Importance Of Filipino Psychology

Virgilio G. Enriquez introduced Filipino Psychology that involves the experiences, ideas, and cultural orientation of the Filipinos. This study focuses on different themes such as, identity and national consciousness, social awareness and involvement, national and ethnic cultures and languages, and bases and application indigenous psychology. Filipino psychology was a movement but later became an academic discipline so that psychologists would understand the Filipino mind. Enriquez’s main goal was to prove the relative meaning of the values. There are two approaches that Enriquez proposed, Indigenization-from-within, which means that the study is based on the experiences of the local culture. While, Indigenization-from-without is an attempted

They would know the different attributes of the foreign influences that were introduced to them. Also, psychology is referred to as individuals’ thinking, emotions, and behaviors. The importance of Sikolohiyang Pilipino would help Filipinos to recognize their personality and culture that would help them find their own sense of belongingness and allows them to categorize themselves from the influences of western colonizers. That is why it is important to Sikolohiyang Pilipino because this would allow Filipinos to find their own identity and the best way to do this is to notice the values that their family has taught

Hollnsteiner translated “utang na loob” as debt of gratitude and a debt inside oneself. Both translations had insufficient interpretation. In contrary to Hollnsteiner’s study, Kaut translated “utang na loob” as debt of primary obligation and gave sufficient connotation. In Filipino culture, the meaning of “utang na loob” is to repay a person who’s done you a huge favor. While in Filipino psychology, the term “utang na loob” explains that it is replication of the “kapwa” orientation, which is one of the core values of Filipino Psychology. Filipinos sees “utang na loob” as a gesture that would connect them to their kapwa Filipino.

The points I want to make about the topic I have chosen is that, these American scholars should not theorize or hypothesize the Filipino values, culture, and traditions. Since they are not Filipinos, they do not share with us our Filipino culture because they did not live here, they did not experienced this values like we did, and they do not have adequate evidences for their study. Also, they are not familiar in Tagalog language so maybe their word choice are invalid since they do not know what is the deeper meaning of the word they have chosen for the terms they have