Philippine Psychology according to Wikipedia.org is mainly about the beliefs, customs and traditions of Filipinos. These beliefs involve the values and treatments, medical or not, that we may be continuing up to present-day. These beliefs, unfortunately or not, may stop as we continue to go through time, with much more hope in what technological know-how may bring.
The origins of our customs may be deeply rooted on what our foreign invaders have left for us. Most of them are based on the traditions of both the Americans and the Spaniards. Of course, these customs may have been gone by the time the foreigners have left our country but in the span of time they have stayed here must have let their beliefs linger. Still, we have our own beliefs that remain - protected or not.
We still have the values of yesterday's generations until today. We may not have them for much longer since we have been westernized too much - not only in our beliefs but also in almost everything else. Values that we continue to have are those that make us Filipinos wherever we are. "Pakikisalamuha", "pakikipagkapwa", and "kagandahang-loob" are only a few of what we still have and, for me, should continue to have and cherish. Foreigners would not have these customs embedded in them as much as they are in us. This, I believe, makes us lucky. We may be economically and financially disadvantaged but these beliefs makes us complete, being Filipinos.
Of course, not all of our customs are as virtuous. The Filipino value of "Bahala Na", "Pakikibaka", and "Utang na loob", for me, are a few debatable beliefs we have. The original meaning of the custom, "Bahala na", came from the phrase, "Bathalan na", which means "I will do my best, let God take care of the rest". Although, this belief had become an expression for those who are not ready to do much work, and those who let God handle everything else. This value may or may not be taken care of in Filipinos but it depends greatly on what people do or understand about it.
Not only are our values should we cherish or debate on. Traditions are also debatable. If I remember it correctly, there was a documentary in iWitness that was entitled, "Lukayo: Hindi Ito Bastos". After watching that documentary, I could not help but think that Filipinos are getting too westernized even through the Church. Lukayo is a tradition in Laguna that promotes fertility for newly-wed couples - it involves the sexual part of a man. It was part of the documentary that after a priest saw this tradition, he asked the people to stop. For me, this is like killing the Filipino tradition. I wonder much about why the Church would not promote our own tradition. It merely made me conclude that these people, the Spanish-based Church, are killing these traditions because they could not see the beauty of it. Amazingly, the Lukayo's purpose of this tradition is to promote fertility - something the Bible actually says.
Psychology in the Philippines is not the same as I see it in the Western countries. It does not focus much on how the brain works. It focuses more on what people in society do. I guess it focuses more on Social Psychology. It concentrates more on the customs and traditions of the society it is in.
