when a “whole group of offended people cease their collective resentment
and condemnation of another group . . . perceived to have caused the social offense.”
When forgiveness is acted out collectively, as opposed to individually, new
considerations appear. These include the quality of leadership across boundaries
(“Are there leaders among the victimized groups who can simultaneously relate
to the perpetrators in a politically effective yet forgiving manner?”); a support of
public statements by individuals affected (“Are public declarations of forgiveness
sensitive to the pained conditions of other members of the offended social group?”);
and restoration of intergroup social fairness.
The victim’s readiness to forgive, the offender’s remorseful apology, initiatives
toward reconciliation, and the attainment of justice determine the effects of
forgiveness on individuals and society.
Conaco (2009) also discussed intergroup forgiveness. The concept of forgiveness
is usually considered as an interpersonal process between the victim and transgressor.
Intergroup forgiveness, on the other hand, extrapolates the process to a whole group,
making the procedure more difficult.

In sum, conflict in the Philippines can arise from various reasons and social
psychologists have proposed different theories as to why intergroup conflicts exist.
Filipinos continually engage in peacemaking initiatives at the interpersonal but more
so at the intergroup level.

Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 175

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Hidwaan at Kapayapaan: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Philippines 179

CHAPTER 9
KAHIRAPAN NG PINOY:
PSYCHOLOGY OF POVERTY

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I PSYCHOLOGY OF POVERTY AND INEQUITY

• Social Class and Socioeconomic Status
• Power and Hierarchical Relationships
• Sources of Power

II POVERTY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

III ATTRIBUTIONS OF POVERTY

• Internal Attributions
• External Attributions

IV RESEARCH ON THE FILIPINO POOR AND SOCIAL CLASSES

• Who are the Filipino Poor
• Other Poverty-Related Variables

V ADDRESSING POVERTY
• Social Psychology and the Developing World
• People Empowerment
• Poverty-Alleviation Interventions

180
 Poverty is undeniably a fundamental concern in the Philippines. According to
the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB, 2009), 27 percent of
Filipino families in 2006 are poor, that is, 33 out of 100 Filipino families. This data
is based on the poverty threshold that a Filipino family with five members needed
to earn at least P8,569 monthly (and P4,177 for the food threshold, or the minimum
income needed, required for a family to meet the basic food needs data on food
intake). On the other hand, self-rated poverty was 54 percent in 2012 (SWS, 2013).
Another study also reported that 75 percent of the population rated themselves
as very poor or poor (Sicam, 2007). From these different statistics, we can see that
perception of poverty or self-rated poverty is higher than the objective measures of
poverty.
We don’t need to see these statistics to believe that poverty is prevalent in the
country. We see informal settlers and children and old people begging on the streets.
Many people are unemployed and more and more Filipinos seek employment
abroad. In this chapter, we shall discuss what social psychologists have to say about
poverty.

PSYCHOLOGY

OF POVERTY AND INEQUITY
In discussing the issue of poverty, several important variables need to be
considered. We shall discuss here the concepts of social class, power and hierarchical
relationships, and sources of power.

Social Class and Socioeconomic Status

In the Philippines, the existence of social classes is very evident. It is often used
as an analytic variable in social psychology and is often measured using indicators
such as type of dwelling, parents’ occupation and educational level, and household
income (Racelis, 2005). Social class is the distinction of wealth and status. In the
Philippines, the ABCDE system is often used where AB constitutes the upper
class, C the middle class, and D and E, the lower classes. AB houses are located in
exclusive subdivisions, C houses or apartments are in middle-cost areas, D houses
are in low-cost housing areas whereas the E houses are makeshift and found in
cramped neighborhoods or in the slum areas. Households atop the community
social order live in nice houses, own much productive and personal property, and
send their children to college; those near the bottom do not. According to the Social
Weather Station (SWS), 10 percent of Filipinos come from the ABC class, 72 percent
belong to class D, and 18 percent from the poorest E.
Socioeconomic Status (SES) is often used interchangeably with social class. In
many societies around the world, SES is typically classified as high, middle, and
low, usually based on income. On the other hand, social status refers more to the
honor or prestige attached to one’s position in society as well as popularly ranked
esteem and respect associated with one’s occupation, not necessarily linked with

Kahirapan ng Pinoy: Psychology of Poverty 181

economic factors (Kerbo, 1996). Therefore it is possible for a person to have high
social status but not necessarily belonging to the high SES (e.g., religious leaders).

Power and Hierarchical Relationships

The concept of power is related to status, authority, and dominance (Gilovich,
Keltner, & Nisbett, 2006). Power is often defined as the ability to control one’s
outcomes and those of others, and the freedom to act. It is possible to have power
without status as it is also possible to have status without power (e.g., a religious
leader still having to line up to get a driver’s license). However, in the Philippines,
those with money often have power.
Why is it important to talk about power and social status? Research has
consistently shown that there are many psychological advantages to being in the
upper social class. For instance, the rich are found to have less depression and
anxiety, have improved health and even longer life expectancy (Adler, 1994). As
Chen (2004) found out, to be poor is to be at risk for increased stress, negative
emotions, and a toxic environment. Similar results were found in the Philippines.
Watkins and Astilla (1979) found evidence of a stronger association between
self-esteem and social class in the Philippines than is typically found in Western
countries. As a result of these studies linking well-being and power, it is of great
importance to study power and its sources.

Sources of Power
According to the classic study of French and Raven (1959), there are five
sources of power. Power can come from authority based on social roles (e.g., in the
workplace or family structures); expertise based on knowledge (e.g., a doctor has
more power than a patient); or coercion based on the use of force and aggression.
Power may also be derived from the ability to serve as a role model, which is known
as reference power, and from the ability to provide rewards to others. The latter
source of power can best explain why members of higher socioeconomic status
have power over the lower SES and why majority groups are more powerful than
minorities (Domhoff, 1998). From the concept of power, let us now examine how
poverty is essentially an issue of social justice.

POVERTY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

In 2006, the net worth of the ten wealthiest people in the Philippines amounted
to $12.4 (or P620) billion which is equivalent to the total income of the poorest 9.8
million households (Guzman, 2007). Do you think this is just? Perhaps the problem
of poverty is really an issue of inequity. Social inequality is the condition where
people have unequal access to valued resources, services, and position in society
(Kerbo, 1996). Consequently, the issue of inequity is an issue of social justice.
Why should we talk about justice? Is this something that social psychologists are

182 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

concerned about? Indeed, studies have shown that judgments about what is just,
fair, or deserved are social in nature and lie at the heart of people’s feelings, attitudes,
and behaviors in social interactions (Tyler & Smith, 1998). Judgments of fairness are
related to perceptions, political attitudes, prejudice, and self- esteem among others.
The subjective experience of justice or injustice has important attitudinal and
behavioral consequences. Justice standards are a socially created reality maintained
by people, groups, organizations, and societies.
We care about being treated fairly or unfairly. Similarly, we also care about
others being treated justly or unjustly. Certainly, the imbalance of wealth in the
Philippines is a reflection of injustice. Our sense of justice can be broken down
into three concerns: distributive, procedural, and restorative justice. Distributive
justice refers to whether we think the outcomes we receive, such as salaries, are
fair or not or whether the allocation or distribution of goods in society is actually
fair (Leventhal, Jurgis, & Fry, 1980). We may ask ourselves, how come some people
in the Philippines are so rich while others are extremely poor? This is a question of
distributive justice. A second kind of justice, procedural justice, concerns whether
decision-making procedures are fair and transparent or not (Leventhal, 1980).
Were the procedures for giving out rewards and punishment unbiased? Was the
process legitimate? Finally, we look at restorative or retributive justice, the fairness
in rectifying the wrongdoings done. It concerns actions people take when rules
and social norms are broken. This includes apologies, sanctions, punishment. For
example, when a thief steals your cellphone, would it be more important for you
to punish the thief or is it more important that the thief return your cellphone or,
at least, pay for it? Which of these three types of justice do you think can explain
poverty and inequity in the Philippines? If you said distributive justice, then you
are right.
Distributive justice has to do with whether you believe that the rewards you
receive match the contributions you make. For example, if you are the president
of a company, how much salary do you think you deserve? On the other hand, if
you are a janitor in the same company, do you deserve to get as much salary as the
president? These are all concerns of distributive justice.
People have different criteria for distributive justice. Three different principles
of distributive justice are reported to govern how we allocate resources: equity,
equality, and need (Deutsch, 1975). For some people, it is the principle of equity:
individuals receive rewards directly correspondent to their contributions that
matters more. In the example above, a president may deserve a higher salary because
he or she contributes more to the company compared to the janitor. Similarly, if you
do most of the work in a group project, it is only fair that you get a higher grade
than those group members who did not do anything.
The principle of equality, on the other hand, says that all individuals making
contributions to some effort should receive equal rewards. This is usually used
in family and friendships. Hating magkapatid (Share like siblings) implies that you
share the resources equally, regardless of the age of the siblings, or whether one

Kahirapan ng Pinoy: Psychology of Poverty 183

sibling is smarter or more obedient than the other. This is also observed in team
sports. When the whole team wins, all members receive the same rewards. In the
work place, however, it does not make sense to reward all employees equally. This
would mean that a new employee would get the same salary as the supervisor who
has been with the company all these years and has more work than everyone else.
Finally, according to the principle of need, people with greatest needs should be
given priority for resources. Family members also employ this. For example, when
your child has special needs or is sick, or is a newborn, more time and energy are
given to this child. In the case of the country, this would be the preferential option
for the poor. The poor have limited resources so they are not expected to pay taxes
and the government is expected to pay more attention and resources to them than
the other citizens who are “rich.”
Are there cultural differences on the type of distributive justice? Studies have
shown that differences exist in distributive justice between Western and non-Western
cultures. Non-Westerners have been found to prefer the division of resources on the
basis of equality or need, whereas Westerners have been found to prefer equity-
based, or merit-based, distributions (Berman, Murphy-Berman, & Singh, 1985;
Hui, Triandis, & Yee, 1991; Kim, Park, & Suzuki, 1990). Such differences have been
explained primarily due to differences in individualistic/collectivistic psychological
orientations, and owing to a difference in the availability of resources. Moreover,
compared to American children, Filipino children tended to be more concerned
with the interpersonal and emotional consequences of an unequal distribution
(Carson & Banuazizi, 2008). American children favored merit-based distributions,
whereas Filipino children showed a preference for need-based distributions. While
concern for harmony in interpersonal relationships guided equality- and need-based
distributions in the Philippines, an emphasis on performance guided equality- and
merit-based distributions in the United States.
Decisions on what is fair or not also depend largely on comparisons with other
people. How then would we explain why despite the poverty experienced by many
Filipinos, SWS surveys continue to report that Filipinos are happy? One explanation
is that low SES Filipinos think their lives are fair because they compare themselves
with similar individuals who live nearby (Major, 1994). People only become
dissatisfied with their predicament when they experience relative deprivation—a
feeling of being deprived based on comparisons with similar others. If you earn
P10,000 a month you would probably be happy until you find out that a colleague
earns more than you, when both of you have the same amount of work. It is only
then that you would feel a sense of injustice, which may then lead you to engage in
collective action to do something about the injustice.
From understating poverty and inequity in terms of a social justice framework,
let us now examine how people determine the causes of poverty.

184 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

ATTRIBUTIONS OF POVERTY
Why are people poor? What is the cause of their poverty? Questions like these
where people identify causes of behavior is known as attribution. The study of
attribution is central in social psychology. Research shows that attributions are
important and quite pervasive in social life (Hewstone, 1990).

Internal Attribution
Consider the case of Dyesebel, who is unemployed. How do we explain the fact
that she does not have a job? Many people would say that “it’s because she is lazy
and unmotivated. She can find a job if she really wants to.” Such is an example of
an internal, or dispositional attribution, wherein we attribute the cause of the behavior
to the person herself. William Ryan (1971) would refer to this internal attribution
as “victim blaming.” People often “blame” the poor for their predicament. They are
poor because of their behaviors and cultural patterns.
The culture of poverty view also “blames the poor” for their situation, but
suggests that social conditions originally helped produce poverty and argues that
poverty produces people with unique personal characteristics that in turn help
continue the cycle of poverty. A social anthropologist, Oscar Lewis, popularized
the culture of poverty theory, which states that the poor have unique problems
(compared to the rich) and in order to cope with these problems they follow a unique
lifestyle. With interaction only with the poor, their lifestyle becomes a common
characteristic of the poor producing common values, beliefs, and behavior. This
subculture of poverty becomes institutionalized and their children are socialized
into this subculture. Thus, even if opportunities to become rich arise, the poor will
retain their traits that allowed them to adjust to the original conditions of poverty
(Kerbo, 1996). The theory has been largely criticized, however. For example, it
assumes that the poor is a homogenous group. Furthermore, there is no empirical
evidence that supports the theory.
In Abad and Eviota’s (1985) metanalysis of poverty studies in the Philippines,
they found that a group of studies looked at poverty as a pathological situation
brought about by antidevelopment values and attitudes and lifestyles of the poor.
The poor are in effect resistant to change. They refuse to improve themselves and so
a culture of poverty develops where the poor remain poor. As a solution, advocates
resort to training and motivating the poor to change their values and attitudes.
The fundamental attribution error states that we have the tendency to
overestimate dispositional explanations when we observe behaviors of others while
undervaluing situational explanations for those behaviors (Ross, 1977). Applying
this to explaining poverty, a person may commit the fundamental attribution error
by blaming the poor for their poverty and underestimating the role of situational
factors.

Kahirapan ng Pinoy: Psychology of Poverty 185

External Attribution
Now let’s go back to Dyesebel. Rather than blaming her for her poverty, we
could also make an external, or situational, attribution. In this type of attribution,
explanations for poverty are due to outside forces, such as government and business
not creating enough job opportunities for women like Dyesebel. Such attributional
explanations relate the situation of the person to societal events or social structures.
The external attribution explains poverty as the inevitable result of historical
circumstances and the industrialization process. Government policies and market
mechanisms have excluded the benefits of development from being experienced
by the underprivileged (Abad & Eviota, 1985). Allied with this perspective is the
belief that economic conditions are an effect of population issues. Thus the solution
would focus on improving delivery of services to the poor, including infrastructure.
Others would also suggest policies for the redistribution of resources (e.g., it would
be well for the poor to limit their family size).
Other examples of external attribution include the structural or conflict view
of poverty (Abad & Eviota, 1985). There is almost complete stress on the political
and economic forces in the society that produce and maintain poverty (Kerbo,
1996). This view uses power conflicts in the need of the poor to participate in the
implementation of development programs that have been formulated by “planners
from above.” The poor do not have access to decision-making processes and are not
reflected in political and economic policies. The poor are thus powerless. Those who
have this perspective would advocate conscientization, grassroots participation,
and community organization strategies. It is also believed that greater participation
will increase the poor’s access to decision-making processes.
According to a study by Feather (1985), People who attribute the causes of
unemployment to dispositional factors tend to be more politically conservative,
whereas those who are often politically liberal, such as NGO workers who work
with the poor, will most likely attribute Dyesebel’s unemployment to factors
outside her control. This was also supported by a study by Hine, Montiel, Cooksey,
and Lewko (2005) among poverty activists and nonactivists from Canada and the
Philippines. They found that activists included more external societal causes in
their beliefs than nonactivists, whereas nonactivists included more individualistic
and internal societal causes.
What about those in the upper social class in the Philippines? How do they
see the causes of poverty? According to Clarke and Sison (2005) the Filipino elite
(politicians, businessmen, religious and military leaders, media, NGO leaders) have
become immune to the negative effects of poverty. The poor and rich not only differ
in terms of income, but also in language, education, and the place where they live.
The elite perceive poverty as a political problem, blaming structural factors as its
causes (unequal distribution of resources, corruption, and an oligarchic government).
However, the elite also made internal attributions of the poor, accusing them of
being lazy, opportunistic, and fatalistic. Some even describe the poor as ignorant
and ungrateful. But despite these, they recognize the fact that the rich and elite

186 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

are also to blame for poverty. What is interesting is that they often put blame on
another group (e.g., politicians blame the economic and social elite because they do
not pay taxes; businessmen blame the government for being corrupt).

RESEARCH ON THE FILIPINO POOR AND SOCIAL CLASSES

Who are the Filipino poor?

When you think of the poor, what comes to your mind? Common perceptions
of the Philippine poor include being malnourished, lacking housing, uneducated,
and unorganized. Social scientists would probably debate on the actual percentage
of the poor in the Philippines. Income indicators are not the only measures of
poverty. Clearly, poverty possesses economic, social, and political dimensions. The
subclasses of the poor vary in how they are afflicted with poverty and how they
respond to it. Abad and Eviota (1985) thus believe that it would not be appropriate
to use “poor” as an analytic category. It may be more useful to refer to landless
workers, or low-paid labor, or fisherfolk. These are more specific samples with
particular contexts. Social scientists have studied disadvantaged groups and
communities such as ethnic groups, women, fisherfolk, and the urban poor.
In the 1980s, the incidence of poverty was higher in rural than urban areas,
among farmers and fishermen than among wage-workers, and among persons with
lower than higher levels of education (Abad & Eviota, 1985). But in more recent
years, the Philippines has experienced what can be called the urbanization of
poverty, especially in the last fifty years (Antolihao, 2004). The process involves the
shift in the concentration of poor people from the rural areas to the city. As of 2002,
the urban poor had comprised 55 percent of the total poor population (Webster,
Corpuz, & Pablo, 2002).
When we think of the poor, we also imagine informal settlers (sometimes called
urban poor, squatters), scavengers, and street children. These groups have also been
the subject of many psychological researches. For example, many social scientists have
studied scavengers, who are considered as the poorest of the poor, living in shanties
made of scrap material, often the children of uneducated, unskilled, rural-migrant
parents (Fernandez & de la Torre, 1986). Filipinos resort to scavenging because they
have no other reliable source of income (Keyes, 1982). All the respondents aspire for
permanent employment but see themselves as lacking the job opportunity. Although
some recognize the advantages of having no boss and of setting their own hours, no
one would deliberately choose scavenging if given other choices. The scavengers
also focus more on the positive economic benefits of what he or she does rather
than on the dirt and uncleanliness of their “occupation.” Puente (2002) also studied
scavengers, specifically children in Smokey Mountain. These children suffer from
hazardous working conditions and even violence, and unmistakably only engage
in scavenging for survival. It is no surprise that in her study, she found that it is
psychologically stressful for children to engage in scavenging.

Kahirapan ng Pinoy: Psychology of Poverty 187

 Street children engage in several types of work including begging for money
and food, vending, deliveries, wash/watch your car, and fetching/selling water
(Torres, 1996). Children from urban poor families also engage in work, such as
gasoline boy/girl, household help, plowing fields, pulot boy (in tennis), sari-sari
store vending. Children move out to the streets, probably as a coping reaction to
crowding in the slums, and as a way to express themselves (Torres, 1996). They
also perceive that their family, friends, neighbors, and society in general have a
favorable attitude toward street children. There are, however, gender differences in
perceived attitudes toward children working in the streets. It would seem okay for
male children to work on the streets, but not for girls.
In many Filipino poor communities, we will also see tambays, the focus of study
of Ang, Baluyut, and Bolintiam (2008). Tambays are people who are unemployed
and just “stand by” in one area of the community, such as by the sari-sari store.
In their study of unemployed Filipino fathers who were tambays, they found a
basic pattern wherein the tambays attribute their situation to external and stable
factors (lack of education, lack of opportunities) and eventually develop learned
helplessness. As they experience guilt and shame, they rely on drinking with
others who share their situation. They believe that their unemployment status is
permanent, which contributes to decreased income-generating activity that creates
a cycle of prolonged unemployment and intensifying negative emotions. Hence, a
possible means of intervention is to challenge their beliefs regarding unemployment.
If they would perceive their unemployment as a challenge that is not permanent,
and helping them build confidence in taking control over their situation, they could
break the cycle of hopelessness.

Other Poverty-Related Variables

Aside from research on who the Filipino poor are and the attributions of
poverty, psychologists have looked at several other variables, both internal and
external, regarding the Filipino poor.

Women and poverty. It is compelling to study poor women in the Philippines

because they usually bear the burden of poverty (Generalao, 2005). Contrary to
common perceptions of the poor, Filipino women in the low SES showed a strong
achievement orientation, self-efficacy, and high self-esteem (Obligacion, 1996,
2004). They had positive appraisals of themselves and their condition and have
embraced their poverty (Generalao, 2005). Poor women cited job, income, God and
fate, education, economic and weather problems, effort, and peace in the family as
explanations for the causes of their poverty. For Maranao women, poverty is God-
given fate (Berowa, 1996). They exhibited powerlessness and resigned to accept
their situation and reported being happy with their lot. They attributed the causes of
their poverty to external reasons: government neglect, limited income, local leaders,
early marriage, lack of opportunities, lack of education, peace and order.

188 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Coping with poverty. Coping with poverty include receiving and giving
assistance, imploring God for help, the cultural features of perseverance
(pagpupunyagi), and reliance on others (pakikipagkapwa) (Tuason, 2008), as well as
exerting more effort and finding odd jobs (Generalao, 1998). Younger respondents
likewise tended to be more optimistic about the future (Generalao, 1998).
Stress-resilient street children of Metro Manila had a more internal locus of
control, higher self-esteem, more positive and less negative coping styles, and
greater perceived social support from friends and family compared to stress-affected
street children (Lee, 1997). The presence of a warm and supportive caregiver was
associated with well-adjusted behavior in the stress-resilient street children.
The poor and the justice system. The poor are similarly disadvantaged when it
comes to the justice system. Lopez (1999) examined the interaction between lawyers
and their indigent clients and found that the Filipino poor experienced patterns of
discrimination in the criminal justice system and that the rich have had far greater
chances than the poor in obtaining better-constructed cases. The factors identified
include the submissive attitude of the poor and their inability to communicate with
their lawyers because of hiya, their lack of education and knowledge of the law.
Their inability to communicate with their lawyers and lack of knowledge of the law
prevent the poor from sharing with their lawyers their interpretation of the case and
probably to demand better service from their counsels.
Culture of poverty. The culture of poverty in the Philippines is such that the
poor tend to have no aspirations (Tuason, 2002). They are disillusioned with the
social, economic, and political conditions in the country. Judgments of internality,
immutability, and uncontrollability of the perceived cause of their conditions are
seen as manifestations of learned helplessness among the poor (Generelao, 1998).
However, Ortigas (1994) also describes a growing anger, hostility, aggression, and
criminality toward the elite.

ADDRESSING POVERTY

Social Psychology and the Developing World

A major practical question confronting Western psychology has been: How can
we best cope with rapid changes (Moghaddam, 1998)? In contrast, the major question
confronting psychologists in developing countries, such as the Philippines, has
been: How can we bring about faster change? This is because the pace of growth of
developing countries is inadequate. The gap between the rich and poor is widening
and living conditions are deteriorating among the poor.
Given the living conditions in developing nations, there is an urgent need
for a psychology that creates positive change. Moghaddam called this generative
psychology, examples of which are community social psychology projects in Latin
America where social psychologists intervene in empowering a local community.
A social psychologist is not only a social scientist concerned about studying social

Kahirapan ng Pinoy: Psychology of Poverty 189

issues such as poverty. He/She may also act as a practitioner, concerned with how
to change the system of poverty and inequity, and applying knowledge for that
purpose.

People Empowerment
In the Philippines, there is the perception that government is the best sector
to address poverty. However, Filipinos seem to distrust the government’s
commitment to do this because of corruption (Clarke & Sison, 2005). Aside from
the government, other sectors are also called to address the issue of poverty, such
as nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and the private sector. The objective
of many of these groups is to empower poor communities to exert control over
their own condition. The concept of empowerment can be observed at different
levels of analysis (Zimmerman, 2000). At the individual level, empowerment is
known as psychological empowerment where the process of empowering includes
learning decision-making skills, managing resources, and working with others
through participation in community organizations. Organizational empowerment,
on the other hand, has to do with a culture of growth and community building,
opportunities for members to take on meaningful roles and to participate in
decision making, a peer-based social support system that helps members develop a
sense of social identity, and shared responsibilities and leadership. An empowered
organization is one that can effectively compete for resources, network with other
organizations, and influence policy. Finally, an empowered community is one that
has organizational coalitions, pluralistic leaders, and residents’ participatory skills.
Poverty reduction through personal, community, and organizational
empowerment is crucial. Ortigas (2000) says the poor must challenge exploitation
and deprivation to reduce their frustration, helplessness, and dependency.
She studied farmers in Negros Occidental and reported that they successfully
underwent personal and organizational changes in the 1980s and 1990s. Groups
that went through human development and community development participative
management training significantly improved their attitudes and behaviors and
even their economic condition.
Social psychologists are also called to address poverty through “action
research”—a term first coined by Kurt Lewin in 1946—which refers to research that
leads to social action. Let us look at some action research that social scientists have
conducted in their efforts to address the issue of poverty.

Poverty-Alleviation Interventions
Three examples of poverty-alleviation strategies used in the Philippines
include engaging in microfinance, upgrading housing, and practicing corporate
social responsibility.
Microfinance. Microfinance services offered by nongovernment organizations
have become a popular and successful method of poverty-alleviation in the
Philippines since the 1980s. Microfinance refers to the extension of financial services

190 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

such as deposits, loans, money transfers, and insurance to microentrepreneurs who
belong to the marginalized sectors of society. The microfinance institutions grant
loans to poor entrepreneurs through microfinance groups. Those who are interested
need to form or join a group since loans are not secured by collateral (Coke, 2000). It
is in this context that Cuaso, Lee Chuy, and Tan (2008) investigated the success level
of microfinance groups and found that those who practiced group accountability
were more successful than those practicing individual accountability. They also
found that Filipino cultural values, such as hiya (shame), pasensiya (patience),
pakikisama (getting along with), utang na loob (debt of gratitude), and pagtutulungan
(helping), influence the success of the microfinance groups. Similar results were
achieved by de Vera (2005) who found that performance in a microfinance program
was correlated with supportive relationships in a group.
Housing projects for the urban poor. Although the main objective of housing
projects is to improve the homes of the Filipino poor, many of these programs
include empowering the poor. According to Antolihao (2004), slum upgrading offers
the best framework for addressing urban poverty because of its comprehensive
strategies that deal with various phases of the problem. Access to housing and land
is key but providing basic services and people’s participation are also necessary.
An example of a successful slum upgrading project was accomplished in two
areas along the railroad tracks in Payatas, Quezon City (Veneracion, 2004, 2009).
The project’s aim was to secure land tenure as well as provide livelihood and
related assistance. Multiple stakeholders were involved in the project, resulting in
sustainable improvement of the living conditions of the urban poor communities.
NGOs and government agencies worked together with the urban poor communities
by providing them with community capability training (e.g., leadership training).
Women beneficiaries of Gawad Kalinga (GK) communities assert that the program
was not only successful in providing houses for them but also empowered them
through sustainable livelihood and stable jobs, personal development, community
building, values formation, and spiritual nurturance (Bueza, de Guzman, & Lopera,
2009).
Corporate social responsibility. Companies and organizations have corporate
social responsibility (CSR) programs that aim to help address the issue of poverty
in the country. CSR is an organization’s voluntary commitment to contribute to
the welfare of the community through donation of corporate resources or business
practices. Kotler and Lee (2005) identified six classifications of CSR. Corporate
philanthropy is the most conventional form, where companies donate directly to a
chosen charity (such as Home for the Aged or Caritas). Cause promotions promote
awareness and action about a chosen social cause (like the environment). Cause-
related marketing involves a percentage of sales donated to a chosen charity.
Corporate social marketing is endorsing behavior-change campaign (such as
promoting good values). Socially responsible practices involve changing company
practices to support the community. Finally, community volunteering is where the
company engages in direct, hands-on work for a cause (e.g., Gawad Kalinga). In the

Kahirapan ng Pinoy: Psychology of Poverty 191

Philippines, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) is an organization
that partners with NGOs to promote social development and encourages companies
to engage in CSR. But what would make a company executive decide to engage
in CSR? Arcilla, David, Sydiongco (2009) have identified psychological variables
that contribute to CSR. These include attributing the poverty to structural causes,
believing in individual solutions to poverty, having experiences with the poor,
and past experience in volunteer work. Leadership was also seen as an important
variable as well as positive experiences from engaging with the poor, such as
appreciation by the community.
Microfinance, slum-upgrading projects, and corporate social responsibility
are only three examples of ways of addressing poverty. In general, these strategies
involve empowering the poor, networking and social support, and education.

In sum, awareness of the causes of poverty, analyzing it by using a social

justice framework, and valuing how the poor survive are crucial in understanding
the phenomenon. Moreover, Filipinos engage in poverty-alleviation projects
by empowering the poor, and not just doing charity work or philanthropy.
Empowerment is found to be a more powerful tool in uplifting the lives of
impoverished Filipinos.

192 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

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Kahirapan ng Pinoy: Psychology of Poverty 195

CHAPTER 10
KAPUSO, KAPAMILYA, O KAPATID KA BA?
MEDIA IN THE LIFE OF THE PINOY

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I THE FILIPINO YOUTH AND THEIR MEDIA USE

II WHAT IS MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY?

• Scope of Media Psychology

III THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS IN MEDIA RESEARCH

• The Media “Effects” Tradition
• Cultivation Theory
• Uses and Gratifications Approach
• The “Active Audience” Theory

IV THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF MEDIA

• The Effects of Media Violence
• Prosocial Effects of Media

V PARASOCIAL INTERACTION

VI PSYCHOLOGY OF ADVERTISING
• Communicator Characteristics
• Message Characteristics
• Audience Characteristics

VII NEW MEDIA: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

• Cellular Phones
• Internet

196
 Everyday we navigate through a vast media environment that includes
television, newspapers, books, movies, radio, music, magazines, the Internet, and
more. Consider your daily engagements with media. Do you think you will be
able to live a meaningful life without media? Can you even imagine life without
media? How important is media in your life? Let us say you wake up tomorrow
where everything in the world is the same except that media do not exist: no
television, movies, radio, recorded music, computers, Internet, cellphones, books,
or newspapers. How different would your life be?
We cannot deny that an enormous portion of our lives is spent interacting with
media. Given the pervasiveness of media and their significance in both our personal
and collective lives, they generate a great deal of interest and debate.
Before we discuss the details of media psychology, let us first consider the
Filipino youth’s engagement with media.

THE FILIPINO YOUTH AND THEIR MEDIA USE

What are the most important things for the Filipino youth? Studies have
shown that for Filipino youth, media and technology are the big things in their
life (Lanuza, n.d.; Legaspi, n.d.; Mendiola, 2007). Mass media consume much of
their time. Table 10.1 below shows the amount of time Filipino youth have spent
for various leisure activities. The youth appear to spend a lot of time using their
cellphones, followed by using the Internet, and watching TV (Mendiola, 2007). As
enthusiastic users of the Internet, the youth use online tools for social interaction,
academic work, entertainment, and information-sharing (Alampay, Liwag, & Tan,
2009). The youth spend a lot of time watching television. Television is more than
just a source for gratifying their needs for information and entertainment. For these
youth, television is their kapuso, kapamilya, kapatid, and kabarkada.

Table 10.1 Amount of Time Spent for Specified Leisure Activities
Activity Mean Number of Hours per Week
Using the cellphone 3.38
Using computer for the Internet 2.75
Watching TV 2.44
Watching movies 2.17
Using the computer for games 1.99
Listening to radio 1.91
Reading magazines 1.36
Reading newspapers 1.36
Source: Mendiola 2007.

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 197
 How would the results of the cited studies compare with your own engagement
with media? If a survey is conducted in your class, do you expect to get similar
results? Let us now discuss the details of media psychology.

WHAT IS MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY?

Do violent programs cause aggressive behavior? Why are we addicted to
telenovelas? How has the use of cellphone changed the way you communicate
with your friends? These are questions related to media psychology, which studies
the impact of mass media on our personal and collective lives (Fishoff, 2005). The
field embraces both the old, or traditional media, and the new media, or emerging
communication technologies (Dizard, 1997). Traditional media include television,
newspapers, radio, magazines, and films. New media include the Internet and cellular
phones. Specifically, media psychology applies the theories, concepts, and methods
of psychology to describe and explain the cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects
and influence of mass media reception as well as usage (Giles, 2003).

Scope of Media Psychology

The word “media,” which is the plural of medium, comes from the Latin word
medius, which means middle (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003). The term mass is usually
taken to refer to the size of the potential audience or receivers of a communication
medium (Giles, 2003; Morris & Ogan, 1996). By definition, mass communication
is a message created by a person or a group of people sent through a medium to
a large audience. Therefore, mass media is any medium used to transmit mass
communication. According to Harris (1989), mass media include all media where
the communication process is public, diverse, indirect, via a technical medium, and
usually addressed to a large, and more or less anonymous audience. Mass audiences
define a mass medium (Chamberlain & Hodgetts, 2008). TV, motion pictures, radio,
newspapers and magazines, and, of course, the Internet, are distinctly mass media.
How about cellular phones?
A cellular phone is not typically considered to be a mass medium. A cellphone
is a simple two-way device, capable of serving only a few people at a time. Looking
at the definition of mass media, it is clear that a mass medium must communicate
a message to a large group, often simultaneously. However, modern cellphones
are no longer a single-use device. It is increasingly a multipurpose device. For
example, the use of cellphones for a variety of creative purposes other than
simple communication, such as entertainment, has expanded their influence in
unanticipated ways (Fishoff, 2005). Because of this, the study of cellphone-related
behavior falls within the scope of media psychology.

198 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS IN MEDIA RESEARCH
Do you ever wonder how media are affecting or influencing your attitudes
and behavior? Theoretical frameworks in media research refer to the different
approaches used by media researchers to explain the relationship between our
media use and our perceptions, attitudes, and behavior (Traudt, 2005).

The Media Effects Tradition

The media effects perspective sees media as an environmental variable that
can be assessed for its effects on people’s behaviors (Chamberlain & Hodgetts,
2008). Media are considered as information transmitters that affect receivers of this
information (Chamberlain & Hodgetts, 2008; Giles, 2003). Media effects researches
are largely based on the behavioral stimulus-response models and assumptions that
the transmission of knowledge will lead to behavioral change. Thus, psychologists
blame television for encouraging aggressive behaviors among young viewers. For
example, at the height of his popularity Robin Padilla, known as the “bad boy” of
Philippine cinema, became the idol of teenage boys. They identified with him and
imitated his actions based on the characters he portrayed in television and movies.
Several studies using the media-effects perspective have investigated the effects of
violent video games, TV programs, and music videos (Anderson, 2004; Nathanson
& Yang, 2003; Smith & Boyson, 2002).

Cultivation Theory
Cultivation theory focuses on the role of media in shaping how people perceive
their social environment (Bryant & Zillmann, 2002). According to cultivation theory,
media foster a particular view of social reality and influence how we view the
world. It maintains that television is the primary socializing agent in today’s world
(Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorelli, 1980). As such, it is partially responsible for
shaping or cultivating our conceptions of social reality. In other words, the culture
that we learn is influenced heavily by the culture portrayed on TV. Therefore, heavy
viewing of television can potentially lead us to accept the television views of reality
rather than the real worldview.
Cultivation theory has found that, over time, heavy TV viewers tend to
adopt beliefs about the world that are consistent with television’s portrayal of
the world (Signorelli & Morgan, 1990). For example, those who watch a lot of TV
shows featuring crime or violence like SOCO (Scene of the Crime Investigation),
Imbestigador, or CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) are more likely to fear they will
become victims of a crime than those who watch little of TV shows. In contrast to
the media effects tradition, cultivation theory argues that the most fundamental
effect of media violence is not increased aggression in individual viewers but
instead a more general climate of fear, characterized by a tendency to overestimate
the amount of crime in viewers’ own neighborhoods (Signorelli & Morgan, 1990).
This fear may lead viewers to start putting grills on the windows of their homes or
avoid walking alone in some parts of the community.

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 199
Uses and Gratifications Approach
On a typical lazy Saturday afternoon, what does your family watch on television?
Chances are each family member wants to view a different show. Your parents may
want to watch Imbestigador because it features a new crime modus operandi that
may affect their business. A sibling wants to watch The Lifestyle Channel because he
or she is interested to know the latest in fashion. Another sibling wants to watch an
action movie on HBO for some fast-paced adventure. A younger sibling wants to
watch cartoons because his or her classmates are watching it, and he or she does not
want to be left out of the conversation on Monday.
These examples illustrate the basic assumption of the uses and gratifications
approach. It assumes that individuals are goal directed in their media behavior
(Black, Bryant, & Thompson, 1998; Giles, 2003). It assumes that the needs or motives
of people are gratified by their media choices or uses. It views individuals in the
media audience as active participants in the communication process rather than
passive recipients of effects. Consequently, it claims that media do not do things to
people; rather, people do things with media (Ross & Nightingale, 2003).
This approach examines individuals’ motives for using media and the social
and psychological needs that media use gratifies. In general, it studies how and
why people use media in general. For example, Babrow (1987) examined students’
motives for watching soap operas, which included relaxation, break from routine,
and escape. Watching soap opera was also seen as an opportunity to socialize and
viewing provided topics for subsequent conversation with peers.
Similarly, we can use the perspective of uses and gratifications to explain
Filipinos’ love affair with telenovelas. For one, watching telenovelas satisfies
their need for entertainment and escape. It provides them with a good outlet to
forget about the harsh realities of life. For a few hours, they enter another world
and by identifying with the characters they get to be what they cannot be in real
life. Perhaps, it makes them feel good to watch someone who has more problems
than they have. Furthermore, telenovelas make them laugh, helping them cushion
the demands and hassles of their day-to-day life. They also provide viewers with
gossip material for times when they run short on other topics. They may likewise
satisfy their social needs. Networks of friendships have been formed on the basis
of arguing the merits of the latest move of a telenovela’s heroine, on filling in each
other on details of a missed episode, and on trying to guess what is going to happen
in the next episode.

The Active Audience Theory

According to the active audience perspective, people are not “passive sponges”
that just absorb the contents and messages of mass media (Silverstone, 1999). Rather,
they choose which media to consume and are actively involved in determining
what the meaning of the messages will be and that the process does not occur in
a social vacuum (Drotner & Livingstone, 2008). The active audience theory argues
that audiences actively filter, react to, and interpret messages presented to them

200 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

by media. Our religious upbringing, level of education, family setting, and peer
groups all have a role to play in how we understand and use media. For example,
a significant number of Filipino audiences were outraged by Tanduay Rhum’s
billboard ad, “Nakatikim ka na ba ng kinse anyos? (Have you tasted a 15-year-old?”
(Cabanes, 2008). Another example, the Filipino youth called the “Generation Text”
(Rafael, 2003) have developed creative uses of their cellphone units like missed calls
and chained messages.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF MEDIA

In this section we will discuss how media influence two psychological variables,
namely, violence and prosocial behavior.

The Effects of Media Violence

Think about three films you have seen in recent months or the sitcoms and
cartoons you have watched last weekend. How much aggression or violent material
was shown in those programs? How often did the characters in those shows hit,
inflict pain, shoot at, or harm others? We can see that many films, television shows,
and even televised sports events have a great deal of aggressive content. This leads
us to ask: Does exposure to a steady diet of such materials have any effect upon the
behavior of viewers? Findings of studies have not been entirely consistent. However,
taken together, they point to the following conclusion: Exposure to media violence
may in fact be one factor contributing to high and rising levels of violence.
What are the effects of media violence? To answer this question, several
categories of effects of media violence on individuals have been considered:
behavioral, cognitive, and emotional.
The behavioral effects of media violence include catharsis, disinhibition, and
imitation.
Catharsis. As you watch and vicariously participate in aggressive acts, do
the shows drain off your aggressive energy? This is the idea behind the catharsis
hypothesis (Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowerer, & Sears, 1939; Bryant & Zillman,
2002). It maintains that vicariously participating in others’ fictionalized hostility
or aggression allows viewers, readers, or listeners to be purged of their anger and
hostility and thereby become less aggressive. In other words, watching violent drama
enables people to release their pent-up hostilities.
Disinhibition. Disinhibition is the idea that as individuals grow more
accustomed to watching, reading, or listening to media violence, they become less
inhibited against committing violent acts (Bryant & Zillmann, 2002; Black, Bryant, &
Thompson, 1998). This reduced inhibition from exposure to media violence allows
people to legitimize using violence in real life, so they become more aggressive. For
example, after watching many characters, including heroes and heroines, handle
many situations through aggression, some viewers, especially children, feel less
restrained about engaging in similar actions themselves.

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 201
 Imitation. The most influential theory on this matter is the social learning
theory (Bandura, 1986). As discussed in chapter 3 the theory asserts that much
of what we learn happens through observation in our immediate environment.
It follows then that similar processes work through the media. Media audience,
especially children, tend to imitate behaviors they see modeled by television motion
picture and video game characters. Media violence provides viewers with new
techniques for attacking and harming others not previously at their disposal. And
such behaviors, once acquired, tend to be used when individuals are angered or
annoyed by others. Because fictional characters in media use violence so often to
solve their problems, young viewers may learn that violent behavior is a useful and
appropriate way to handle tough situations. A great number of investigations have
offered support for imitation effects.
Cognitive effects of media violence are changes in people’s beliefs, values,
and attitudes that result from consuming violent media fare (Black et al., 1998).
Cognitive effects include priming effects, altered perceptions, and desensitization
(Myers, 2008).
Priming effects. Priming refers to the effect that occurs when stimuli or
events make certain types of information more readily available in memory or
consciousness so that they influence the interpretation of new information (Baron
& Bryne, 1997). Violent materials can serve to prime aggressive thoughts and
memories, making these more readily available in viewers’ cognitive systems.
Such thoughts and memories may then serve to pave the way for overt aggressive
actions. For example, if viewers see, read about, or hear about violent behavior in
media, there is an increased chance that the viewers will have hostile thoughts that
can color their interpretations of other people’s behavior, believe other forms of
aggressive conduct are justified and will bring them benefits, and be aggressively
inclined.
Altered perceptions. If you are exposed to a steady diet of violence in the media,
how will this influence your perceptions of the real world? Frequent depiction of
the world as threatening and dangerous may lead to more fearsome and cautious
attitudes toward the actual environment (Gerbner et al., 1980). The prevalence of
violence in media results in a climate of fear in the population at large. This “mean
world” effect was demonstrated in studies that found heavy viewers of television
more likely to overestimate the amount of violent crime that took place in the real
world (Gerbner et al., 1980). Heavy TV viewers tend to perceive the world in ways
that are consistent with images on TV. As viewers’ perceptions of the world come
to conform with the depictions they see on TV, they become more passive, more
anxious, and more fearful.
Desensitization. This refers to lowered emotional sensitivity to violence and
its harmful consequences. That is, after watching countless murders, fights, and
assaults, viewers may become desensitized to such materials and show lessened
emotional reaction to them. Repeated exposure to media violence, then, turns to an
increased acceptance of aggression in real life.

202 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 One of the emotional effects of media violence is excitation transfer.
Excitation transfer. A lot of the fascination with media violence has to do
with physiological arousal (Giles, 2003). An exciting film with several action
scenes will speed up heart rate and increase blood pressure. Excitation transfer
takes place when the arousal produced by an exciting stimulus carries over to later
activity (Baran, 2002). In the context of media violence, an exciting film leads to
physiological arousal—increased heart rate, faster respiration, and higher blood
pressure. This state of arousal predisposes a person to act aggressively in the real
world. For example, a movie viewer gets into a traffic argument on the way home.
This incident results in verbal altercation, unaware that his or her physiological
excitation is the residue of the viewing experience rather than the arousal produced
by the argument itself.
Many studies have dealt with the problem of media violence. Not all findings
obtained have been consistent with the view that exposure to media violence or
participation in aggressive video games increases actual aggression. Further,
the evidence or relatively short-term effects of viewing violence are more firmly
established by research evidence than the potential long-term effects of such
experience. Still, taken as a whole, existing evidence does seem to offer at least
moderately strong support for the conclusion that exposure to media violence can
contribute, along with many other factors, to the occurrence of aggressive behavior
(Wood, Wong, & Cachere, 1991).

Prosocial Effects of Media

For every convincing argument about the negative effects of media there is an
equally compelling argument about its benefits or its ability to do good. In other
words, if viewing violence influences our aggressive or violent behavior, then
viewing prosocial behavior in the media should make us nicer to others. Prosocial
behavior refers to behavior that is positive, constructive, socially desirable that
brings benefits to other persons and society at large (Lowery & Defleur, 1995).
For all the fighting, hitting, and shooting in movies and television, there are
probably acts of kindness, caring, and affection as well. If media has made society
more violent, it should also have made us kinder and nicer. Take imitation as an
example: If violent behavior could be imitated through aggressive models, should
helping and cooperative behaviors be similarly imitated by acts of kindness?
A sizeable number of studies clearly demonstrate that people, especially
children, can and will model the good or prosocial behaviors they see in the media.
The great majority of research on prosocial effects of media has involved children
(Hogan & Strasburger, 2008). Only a handful of studies and experiments have
specifically examined the possibility of prosocial effects of media on adolescents
(Mares & Woodard, 2005).
Mares and Woodard conducted a meta-analysis of thirty-four studies of
television on children’s social interactions, levels of aggression, altruism, and
levels of stereotyping. They found consistent moderate positive effects for those

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 203
who watched prosocial content compared to control groups or those who watched
antisocial content. They concluded that prosocial effects were stronger and more
enduring than antisocial effects. Both in experimental settings and at home,
children who watched prosocial content behaved significantly more positively or
held significantly more positive attitudes than others.
The results of the meta-analysis suggest that the real potential for television
and other media is to help children feel and behave more pleasantly toward each
other. In any event, the conclusion is that television has the potential to foster social
interactions, reduce aggression, and encourage viewers to be more tolerant and
helpful. We can conclude from a consideration of media effects by affirming that
media can be used to achieve beneficial goals, such as education and positive social
change.

TV Programs with Prosocial Content

One of the great media success stories has been the children’s television program
Sesame Street, with its agenda of teaching, promoting goodwill, and enlightening
children around the globe (Black et al., 1998). Sesame Street is the most widely
viewed children’s series in the world. Not only is Sesame Street the most watched
children’s television show of all time, it has also been the most widely researched.
Several studies have demonstrated short-term effects on learning from watching
Sesame Street, with improvements in acquisition of prereading skills, social skills,
and attitudes and the understanding of math concepts among other skills. Indeed in
the ’70s, many Pinoy children learned their ABCs before they even went to school by
watching Sesame Street (Jimeno, 2007). The success of Sesame Street led to the creation
of its Pinoy version Batibot, which was part of many Pinoy children’s life from the
’80s to mid-’90s. Another local program the Knowledge Channel, a curriculum-based
educational channel, was established in 1999 (Han Ying, 2006). It is being used both
in the public and private schools as a learning tool. Studies have shown that the
programs in Knowledge Channel have improved the learning curve of the Filipino
youth (Han Ying, 2006).
Another program that has been extensively studied is Barney and Friends. This
program, which features a big purple dinosaur and emphasizes kindness and good
manners, has been found to have positive effect on children (Strasburger, Wilson,
& Jordan, 2008).

PARASOCIAL INTERACTION
Are you a fan of a famous celebrity? How much of your time is spent thinking
about this celebrity? How much have you spent on him or her? How would you
feel if something bad happened to him or her? In our media-rich environment,
viewers come to know personalities or characters on television as much as they
know people in real life. When viewers watch television programs (e.g., telenovelas,

204 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

reality shows) on a regular basis, it is like entering worlds as closely detailed as
their own. They observe many lives as they unfold and interact. They are granted
knowledge of characters and situations. In other words, they may know more about
“big brother’s housemates” than they do about their own housemates or brothers.
It is not unusual for us to know that some of our friends, or relatives, and even our
family members treat characters in a televised soap opera as their friends or as their
kapuso (same heart) or kapamilya (family) or kapatid (sibling), terms used by the top
three TV networks in the Philippines. The loyal audience talks about the celebrities
as if these characters have committed real actions, taking their fictional world as
real. They may even send them cards on their birthdays and attend their funeral.
We witnessed the hysterical attention Filipinos paid when their favorite media
personalities, like Rico Yan or Fernando Poe Jr., died. Media psychologists use the
term parasocial interaction to describe this relationship that exists between media
audience and media personalities (Giles, 2003).
Parasocial interaction is a type of intimate, friend-like relationship that occurs
between a media person and a viewer (Horton & Wohl, 1956). It revolves around the
idea that media audiences form relationships with media personalities where the
viewer perceives the relationship to be real. According to Rubin and McHugh (1987),
viewers form these bonds either because of physical attraction or because they feel
that there are similarities between themselves and the media personalities. The
viewer, finding the television personality attractive, enjoys watching the shows and
learning about their lives. They identify with the characters because they feel that
they share similar characteristics. There exists a concept of similarity between the
viewer and the media figure and more importantly a concept of shared perspective
(Giles, 2003). Depending on the amount of time spent watching, a viewer may create
the illusion of friendship and or relationship with a television persona that one has
never met.
Parasocial interaction has been treated as a consequence of a need or motivational
state in most researches. Conway and Rubin (1991) hypothesized that parasocial
interaction is one of the many important gratifications that audience members seek
when they select television shows to view. Audience identification and interaction
with media characters and situations fulfill expressive and affiliation needs (Giles,
2003). Parasocial interaction has been shown to be an important gratification sought
and obtained by television viewers (Rubin & Perse, 1987). Thus, it would seem that
for the Filipino fans, parasocial interaction is an important determinant of media use.

PSYCHOLOGY OF ADVERTISING
On a daily basis, we are exposed to advertisements that flood us with images
that sell various products from whitening soaps to the latest cellphone models.
These ads make us feel that we are not healthy enough, pretty enough, attractive
enough, energetic enough, happy enough, connected enough, or smart enough.

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 205
They feed our wishes and play with our insecurities. They want us to do something.
They want us to buy the product.
At the heart of these advertising techniques is the desire to change our attitudes.
The process of changing beliefs, attitudes, and behavior is known as persuasion.
Advertisers assume that if one has a positive attitude toward a particular product,
he/she will buy it. Much of advertising, therefore, is directed toward persuading
us to have a favorable attitude toward a particular product.
Our attitudes are changed by persuasive communications that are transmitted
through the various media. Appeals through the media rely on the spoken word,
the written word, and the image that is worth a thousand words. How do they
persuade you?
Petty and Cacciopo (1986) proposed a dual process model of persuasion called
the elaboration likelihood model, or ELM. According to this model, there are two
processing routes we can take when we are exposed to a persuasive appeal. These
are the central route and the peripheral route to persuasion.
In relation to advertising, we take a central route to persuasion when we
are highly motivated to evaluate a message. Central route to persuasion requires
elaboration. It entails thinking about and scrutinizing the arguments contained in
a persuasive communication. An example would be when we are about to make a
big purchase, like buying the latest cellular phone or laptop model. We carefully
read and evaluate the product’s brochures and manual. We evaluate and think
critically of the contents of the message and are influenced by the strength and
quality of the arguments. Thus, the message is effective to the extent that it leads us
to generate favorable, rather than unfavorable, thoughts (Petty & Cacciopo, 1986).
Strong arguments persuade us, weak arguments do not. On the central route to
persuasion, the process is thoughtful, often logical. Are we always motivated to
exert cognitive effort and scrutinize persuasive communications? No. Sometimes
we are not thoughtful or logical.
When we do not think critically about the contents of a message we take a
peripheral route to persuasion. We stroll this route when we are influenced by
incidental (peripheral) cues. Examples of peripheral cues are attractiveness of the
endorser, visual images (images of beauty and pleasure) of the ads, or we rely on
our feelings. An ad might have a happy music playing in the background or a well-
known actor or actress is the spokesperson.
The heuristic-system model, or HSM, also postulates two paths to persuasion
that are systematic processing and heuristic processing (Chaiken & Eagly, 1983).
Systematic processing is like the central route whereas heuristic processing is
similar to the peripheral route. Heuristics are shortcut cues that trigger acceptance
without much thinking (Chaiken, 1980). Rather than try to evaluate the message
and think through the issues, we respond to these superficial cues. When we
process peripherally we tend to evaluate the message in general terms, we do not
process the quality of the arguments, and make an overall judgment based on our
reaction to the strongest peripheral cues (Sadava & McCreary, 1997). We evaluate

206 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

a communication by using simple heuristics, or rules of thumb (Chaiken, 1980). If a
communicator speaks fluently, we tend to assume that his or her message must be
correct. Likewise, if the communicator is perceived to be an expert again we assume
that he or she is credible. Rather than take the time to scrutinize all the speaker’s
arguments, we take the easy way out, and accept the message according to heuristics.
You are familiar with the ad of a famous germicidal soap where the president of
PAMET clad in a white laboratory gown says, “9 out of 10 doctors recommend
this soap” or the dentist who recommends a popular brand of toothpaste. This is
based on the idea that we will respect the opinions of someone who is assumed to
have a lot of knowledge about the product, based on the heuristic that “experts are
generally correct.”
To help understand the conditions that lead people to take one route over
the other, it is helpful to view persuasive communication as the outcome of three
factors: a communicator (who), a message (says what and in what context), and
an audience (to whom). Each of these factors influences a receiver’s approach to
a persuasive communication. These are the elements of persuasion that are often
studied by social psychologists worldwide.

The Communicator: Who says?

What do Sharon Cuneta, Aga Muchlach, Sarah Geronimo, Kim Chiu, Manny
Pacquiao, Marian Rivera, and Kris Aquino have in common? They are all in high
demand to endorse products in advertising. They have the name, face, and voice
that could launch a million sales. Billboards, magazine ads, and TV commercials
are filled with their images. Sure they can wow us, but can they change our minds?
The communicator refers to the source or the speaker of the message. A first
characteristic of the communicator that was found to be important was attractiveness
(Chaiken, 1979; Dion & Stein, 1978). Have you ever noticed how product endorsers
are very good looking? Studies have shown that we like and trust physically
attractive people, and thus we are more likely to endorse what they are saying.
A second important characteristic is credibility that includes expertise and
trustworthiness of the communicator (Hemsley & Doob, 1978; Olson & Cal,
1984). Studies have shown that people perceive fast talkers as more credible and
trustworthy (Miller, Maruyama, Beaber, & Valone, 1976). Advertisers also believe
that associating a successful and well-liked person with their product will boost sales
(Sadava & McCreary, 1997). A positive impression of a celebrity endorser can affect
the image that consumers form of the product. According to ELM, a famous and
well-liked endorser should serve as a peripheral cue when processing motivation
is low and should enhance product evaluation. Given the lucrative endorsement
contracts that are common for popular celebrities, advertisers clearly believe
that celebrity endorsements can enhance consumers’ evaluations of a product. A
study by Rodriguez (2007) examined the influence of type of endorser (celebrity or
anonymous) and credibility on consumers’ attitude and purchase intentions. The
results showed that Filipino consumers had more positive attitudes and had higher
purchase intentions toward advertisements featuring celebrities. It also showed that

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 207
the qualities under endorser credibility that significantly influenced attitude toward
the advertisement and purchase intentions were experienced, knowledgeable,
qualified, and trustworthy. It is a small wonder why six out of ten commercials in
our country have celebrities and 99 percent of them are movie stars (Pe, 2009). We
are a culture obsessed with celebrities. Needless to say advertisers are very well
aware of this.

Message Characteristics: What is said?

If a company would hire you to market a certain product, what presentation
strategies would you use? This is what is meant by message characteristic.
The use of emotions was found to be effective in persuading people. Messages
that show breathtaking sceneries, of people having fun, accompanied by upbeat
music, and catchy slogans induce positive feelings. Research shows that we are soft
touches when we are in a good mood. We tend to look at the world through rose-
colored glasses when we are feeling good. We become more sociable, more generous,
and generally more positive in our opinions when we are filled with high spirits
(Brehm & Kassin, 1996). We make decisions more quickly and with relatively little
thought. As a result positive feelings activate the peripheral route to persuasion,
allowing superficial cues to take on added importance (Worth & Mackie, 1987). It
is also a common technique to use fear or scare tactics. Commercial advertisers try
to frighten consumers into buying their products. After all, who would want to be
caught with dandruff, bad breath, unpleasant body odor, or dull hair?

Audience: To whom is It said?

Source and message factors are important to make a persuasive communication
effective but the characteristics of the audience need to be considered as well. One
audience characteristic that has been studied is the influence of cultural values
(Brehm & Kassin, 1996).
Let us say you read a cellphone ad that says “Connecting you to your loved
ones” and another ad of the same product that says, “Making you a Mobile Leader
among Leaders.” Which ad appeals to you more?
We learned in chapter 1 that cultures differ in the extent to which they value
individualism versus (vs.) collectivism. What types of persuasive appeals are
prevalent in individualistic vs. collectivistic cultures? How do members of these
different cultures differ in the extent to which they are persuaded by these appeals?
Han and Shavitt (1994) studied the extent to which this cultural orientation is reflected
in the types of persuasive appeals that tend to be used and tend to be effective in
different countries. Results have shown that cultural orientation is reflected in the
content of advertising. American ads employed appeals to individual benefits and
preferences, personal success, and independence, self-reliance, self-improvement,
and personal rewards. Korean ads, on the other hand, emphasized in- group goals
and benefits, harmony, family well-being, and interdependence. Clearly, there are
different ways to appeal to the people of these two cultures.

208 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 In a second study, Han and Shavitt (1994) also investigated the relative
effectiveness of individualistic and collectivistic advertising appeals by constructing
two sets of ads for various products. One set portrayed individuals (“Treat yourself
to a breath-freshening experience”), and the other set featured groups (“Share
this breath-freshening experience”). Both sets were presented to American and
Korean subjects. The results showed that Americans were persuaded more by
individualistic ads, and Koreans preferred the collectivistic ads. To be persuasive
therefore, a message should appeal to the culturally shared values of its audience
(Han & Shavitt, 1994).
This point is similarly illustrated in the 2007 Global Nielsen Survey. The survey
has shown that consumers around the world still place the highest level of trust in
other people’s opinion in their decision when they decide on which products and
services to buy. Recommendations from other consumers remain the most trusted
source of information. However, although consumer recommendations were the most
credible form of advertising among the respondents, the research found significant
national and regional differences regarding this and other medium. Word of mouth,
for example, generated considerable levels of trust across much of Asia Pacific. Six
of the top ten markets that rely most on “recommendations from consumers” are in
this region, which include Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, South Korea, and
Philippines. This result could be explained in terms of differences in individualism-
collectivistism cultural orientation. The literature in individualism-collectivism
suggests that consumers in collectivistic cultures pay more attention to what others
think and feel (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1994). The opinions of others
or group norms are emphasized in collectivistic cultures. As a result, heuristic cues,
such as consensus information, should play a greater role in persuasion.
The educational level or socioeconomic status of your audience would also be a
major concern for advertisers. If you would be talking to a group of business people
or university professors, you would need high-quality arguments and should not
resort to peripheral cues (Cacioppo, Petty, & Morris, 1983).
You should also consider the mood of your audience. As mentioned earlier,
creating a positive environment will help in your persuasive appeals. Studies have
shown that people who ate or heard music while listening to a message were more
likely to believe the message (McGuire, 1985). What about age, does it really matter?
It was consistently found by researchers that younger people are more susceptible
to persuasive messages than the elderly (Sears,1986).

NEW MEDIA: INFORMATION AND

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
The Internet and cellular phones are the most prominent of these new media,
the so-called information and communication technologies (Pertierra, 2007). The
introduction of these technologies has changed our day-to-day life, most especially

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 209
the way we relate and interact with each other. We will now look at how these
technologies have been incorporated into our physical environments, interpersonal
relationships, and our sense of personal identity (Wood & Smith, 2001). Essentially,
we will consider not only what these technologies are doing to us but what we are
doing to them as well.

Cellular phones
Since their introduction in the country in the 1990s, the country has exhibited
one of the most spectacular acceptance rates and use of cellular phones (Pertierra,
2006). As of 2010, with a population of about 90 million, the Philippines has had
a total of 84.5 million cellphone subscribers, or 96 percent of the population, and
this number is expected to rise in the coming years. Cellphones have become a
major icon of Philippine life and have replaced the jeepney as the symbol of what
is characteristically contemporary Filipino (Pertierra, Ugarte, Pingol, Hernandez, &
Dacanay, 2002).
Cellphones have become an integral part of our everyday activities. We feel lost
without them. The use of cellphones has changed some of our rituals. For example,
one of the things we do when we meet people for the first time is to exchange mobile
numbers. The use of this technology has affected our language as well. For instance,
a group of Filipino language scholars, teachers, and students voted lobat (low
battery) as the 2006 Word of the Year (Villafania, 2007). We hear students say they
go “lobat” because of academic pressures. Parents go “lobat” because of economic
pressures. Interestingly, miskol (missed call) was voted by the same group as the
2007 Word of the Year (Villafania, 2007). A missed call is a call made to the phone
that is not accepted by its receiver. It is often used as an alternative way to make
someone’s presence felt, or pagpaparamdam. It can be used to mean, “Buhay pa ako,
magparamdam ka naman (I’m still alive, please make your presence felt).” A villager
in a rural area whose husband works overseas exchanges “missed call” with him so
they would know that they are thinking of each other (Nagasaka, 2007). At times,
when exchanging numbers, it is not surprising for a person to ask another to miss
call the other person’s phone (miskulin mo ako) so the number can be stored in the
phone’s directory. In 2010, the Filipino Word of the Year was jejemon, a derivative of
the Japanese anime Pokemon and Digimon. Among a subculture of Filipino youth,
the derivative “jeje” replaces “hehe” in text messages.

Philippines as Texting Capital of the World

One of the biggest surprises in cellphone use is the adoption of short messages
system (SMS), or texting, as a primary way of communicating. In the country,
cellphones are mainly used for texting (ITU, 2001). With 1 billion text messages
sent daily, the country is considered the “texting capital of the world.” Texting has
become the major means of communication for most us. We often text our relatives,
family members, friends, and acquaintances. Although most texts are personal
messages (ITU, 2001), this technology has been used for other creative applications.

210 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Through texting, we can send a request for virtually any kind of information,
ranging from stock quotes to astrological predictions or passages from the Bible.
Bored housewives and even husbands engage in “txt affairs’ (Pertierra et al., 2002).
Collectors, or kobradors, of the illegal numbers game, or jueteng, use it to transmit bets
for juetext. Catholics have set up catext-ism classes. We can text God and circulate
religious greetings. Texting has also become an important form of entertainment
in the country. Star-struck fans interact with their favorite media personalities by
sending them text messages on a regular basis and they receive replies through a
service called StarText. Texting has also made TV entertainment more interactive.
Through text voting, viewers vote for their favorite reality show candidate or singing
contestant. Even the government has started using texting, with the military using
it to gather text hotlines on potential terrorist activities. All these examples reaffirm
what has become obvious in the study of Pertierra et al. (2002). Texting has become
the heart of our communicative practice. Cellular phones have been thoroughly
incorporated into our lives.

Filipino Youth: Generation Text

The Filipino youth, whom a local service provider calls “Generation Text,”
have made the greatest use of this technology (A. Flor & B. Flor, 2003). Majority
of them no longer feel complete, fulfilled, or empowered without their cellphones.
In a survey, students reported that the mobile telephone was among their prized
possessions.
Cellphones have become an appropriate and important tool in the maintenance
of peer groups. The Filipino youth tend to live under the close supervision of parents
and guardians. Cellphones allow them to maintain their social networks outside of
parental supervision.
Estuar (2003) studied the texting culture of the Filipino youth and found that
for them the cellphone breaks temporal and spatial barriers in communication
and relationships. The mobility of cellphone allows them to be in “perpetual
contact” (Castells, Fernandez-Ardevol, Qiu, & Sey, 2007). They can communicate
anywhere and everywhere. It facilitates increased social networks among the youth.
As they search for their own identities, cellphones have given them freedom to
express their feelings in whatever form they prefer. Texting for this youth is a
means for maintaining relationships more than simply being a communication
tool. Similarly, the study of Abregana et al. (2003) also found that technology-
mediated communication enhances relationships among Filipino youth. It is an
important tool in maintaining relationships but they still recognize the value of
direct communication for expressing feelings, such as sincerity, honesty, and direct
confrontation.

What accounts for the popularity of texting?

The popularity of text messaging has been attributed primarily to affordability.
Texting is cheaper than a voice call. Coupled with this is our love for a good bargain.

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 211
We prefer to buy on retail basis, or tingi. Prepaid cards or loads are being retailed
for as low as P5.00.
Besides affordability, there are cultural reasons why texting has taken root in
the country (Kopomaa, 2007). According to Ishii (2006), cultural factors influence
the pattern of mobile use. This dovetails with the result of the study of Pertierra et
al. (2002). They found that Filipinos text primarily to be in contact with significant
others. This technology allows people to remain in contact with friends despite
spatial distance. It solves their fear of being left out in their respective networks. It
enables parents to remain in touch with their children, and retired people to maintain
contact with their former colleagues. Nagasaka (2007), in a study, examined the
impact of mobile phones on a small rural community in the Northern Philippines.
Cellphones were introduced primarily to facilitate communication with relatives
who are abroad or are working overseas. The village elders used their cellphones to
make contact with relatives abroad, keep their ties with their relatives while some
villagers used the potential of cellphones to establish new relationships. Whether
in the urban or rural areas, the key feature in the practice of texting is connectivity
(Castells et al., 2007).
Filipino families are close knit. It is important for us to know the whereabouts
of our family members. From time to time, we would exchange text messages just to
check how they do. Sometimes we text even the smallest details of what is happening
in our lives. Texting is a way of keeping in touch with family members and friends.
It provides us with a means to be connected with family members. By nature, we
are friendly and are fond of affiliations with different groups and individuals. We
value our relationships. Through texting we are able to nurture our relationships by
sharing inspirational quotes, sweet messages, and jokes.
Much of our social behavior is regulated by the value of hiya. We take extra
care not to be subjected to embarrassment, or mapahiya. Conversely, we make it a
point not to cause another person’s embarrassment. Through texting we are able to
transmit messages that otherwise might cause embarrassment if they are delivered
face-to-face. For example, if a friend asked a favor from you and you cannot grant
it you may find it easier to say your apologies through texting. Texting allows us to
express what we cannot or do not want to say directly (Pertierra et al., 2002)
In summary, text messaging has become one of the most convenient means of
communication. We see the interplay of socioeconomic and cultural factors behind
the widespread use of texting (Nagasaka, 2005). Texting has become a part of the
daily expressions of ourselves (Pertierra, 2006; Pertierra et al., 2002).

Cellular Phones and People Power II

The most dramatic use of the cellphone was demonstrated during People Power
II (Pertierra et al., 2002), or EDSA II. Cellphone has become the symbol of People
Power II, the equivalent of rosaries and flowers during People Power I (Pabico,
n.d.). The most intriguing part of People Power II was the use of texting rather than
calls and it was considered the key to its success.

212 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 Texting gave the protesters the benefits of convenience, confidentiality, and
instant connectivity (Pertierra et al., 2002). It enabled protesters to send and receive
messages whenever and wherever they were without the need to disrupt their
activities. They were able to send and receive messages, secure that the Estrada
government would not be able to monitor their communication.
Montiel and Estuar (2006) examined the pivotal role of texting during People
Power ll. It demonstrated the significance of texting in the development of a
“collective action frame” (Montiel & Estuar, 2006, p. 9). Grievances and widespread
corruption, moral and mental ineptitude of the Estrada government were relayed
through text messaging. The texts pointed to Estrada and the eleven senators as the
enemies of civil society. A large number of these text messages were jokes and satires
making fun of Estrada. Texting allowed the dissemination of the messages about
the social grievance and collective blame and push for collective action. It similarly
allowed the fast relay of political messages needed to mobilize and persuade people
to go out of the streets in a forceful but peaceful way. The victory of People Power
II was the victory of cellphones. We can say that President Estrada was a victim of
“coup d’ text” (Pertierra, 2006, p. 9).

Internet
Just like the cellular phones, the Internet has become an integral part of Filipinos’
daily lives. The growing influence of the Internet on our lives is increasingly difficult
to ignore (Wood & Smith, 2001). Surfing the world wide web, exchanging emails,
joining bulletin boards and chat forums have become as ordinary as taking a bath
or brushing one’s teeth. More and more Filipinos, particularly those in urban areas,
are hooked on on-line activity. A survey, dubbed the Yahoo!-Nielsen Net Index
2010, reveals that 30 percent of Filipinos in National Urban Philippines access the
Internet. Young Filipinos in the 15- to 19-year-old age bracket are the most attracted
to the Internet. Searching and staying in touch via email and instant messaging
are the top Internet-related activities. For the Filipinos, staying in touch with loved
ones and friends here and overseas is the most popular reason for using social
networking sites.

Social Networking
The country not only has the reputation for being the texting capital of the
world. Based on Universal McCann’s study on social media Wave 3 report, the
Philippines also has the highest penetration of social networking among Internet
users in twenty-nine countries (Casirava, 2008). As a nation of very social people,
it is small wonder that social networking is among the major Internet functions
that Filipinos have used. They use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter,
Friendster primarily to get connected with significant others. They contact old
friends, find former classmates or workmates, distant relatives, and establish new
relationships. Indeed, the study of Alampay et al. (2009) found that among the
various uses of online tools that Filipino youth engaged in, social networking stood

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 213
out for facilitating greater peer intimacy. They use social networking to stay in touch
with friends, share events, disclose their thoughts, and maintain social groups.
They also use social networking sites to keep in touch with family members. Online
relationships are now a common experience for many Filipinos (Pertierra, 2006).

Maintaining Relationships Online

Filipinos are eager to keep their relationships with their kin or friends by being
always in touch. Consistent with this, the study of Pertierra (2006) found that the
Internet is predominantly used to maintain contact with significant others, whether
they are relatives abroad or friends nearby. An increasing number of Filipinos are
actively engaged in online relationships. Overseas Filipino workers scattered in
various corners of the world are connected with their families, relatives, friends,
schoolmates, and town mates through the hundreds of Web sites in cyberspace
(Tsuda, 2003).
Apart from maintaining and strengthening existing relationships, many
Filipinos resort to the Internet in seeking and establishing new relationships as well.

Seeking New Relationships in Cyberspace

Ask your classmates if they or someone they know has ever made a friend
or have dated someone whom they met through the Internet. It is a safe bet they
would probably cite an acquaintance or two. The Internet has been matchmaker to
thousands of now-married or dating couples (Wood & Smith, 2001).
The Internet fills a void in many people’s lives. It presents an opportunity for
people who are unlikely to meet in person to engage in discussions on topics of
mutual interest. For some individuals, cyber communication has distinct advantages
over face-to-face communication. Because of this the Internet has been regarded
as a global meeting place for marginalized groups and alienated individuals who
can enter into a virtual community that knows no geographical bounds (Giles,
2003). A number of studies have examined this empowering quality of Internet
communication. McKenna and Bargh (1998) found that it was particularly helpful
for those who felt marginalized in face-to-face interaction, either because of physical
reasons, like obesity; or psychological reasons, such as sexuality.
Mitra (2001) argues that marginal groups are empowered by using the Internet
to give voice to their issues and sentiments. Marginalized groups feel free to express
their views that vary in political and ideological leanings. For example, Shaw (1997)
conducted a study on the Internet and gay men. He investigated the motivations
behind gay men’s use of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and found that it was used
to meet people and to increase their circle of friends and significant others. Gay
men were able to be themselves online and IRC was integral to their coming-out
process or their acceptance and declaration of their gay identity. Similarly, a study
by Lorenzana (2002) focused on how the Internet, specifically IRC, allowed young
Filipino gays to link and interact with fellow gay men. Results showed that they
primarily used IRC to meet fellow gays and form sexual, intimate, and friendly

214 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

relationships. They argued that IRC was a more convenient way of meeting gays
than meeting them in public spaces like bars. IRC also facilitated social support
from fellow chatters. Through IRC they received advice and validation, and found
someone to talk to in times of uncertainty or emotional distress. The study highlighted
that the use of IRC was entrenched in the context of gay men’s circumstances in the
Philippines. In a society where gays are discriminated against and perceived as
abnormal, gays find it hard to make new links with heterosexual people. Through
IRC, they were able to surmount the challenge of finding prospective partners.
The anonymity and accessibility of the medium were factors that allowed them to
pursue such activities. It provided gays with strong sense of hiya, a less intimidating
space to express their sexual preferences and desires, which are frowned upon by
society. As an anonymous medium, IRC suited the culture of Filipinos who have
the tendency to inhibit themselves from activities and behavior that incite guilt
(Lorenzana, 2002).
In sum, the technology of the Internet has empowered “boxed in” ordinary
people to transcend certain limitations of their situations and to open up spaces for
meaningful individual and collective action (Giles, 2003). As an interactive medium
and information network, the Internet provides ways to compensate for certain
needs and inadequacies.

Email as a Campaign Tool

Recently, political candidates have embraced the use of Internet to reach their
target voters. They conduct online campaign by providing information through
email. Candidates put up Facebook accounts. As a campaign tool, the Internet
allows them to reach a wider segment of society, especially the tech-savvy younger
generation of voters (Lee, 2008). For example, the efficient and effective use of
information technology was considered by political analysts as one of the major
success factors in President Obama’s campaign (Asis, 2009). The 13 million email
addresses of voters gathered by his volunteers received campaign information and
everything that could get people interested in him online.

Internet as a Tool of Protest

The Internet is not only changing the ways we relate and interact with each
other but it is also transforming the country’s politics (Tsuda, 2003). Its growing
role, described as “cyberrevolt” by Tiglao (2000), was made evident during EDSA
II. One of the most prominent of these online endeavours was E-lagda, a site with
the goal of collecting 1 million signatures in twenty-one days to pressure former
Pres. Joseph Estrada to resign (Pabico, n.d.; Tsuda, 2003). While it was able to gather
only 95, 000 signatures in twenty-one days, it was able to attract 25, 000 people, or
“e-mandirigmas” (Pabico, n.d.), to sign up for an e-group that engaged in letter-
writing campaigns, mobilizing Filipinos all over the world via the Internet, fax, and
text messaging to the senator-judges in the Estrada impeachment trial. Email was
also used for the dissemination of impeachment trial transcripts, transmission of
documents, and announcements of meetings, marches, and mass actions.

Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 215
 In this regard, the Internet has given new dimension to the mobilization and
coalition work of civil society (Pabico, n.d.). In short the Internet, like the cellular
phone, is becoming a potent tool for democratic movements (Tsuda, 2003).

In sum, the media is important in the lives of Filipinos. This can be understood
by using varied theoretical frameworks, such as the media “effects” tradition,
cultivation theory, uses and gratifications approach, and the “active audience”
theory. The media has detrimental effects, such as in increasing aggressive
behavior, but it can also have an influential effect on prosocial behavior. Moreover,
Filipinos can establish a relationship with media people thru the process of
parasocial interaction. In effective advertising, we must consider the communicator,
message, and audience characteristics in the media. Undeniably, information
and communication technology via cellular phones and the Internet have greatly
influenced the Filipinos’ social behavior.

216 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

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Kapuso, Kapamilya O Kapatid Ka Ba? Media in the Life of the Pinoy 221
APPENDIX
CHAPTER GUIDES:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
AND CLASS ACTIVITIES

222
CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Discussion Questions
Social Psychology Theories and Filipino Social Psychology
1. Which of the Western social psychological theories discussed are helpful in
understanding Filipino social behavior?
2. In your opinion, which social psychological theories are least helpful and
not applicable to the Filipino social behavior? Explain your answer.
3. Amidst globalization, do you think there is still a need for a Filipino social
psychology? Defend your answer.
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a Filipino social
psychology?
5. What do you think should be the characteristics of a truly Filipino social
psychology?

Filipino Indigenous Theory and Concepts

1. How would you define or characterize Filipinos?
2. Give your own definition and experience of the following concepts:
a. Hiya
b. Utang na loob
c. Pakikisama
d. Kapwa
e. Pakikiramdam
3. Do you agree that kapwa is the core concept of Filipino social relations?
Why or why not?
4. What other Filipino concepts do you find relevant or meaningful in
everyday life?
5. How can we make psychology relevant to Filipinos? Cite Filipino realities
and social issues that you think Filipino psychologists should study.

Social Psychology Research Methods

1. Do you agree that Western research methods are inappropriate for the
Philippine setting?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the indigenous methods?

Class Activities
1. Divide the class into small groups and discuss this question: To understand
Filipinos, one must understand _______________________. Explain your
group answer.
2. Cut out a news article that talks about a social phenomenon or behavior.
How might a personality psychologist, social psychologist, or economist
study this social behavior? What questions would a social psychologist ask
in relation to this article?

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 223

 3. Make a list of Filipino sayings or proverbs in class. Discuss what these
Filipino sayings or proverbs reveal about the Filipino psyche.
4. Role-play the patterns of hiya, utang na loob, pakikisama, and pakikiramdam.
Illustrate two scenarios: (1) What happens when people follow these social
expectations? and (2) What happens when people do not follow these
norms?
5. Go to the library and look for more Filipino social psychology studies that
use each of the research methods. Which methods are most commonly used
by Filipino social psychologists? Why do you think is this so?
6. Propose a research problem in social psychology and using the indigenous
methods, gather empirical data to study this Filipino phenomenon. What
difficulties did you encounter in using the indigenous methods? What
made it easy for you to use these methods?

CHAPTER 2: KAPWA KO, KAPAMILYA KO!

THE FILIPINO SELF & THE FAMILY

Discussion Questions
The Self and Culture
1. Who are you?
2. How does the country’s colonial history shape the Filipino sense of self?
3. What is the meaning of the self in the context of globalization?
4. How do you see yourself as a Filipino? Do you identify yourself as a
Filipino? What does it mean to be Filipino?
5. In the context of transnational migration, how do you think does moving
from one culture to another change one’s self-concept? What do you think
is the nature of the self-concept of Filipino migrants who were born and
raised in another culture?

The Filipino Self as Interdependent or Relational

1. How do you see yourself in relation to other people? To your family? To
your friends? To significant others?
2. Nowadays, do you think Filipinos are more relational than independent?
Why or why not?
3. What are the implications of an independent self in a collectivist culture?
4. What are the implications of a relational self in an individualist culture?
5. What to you is the meaning of kapwa?

The Family as Central to Filipinos

1. What do you think is the meaning of family in nontraditional families
(single-parent families, merged or blended families, same-sex parent
families)?

224 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 2. What is the meaning of family for:
a. The generation of your grandparents?
b. The generation of your parents?
c. Your generation?

The Social Influence of the Family

1. How does your family influence your thoughts, feelings, and actions?
2. Think of a particular moment when you did not want to follow your parents
but you eventually agreed. Analyze what happened in terms of conformity
and obedience.
3. Think of a particular moment when you did not obey your parents. Analyze
what happened in terms of conformity and obedience.
4. What are the rules in your family?
5. What roles do you play in your family?
6. Do you think the traditional gender roles of mother as caregiver and father
as provider can change? How?
7. Aside from the tagasalo, what unique roles do people play in the family?

The Transnational Family

1. How do you think will the concept of family evolve given transnational
migration?
2. What do you think can help men take on the role of nurturer when women
migrate?

Class Activities
The Self and Culture
• Create an image or symbol of yourself and explain the meaning of the
symbol.
The Filipino Self as Interdependent or Relational
• Complete the sentence “I am ___________” in twenty different ways. Analyze
the results in relation to the independent/separated and interdependent/
relational selves.
The Family as Central to Filipinos
• Draw your family tree. Analyze the relationships in your family tree in
terms of roles and expectations.
The Social Influence of the Family
• Interview a tagasalo. Look at the patterns of relating between the tagasalo
and the other family members.
The Transnational Family
• Interview a friend or peer who has a parent who works abroad. Look at the
roles and relationship dynamics in a transnational family.

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 225

CHAPTER 3: KAIBIGAN, KABARKADA, KAESKWELA: PINOY
FRIENDSHIPS AND SCHOOL LIFE

Discussion Questions
The Factors that Attract Us to Our Friends
1. Describe the factors that attracted you to your friends. Does your experience
coincide with the research findings?
2. Why do some people with opposite personalities get attracted to each
other?
3. Knowing that the theories explaining friendships (e.g., exchange theory,
equity theory) were developed in cultures founded on principles of
individualism, do you think that these theories apply to Filipino friendships?
Why or why not?
4. Think of a situation within your barkada, or group of peers, wherein the
balance theory can be applied.

The Pinoy Peer Group Experience and Conformity

1. For you, what is the role of your peer group, or barkada?
2. Discuss the times or situations wherein your barkada helped you become a
better person. Also talk about the times or situations where you think you
were pressured to do something negative by your peers.
3. Think of examples when a student would conform because of informational
influence and normative influence.

Risky Behaviors and Aggression in School

1. What do you think are the most common classifications of aggression that
Filipino students or friends have? Explain and give examples or situations.
2. Which of the theories of aggression discussed do you think best explains
the two most common aggressive behaviors occurring in Filipino schools
today: bullying in grade school and high school, and hazing for college
students?
3. Do you know of any kind of hazing done in your schools? How about in
other schools? Do you think that hazing is prevalent in our country? Why
do you think so?
4. Discuss how you should deal with bullying and how you might avoid
bullying in school.
5. Why do you think are there differences in aggression between males and
females? Does culture play a part? Explain.

What Happens When We Work in a Group

1. Do you believe that Filipino students who don’t know each other and are
grouped together tend to loaf more than friends who are grouped together
for a project? Why or why not?

226 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 2. Discuss ways in which you can be a more effective group member.
3. Share examples of personal experiences of groupthink and deindividuation.

Class Activities
Friendships and Barkada
• The class may engage in a research project that can be done to study Filipino
friendships and barkadas.

Aggression in School
1. Cut out newspaper clippings about aggressive behaviors in school. Using
the social psychological theories discussed, explain why these behaviors
occur.
2. Ask people about their favorite TV shows and note whether these shows
have violent content or not. Did you observe any gender differences on the
violent content of people’s favorite TV shows?

Group Influence and Conformity

1. Attend a gathering (e.g., rally, concert, meeting) and observe how people
behave in such a situation. Do you think they would act differently when
they are alone?
2. For one whole day, try to obey, or conform to, whatever people tell you to
do. Share your experiences in class. Then on another day, try not to obey or
follow what people tell you. How did you feel?

CHAPTER 4: FROM “M.U.” TO “I LOVE YOU”: LOVE AND INTIMATE

RELATIONSHIPS

Discussion Questions
What is an Intimate Relationship?
1. Do you believe in the evolutionary explanation for people’s need to belong?
2. Do you think everyone feels the need to be in an intimate relationship?
3. Consider the phenomenon of “single-blessedness,” or people who remain
single by choice. How do you relate this to the human need to belong?

BF/GF Dating, “M.U.,” & Same-Sex Romance

1. What are your views on traditional courtship? Is it okay for girls to ask
boys out and for boys to be asked by girls?
2. How do you feel about premarital sex, or sex before marriage? What are the
issues for boys when it comes to sex? What are the issues for girls when it
comes to sex?
3. Is M.U. = falling in love?

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 227

Principles of Attraction
1. Do you believe in “love at first sight”? How can you explain this
phenomenon in light of studies on attraction.
2. Do “opposites attract”? How can you explain this phenomenon in light of
studies on attraction.
3. In the context of the Internet and online communication, do the principles
of attraction still apply for online relationships?
4. In the context of global migration and transnational identities, do the
principles of attraction still apply to long-distance relationships?
5. How important is physical attraction in a relationship?

Theories of Love
1. What is your own personal theory of love?
2. Do you agree with Sternberg that intimacy, passion, and commitment
produce complete love? What do you think are the elements of love?
3. Do you agree with the distinction between romantic love and companionate
love?
4. Can friends eventually become lovers? Discuss.
5. Can lovers eventually become friends? Discuss.
6. Do you think that the type of love a couple experiences will determine their
happiness and success? Explain.

The Meaning of Love and Sex for Filipino Youth

1. Think about the phrase sex is “sacred and profane” (sagrado at bastos). What
do you think are the implications of this statement to how adolescents view
sex?
2. Do you think Filipinos are less sexual and more emotional compared to
other cultures? Do you think Filipinos value emotional intimacy more than
physical intimacy?
3. Do males really desire sex more than females do? Can females also desire
sex as much as males?
4. Do females really want love and affection more than males do? Can males
want love and affection as much as females?

Live in, Marriage, and Same-Sex Unions

1. What is your position on living in? Do you agree that living in is equivalent
to marriage? Do you think that living in is a long-term union or relationship?
2. How do you feel about same-sex marriage? Do you think same-sex couples
should have the same right to marry as heterosexual couples?
3. The Philippines in the only country in the world with no divorce law. What
is your position on divorce? Do you think that couples should have the right
to end their relationship legally? What do you think are the implications of
having a divorce law in the Philippines?

228 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Making Relationships Work
1. How can couples experience equality in their relationship? What changes
are needed to achieve gender equality?
2. Domestic violence is an issue that affects women around the world. In
every country that has conducted large-scale studies, 10 to 50 percent of
women reported being physically abused by an intimate partner in their
lifetime. Why do you think is domestic violence so prevalent? How can we
prevent domestic violence?

Class Activities
What is an Intimate Relationship?
1. Do a simple survey among your peers. Ask them if they want to be in an
intimate relationship. Analyze the results of your minisurvey.
2. Interview a person who is “single by choice.” Look at the meaning of
intimate relationships for a person who chooses to be single.

BF/GF Dating, “M.U.,” & Same-Sex Romance

1. Role-play traditional dating scripts. Discuss the implications of traditional
dating scripts on women/girls and men/boys.
2. Role-play alternative dating scripts. Imagine an alternative world where
girls can ask boys out. Discuss the implications of alternative dating scripts.
3. Watch a film on teenage same-sex love and romance. Discuss the situation
of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and their experience of love
and attraction. Consider how discrimination affects LGB adolescents.

Principles of Attraction
• Do a survey on what people find attractive in another person. Compare
different groups and analyze the results of your minisurvey.

Theories of Love
• Ask an old couple to share their love story. Analyze their story in light of
the different theories of love.

The Meaning of Love and Sex for Filipino Youth

1. Do a review of literature or Internet search on the meaning of love across
cultures. Analyze your findings in relation to how Filipinos view love.
2. Do a review of literature or Internet search on the meaning of sex across
cultures. Analyze your findings in relation to how Filipinos view sex.

Live in, Marriage, and Same-Sex Unions

1. Watch a movie about living in, marriage, and separation. Analyze the issues
of couples in long-term relationships.

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 229

 2. Do a review of literature or Internet search on same-sex marriages. Share
the experience of gay and lesbian couples in countries that allow same-sex
marriage.

Making Relationships Work

1. Watch a movie about domestic violence. Analyze how couples who
experience violence relate to each other before, during, and after violent
episodes.
2. Create an awareness campaign in school on the issue of domestic violence
including girlfriend battering.

CHAPTER 5: KA - TRABAHO, KA - OPISINA, PANGKABUHAYAN:

PINOY WORK LIFE

Discussion Questions
Motivation
• Let us say you are a human resources manager. How would you motivate
your employees?

Leadership
• Think of the leaders you consider effective. What are their traits? Do their
traits correspond to Jocano’s Gabay Leadership? Do you think Gabay
Leadership will be effective in all work settings? Why or why not?

Decision Making
1. Think of a time when you made an important decision with your org mates
or group mates. How was a decision arrived at? How do you feel about the
decision? Do you think you could have made a better decision if you made
the decision on your own?
2. Group polarization and groupthink are realities you have to contend with
when the group makes decisions. Considering our values of pakikisama,
hiya, and pakikipagkapwa-tao, what suggestions can you make to avoid
group polarization and groupthink?

Class Activities
1. Interview at least five working people. Ask what work means to them.
Based on their answer, try to locate them in terms of Franco’s 5Cs model of
meaning of work. Do they agree with your classification?
2. Interview a male and a female OFW. Ask what their motivations are for
working abroad, the difficulties they encountered, and how they cope with
these difficulties.

230 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

CHAPTER 6: SARI - SARING KASARIAN! GENDER AND SEXUALITY

Discussion Questions
The Biology of Sex
1. When we fill out forms to apply for a school or a job, we are usually asked
to declare our sex by checking either the box labeled male or the box labeled
female. Some people feel they don’t belong to either box. How can we
address this issue? Can people choose the sex category they belong to?
2. Consider the five-sex system proposed by biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling
and the three-sex system now institutionalized in Nepal. What do you
think are the possible consequences of changing the two-sex system? What
could be the positive and negative implications of recognizing more than
two sexes?

Gender Roles and Gender Stereotypes

1. When we decide on our clothes, shoes, or haircut; when we choose a course,
a sport, or a job, we are said to be expressing our gender. The way we speak,
walk, eat, play, show emotion, face responsibilities, and relate to others are
labeled as either masculine or feminine. Can we choose our gender? Can we
be both masculine and feminine at the same time? Can we vary from being
masculine at one moment and being feminine in the next?
2. Think about examples of gender roles and gender stereotypes in the past
that are no longer true in the present (e.g., only females can become nurses;
only males can play basketball). How can you explain these changes?
3. Do you think it is possible to make “emotional sensitivity” a masculine trait?
Why or why not?
4. Think of unique meanings of femininity and masculinity in your locality.
How do these constructions of masculinity and femininity shape the way
people in your locality live?

Theoretical Approaches to Gender

1. Consider the four approaches to understanding gender, namely, the
essentialist, socialization, social constructionist, and structuralist
perspectives. Which one do you think is the most applicable in the Filipino
setting? Why?
2. Think of a specific gender stereotype or gender role that you observe in real
life. Explain this using the four approaches. Which one is most suitable for
explaining the example? Why?
3. Consider the implications of using each approach to real life. What are the
possible consequences of using each approach to everyday life?
4. Reflect on the statement “gender is a performance.” What are your thoughts

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 231

 on it? Do you personally feel that you sometimes perform your gender?
When do you feel like you are performing and when do you feel that you
are not? Explain.

Gender Inequality and Gender-Based Violence

1. How can we change androcentric, or male-centered, practices? Give specific
examples.
2. Does your school practice gender-fair or gender-equal education? Give
examples of practices that are still male-centered and also examples of
practices that are already gender-equal or gender-fair.
3. Reflect on the meaning of feminism. Are you a feminist? Why or why not?
4. How can you promote gender equality in your own way? What attitudes or
behaviors do you personally need to change?

Sexual Orientation
1. Reflect on “sexual orientation as a continuum.” What does it mean in real
life? Does it mean a person can change one’s sexual orientation in one’s
lifetime?
2. Can a bakla fall in love with another bakla? Can a tomboy be attracted to
another tomboy? Explain how sex, gender, and sexual orientation may
interact to shape how people relate to others emotionally and sexually.
3. Why do you think is cross-dressing a characteristic of the bakla and the
tomboy in the Philippines? Why are Filipino gay men stereotyped as
feminine and Filipino lesbians stereotyped as masculine? Do you think
these stereotypes are specific to Filipino culture?
4. Consider your own attitudes towards LGB people. Do you have a positive
or a negative attitude toward LGB people? How can we try to be more
accepting of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals or people of nonheterosexual
orientation?

Class Activities
The Biology of Sex
1. Watch a film about intersexed or transsexual people. Suggested films are
The Beautiful Boxer (Thailand) and TransAmerica (US). Reflect on the film
and share your personal reflection in small groups. Present a summary of
your group discussion in class.
2. Do a review of literature or Internet search on intersexed or transsexual
people. Make a case study report and present a person’s real-life story in
class.

Gender Roles and Gender Stereotypes

1. Do a social experiment by acting like a transgender or the opposite gender
for one day. Observe people’s reactions to your behavior. Write a reflection
on the exercise and share your experience in class.

232 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

 2. Watch a movie about the meaning of masculinity and femininity in Filipino
culture and transcending these gender expectations. Suggested films are
Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros and Tuli. Reflect on the film and share
your personal reflection in small groups. Present a summary of your group
discussion in class.
3. As a class, make a list of traits, qualities, characteristics, roles, and
expectations about men and women. Once done, switch the label men and
women. Go through the list and cross out every item that the opposite sex
can do; that is, a trait of men that women can also possess or a quality of
women that men can also have. See which traits or expectations will remain
in the original list and discuss the results.

Theoretical Approaches to Gender

1. Examine the toys that boys and girls play with. Analyze if there are toys
that only boys play with and toys that only girls play with. Ask them what
they think of their toys and how they would feel playing with the toys of
the opposite sex.
2. Map the everyday life of a male adult and a female adult. Ask a male and
a female family member or relative to share their schedule for an ordinary
day. Note the similarities and differences. Try to explain using the four
approaches to gender.

Gender Inequality and Gender-Based Violence

1. Make a class project on a specific form of gender-based violence. For
example, develop an awareness campaign on violence against women in
your school.
2. Invite a feminist or a person working for women’s rights or gender equality
to speak in class. Interview the person in class.
3. Do a review of literature or Internet search on the diverse forms of gender-
based violence across cultures. Analyze your findings in relation to
Philippine reality.

Sexual Orientation
1. Ask heterosexual people how they became heterosexual or what caused
their heterosexuality. Report your findings in class.
2. Interview a lesbian, gay, bisexual, tomboy, bakla, or silahis. Ask the person to
share his or her personal life story. Make a case study and present a report
in class.
3. Watch an LGBT-themed film. Reflect on the film and share your reflections
in class.

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 233

CHAPTER 7: BUHAY - PAMAYANAN AT PULITIKA:
PINOY COMMUNITY AND POLITICAL LIFE

Discussion Questions
Social Psychology of Helping
1. Given the different theories that explain helping behavior, are there still
altruistic acts? Is there any difference between helping behavior and
altruistic acts?
2. In your personal experience, how does the Philippines, as a society, stand
in terms of helping behavior? Are we more helpful than other people? Are
we less helpful than other people? How can you explain the prominence of
these characteristics?
3. How can theories of helping assist in increasing political involvement and
activity among the youth? Provide concrete programs and principles to
support these programs.

Political Psychology in the Philippines

1. As an undergraduate psychology student, what is the biggest, most
important political issue for your group? How will you, as an aspiring
psychologist, attempt to address this issue? What research questions will
you ask? And how will you go about finding answers?
2. In your own experience as a Filipino, how does our political life here differ
from what you see in other countries, for instance the US? Is this good or
bad? Provide concrete examples.
3. From what you’ve read in the book and other supplementary sources,
what is the biggest contribution of the 1986 EDSA revolution to the Filipino
psyche? Explain your answer. Focus on the individual or social psychological
experience.

Filipino Style Electoral Behaviors and Attitudes

1. What is your stand on the current democratic system, together with the
political culture and typical political behavior of Filipinos, in terms of what
the government and democracy are supposed to be? Are we experiencing
too little or too much democracy? What elements hinder or promote our
subjective experience of self-determination and representation?
2. Is there anything wrong with “personality” or “identity politics”? If yes,
what is it? And how can an individual concretely work towards issue- or
platform-based politics? If no, what justifies this form of politics? And how
can an individual perpetuate this form of evaluation?
3. Are there any alternatives to the current democratic system we have?
Which one is the most applicable to the Filipino society? Explain. Use social
psychological concepts and focus on the subjective experience of Filipinos.

234 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Persuasion in Politics
1. Given the principles of persuasion, how can an individual remain vigilant
and critical during the campaign period, and properly select his or her
candidate to vote for?
2. Pretend that you are a candidate for the next election, and you were to
persuade your classmates to vote for you. How will you go about doing
this? What concrete steps will you take in order to be sure that you will win
their votes? Why will you do these?
3. How can one influence others (or even everyone!) to vote wisely and
guard against persuasion that may mislead and delude the public? Provide
concrete programs and steps to do this, as well as rationales or concepts to
support.

Class Activities
Helping
1. Conduct an experiment on helping behavior to see what factors facilitate or
hinder helping.
2. Share in class the story of the last time you helped someone and discuss the
details of the act (e.g., who did you help, why did you help, how did you
feel?). Tally all the answers in class and determine patterns of helping.

Political Psychology
1. Cut out campaign ads of political candidates or download them from the
Internet. Discuss whether the peripheral or central route was used by the
candidates.
2. In the last elections, choose your favorite political candidate. Discuss the
elements that made this political candidate appealing to you.
3. Interview students who are members of sociocivic organizations. Why did
they join this organization and why do they stay?

CHAPTER 8: HIDWAAN AT KAPAYAPAAN: CONFLICT AND

PEACEMAKING IN THE PHILIPPINES

Discussion Questions
Conflict
1. Think about an experience of being in conflict with another person or
group. What was the cause of the conflict? Was the conflict ever resolved? If
yes, how? If not, what do you think is the best way to resolve this conflict?
2. Given the different theories in intergroup conflict, which theory can best
explain the conflict between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao? Explain
your answer.

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 235

 3. Identify a conflict occurring between two groups or two nations. Analyze
how the conflict might have been initiated and how it is maintained.
Propose a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Mindanao.

Peacemaking
1. Which peacemaking strategies would be most effective in the Philippines?
Explain your answer.
2. Do you think sociopolitical forgiveness is ever possible in the Philippines?
Why or why not?

Class Activities
Peacemaking
1. Interview people who were at EDSA I and EDSA II and ask about their
experiences. Why did they participate and what did they learn from the
EDSA experience?
2. Interview people who are involved in peacemaking efforts. What strategies
do they use in their work?

CHAPTER 9: KAHIRAPAN NG PINOY: PSYCHOLOGY OF POVERTY

Discussion Questions
Poverty
1. Do you think that socioeconomic status is an important variable to consider
in Philippine psychological research? Explain your answer.
2. How might a social psychologist differ from a sociologist or economist
in studying poverty? What questions would a social psychologist ask in
relation to poverty?
3. Explain how poverty is an issue of social justice.
4. What principles of distributive justice are being practiced by the rich, the
poor, and the government in the Philippines?
5. Explain the culture of poverty in the Philippines.

Addressing Poverty
1. What are the ways in which the cycle of poverty may be broken in the
Philippines?
2. Knowing the varying attributions of the different groups (the rich and
the poor) on poverty, how does this translate to intervention plans and
initiatives currently in place to combat poverty? Do you think these are
effective? Why or why not?
3. Among the different ways of addressing poverty, which do you think is
the most effective? Explain. Use your knowledge of attribution, power, and
social justice.

236 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Class Activities
1. Watch a telenovela or movie where poor Filipinos are depicted. How were
the poor portrayed in the show/movie? What attributions were used?
2. Organize an exposure trip to an impoverished community and conduct
interviews in the neighborhood about their condition and ways to improve
their situation.
3. Interview organizations that work with the poor. What strategies do they
use in empowering the community?

CHAPTER 10: KAPUSO, KAPAMILYA, O KAPATID KA BA? MEDIA IN

THE LIFE OF THE PINOY

Discussion Questions
Theoretical Frameworks in Media Research
1. Using the four theoretical frameworks in media research, discuss the
influence of media on your life. Please consider all types of media you use.
2. Why do you think soap operas are so popular? Why do soap operas rely so
much on tragedy and disaster in their plots?

Psychological Effects of Media

1. Many of the news stories describe how TV inspires people to imitate what
they see. Do you think these cases are rare or rather common?
2. Can you recall imitating TV characters or shows when you were younger?
Do you see your younger brothers or sisters doing that today?
3. Do you believe that TV does encourage certain kinds of behavior? Do you
think it encourages good or bad behavior? What kinds of actions does it
encourage the most?

Parasocial Interaction
1. What do you think are the factors that influence the development of
parasocial relationships?
2. Do you think parasocial relationships resemble interpersonal relationships?
In what ways are they similar? Do you think this type of relationship is
good for the viewers?

Internet
1. We learned in chapter 3 that interpersonal relationships develop in stages.
Do you think online relationships develop in a parallel fashion? What
factors do you think lead people to seek romantic relationships online?

Chapter Guides: Discussion Questions and Class Activities 237

Class Activities
1. Keep a diary of your media consumption for a Twenty-four-hour period.
Be sure to log all media activities including viewing television, listening
to music, reading the newspaper, going on-line, and so on. Then compare
diaries with your classmates. How many different media are used? What
is the average number of media used? What medium gets used more than
others? How long? Are there any distinct patterns of media use?
2. Talk with someone who watches soap operas regularly. Try to find out why
that person watches them and why certain ones are his/her favorites.
3. Make a portfolio of ads from magazines that illustrate the various types of
emotional appeals. Write an explanation of each ad appeal.
4. Have a class discussion/poll and select the three best and worst programs
on TV. Explain and defend your choices.

238 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

INDEX

A Central route, 206

Acceptance, social, 15 Church, 10; in politics, 152
Active audience theory, 200 Civility. See Pakikitungo
Active nonviolence, 173 Cognitive dissonance, 5
Action research, 190 Cognitive psychology, 3
Adolescents, Filipino, 57 Communication, 169
Adultery. See Pakikiapid, 22 Companionate love, 86
Aggression, 20, 63–68: causes of, 65–66; Companionship/esteem. See Pakikisama
classification of, 64–65; dimensions of, Competition, 162
67; gender differences in, 68 Compliance, 58
Altruism, 139 Complementarity, theory of, 55–57
Androcentrism, 125 Conciliation, 171
Anthropology, 3 Conflict, 159; causes of, 159; intergroup,
Arbitration, 170 163
Archival research, 20 Conformity, 41, 45, 57, 58, 59; Asch’s
Aristotle, 4 experiments, 40
Asch, Solomon, 39 Contact, 167
Asian Psychology, 10 Cooperation, 167
Attitude, 6; tricomponential view of, 6 Cooperativism. See Bayanihan
Attraction, principles of, 80; sexual and Corporate social responsibility, 191
emotional, 129 Correlational method, 18
Attractiveness, physical, 81–83 Corruption, psychology of, 149
Attribution, 185; internal, 185; external, Corruptionary, 149
186 Courtship, 77, 78
Cultivation theory, 199
B Culture, 8, 31, 61: individualist, 31, 32;
Bahala na (determination), 11 collectivist, 31, 32, 37, 49; Chinese
Bahala na (it is up to God), 105 culture, 32
Bakla, 130
Balance theory, 57 D
Bargaining, 169 Damayan (solidarity), 109
Barkada, 57–61; Experience and conformity, Dating, 77
58–61 Debt of gratitude. See Utang na loob
Bayanihan (cooperativism) spirit, 109 Debt of obligation, 14
Behavior, 2, 3 Deindividuation, 70
Behavior, social, 2, 8 Delicadeza (to be circumspect or prudent),
Behavioral control, 6 11
Bisexual, 131 Democratic-authoritarian value systems,
Bullying, 67 146
Bystander effect, 142 Determination. See Bahala na
Discrimination, 132
C Dispositions, personal, 3
Carlota, Annadaisy, 8 Domestic violence, 93

239
E Heuristic system model, 206
Economic betterment, 11 Hiya (propriety/dignity), 11, 13, 35
Elaboration likelihood model, 206 Hiya (shame), 62
Elopement, 88 Hollnsteiner, 14
Emotional closeness, 11 Homophobia, 132
Endurance, 11 Househusbands, 48
Enriquez, Virgilio G., 8, 9, 10 Human behavior, 3–4
Equity, 56, 91–92
Essentialism, 121 I
Evolutionary psychology, 141 Identity politics, 15
Exchange theory, 56 Independent vs. interdependent selves, 34
Expectations, 13 fig. 2.1
Experimental method, 17 Indigenous research, 8
Indigenous research methods, 21–22
F Indigenous psychology, 9
Familism, 42, 102 Industrial psychology, 9
Familiarity, 80 Industrial relations, 105
Family, 37–47, 100: social influence of, 39; Influence, social, 5, 41, 59; background on,
value of, 43 39
Family business, 105–107 Instrument, 19
Felipe, Abraham, 8 Intal, Anna Miren Gonzalez-, 8
Femininity, Filipino, 119 Intersexed/intersexual, 115, 116
Feminist Movement, 127 Intimacy, 84
Festinger, Leon, 5 Intimate relationships, 76–77
Filipino kinship structure, 38 fig. 2.3 Interpersonal relationships, 13, 14, 15
Friendship, 54–61: barkada, 57, 58; theories Iskala ng Mananaliksik (researcher/method
of, 56–57 scale), 21
Fundamental attribution error, 185 Iskala ng Pagtutunguhan ng Mananaliksik
at Kalahok (researcher-participant
G relationship scale), 21
Gabay (guide) leadership, 102
Gender, meaning of, 118; as performance, J
123 Jocano, F. Landa, 37
Gender belief system, 118 Juvenile delinquents, 63
Gender identity, 114, 116 Justice, social, 183; types of, 183
Gender inequality, 92, 125
Gender stereotypes, 118; Western, 119 K
Gender roles, 46, 48, 119 Kagandahang-loob, 12
Gender socialization, 46 Kalayaan (freedom), 11
Generative psychology, 189 Kapwa, 12, 15–16, 35; model, 11
Goethals, 4 Kapwa value structure, 12 fig. 1.1
Goffman, Erving, 47 Karangalan (dignity), 11
Gratitude/solidarity. See Utang na loob Katarungan (justice), 11
Group, 68 Kinsey, Alfred, 128; continuum, 128
Group polarization, 103 Kinship structure, 37, 38; kinship, ritual
Groupthink, 103 (magkumpare/magkumare), 37, 44
Kitayama, Shinobu, 33
H Klein’s sexual orientation grid, 129
Hamburg, Samuel R., Dr., 83
Hatfield, Elaine, 84 L
Hazing, 67 Labor relations, 104–105
Helping, 139; theories of, 139–141 Leaders as gabay (guide), 102
Heterosexism, 132

240 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

Leadership, 101–102: definitions of, 101; Pagtitiis (to endure), 11
traits, 101 Pakikiapid (adultery), 22
Lesbian, 130–131 Pakikibaka (resistance), 11
Licuanan, Patricia, 8 Pakikibagay (conformity with), 15, 21
Local governance, 154 Pakikiisa (being one with), 15, 21
Love, 85–89; meaning of, 87; styles of, 85; Pakikilahok (joining/participating with),
theories of, 83, 84 15, 21
Living-in, 88 Pakikipagkuwentuhan (storytelling), 22
Lynch, 15 Pakikipagkapwa-tao, 12, 15, 35
Pakikipagpalagayang-loob (being-in-
M rapport), 15, 22
Makiramay (to share feelings), 11 Pakikipagpalagayang-loob (understanding,
Mapagbigay (to give generously), 11 acceptance), 21
Markus, Hazel, 33 Pakikipanuluyan (residing in the research
Martial Law, 146 setting), 22
Marriage, 88 Pakikiramdam (feeling for another), 12, 16,
Masculinity, 118, 119 35, 62
Mass media, 198 Pakikisangkot (getting involved), 15, 21
McDougall, William, 4 Pakikisama (companionship/esteem), 11,
Mediation, 169 13, 15, 21, 22, 61
Media psychology, 198 Pakikisalamuha (interaction with), 15, 21
Microfinance, 190 Pakikitungo (transaction, civility), 15, 21
Migration, 47–48 Pambansang Samahan sa Sikolohiyang
Milgram, Stanley, 39 Pilipino, 9
Minority influence, 7 Pangilinan, Manuel V., 98
Misperception, 163 Parasocial interaction, 198
Moro Islamic Liberation Front, 2 Patience, 11
Moscovici, Serge, 6 Peace education, 174
Mutual understanding, 78 Peace organizations and peace zones, 174
Myers, David, 5 Peace psychology, 171
People empowerment, 148, 190
N People Power, 2, 172, 212
National Book Store, 105, 106 Perceived injustice, 162
Newcomb, Theodore, 55 Peripheral route, 206
Norms, 41; social, 140 Personality, 3, 10; Filipino, 11–12
Norm formation experiments, Sherif’s 39 Physical attractiveness, 81–82
Political culture, 145
O Political parties and coalitions, 150
Obedience, 41, 58 Political psychology, 145
Obedience experiments, Milgram’s, 40 Political science, 3
Observation method, 19 Positioning theory, 148, 165–166
One-of-us (hindi ibang tao), 15 Power and hierarchical relationships, 182;
Outsider (ibang tao), 15 source of, 182
Overseas Filipino workers, 107–109 Poverty, culture of, 185, 189; urbanization
Overseas workers, families of, 47 of, 187; addressing, 189
Prejudice, 132, 174
P Prisoner’s dilemma, 160
Pagdalaw (visiting), 22 Propriety/dignity. See Hiya
Pagkamakatao, 12 Proximity, 54, 81
Pagmamasidmasid (observation), 22 Psychologists, 3: American, 4; British, 4;
Pagtatanong-tanong (asking around), 22 Filipino, 8–9
Pagtawad (haggling behavior), 22 Psychological research, 9, 21
Pagtitimpi (to suppress), 11 Psychological science, 9

Index 241
Q Social comparison theory, 5
Quasi-experimental method, 18 Social constructionism, 122
Social control, 41
R Social change, 41
Ramos, Socorro, 99 Social desirability, 20
Realistic group conflict theory, 164 Social dilemma, 160
Reality, social, 2, 10 Social dominance theory, 165
Reciprocity. See Utang na loob Social exchange, 139
Research methods, 17–22 Social expectations, 61–63
Relational orientation, 8 Social facilitation, 4, 69
Relations, social, 5 Social groups, 6
Relationships, types of, 84 fig. 4.1 Social identity theory, 7, 164
Relative deprivation theory, 164, 184 Social issues, 2
Resentment/guts. See Sama/lakas ng loob Social inequality, 182
Respect: traditional signs of, 45 Social leadership, 101
Reyes, Carmen Alcuaz-, 8 Social loafing, 69–70
Role, concept of, 46 Social norms, 140
Role-playing, 46, 47 Social penetration theory, 57
Role-taking, 46, 47 Social psychologists, 2; Filipino, 8
Romance, same-sex, 79 Social Psychology, 2–4, 9, 23: Asian,
Romantic love, 85 8; definition of, 2; domains of, 5;
Ross, Edward, 4 European, 6; frames of, 4–8; kinds
Rubin, Theodore Isaac, Dr., 83 of, 7; levels of analysis, 4; North
American, 5; Philippines, 8–16;
S research methods in, 17–22; theories
Sama/lakas ng loob (resentment/guts), 11 of, 7
Same-sex romance, 79 Social reality, Filipino concepts of, 12
Same-sex couples, 89 Social representations, 7, 67, 148
Sampling, 19, 20; Social status, 181
Security, 11 Socialization, 16; approach to gender, 121
Self: determinants of, 30; independent, 32, Socioeconomic status, 181
33, 34, 35; interdependent/relational, Sociology, 3
35–37, 49 Sociopersonal, value of, 12
Self-concept, 30 Sociopolitical forgiveness, 175
Self-disclosure, 90–91 Sternberg, Robert, 84
Self, looking-glass, 31 Structuralist approach to gender, 123
Separated self. See Self, Independent Suffering, 11
Sex, meaning of, 87–88; biological, 114– Survey method, 19
115; multidimensional model of, 115 Sy, Henry, 99
Sexism, 125
Sex roles, social, 114 T
Sexual relations, 89 Tagasalo, role of, 46, 47
Sexual orientation, 114, 128 Tajfel, Henri, 6
Sexuality, 128 Tan, Allen, 8
Shared identity. See Kapwa Task leadership, 101
Shoemart (SM), 105 Thinking, social, 5
Sherif, Muzafer, 39 Tomboy, 130–131
Sikolohiyang Pilipino, 9, 10 Tragedy of the commons, 161
Silahis, 131 Transgender, 120
Similarity, 55–56, 82–83 Transnational family, 47– 49
Social behavior, aspects of, 4–5 Transpinay, 117
Social betterment, 11 Transsexual, 116, 117, 120
Social class, 181 Triplett, Norman, 4

242 Social Psychology in the Philippine Context

U W
Unanimity, 60 Walang hiya, 14
Understanding. See Pakikipagpalagayang- Walang utang na loob, 44
loob Western theoretical models, 9
Utang na loob (gratitude/solidarity), 11, 14, Wife battering, 92
43, 82, 105, Women and poverty, 188
Women in politics, 153
V Women migrants, Filipino, 47, 48
Value structure, Filipino, 12 Work groups, 103–104
Values, 105, 109: accommodative surface, Work motivation, 98–100: intrinsic
11; confrontative surface, 11; Filipino, motivation, 99; extrinsic motivation,
10, 11, 43; societal, 11 99
Valera, Jaime, 8
Validity, external, 17 Y
Variable, dependent, 17; extraneous, 17; Youth, 36, 39, 45, 63, 86; attitudes of, 43
independent, 17
Violence, 166; types of, 166; against
women, 126

Index 243