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Filipino psychology, or Sikolohiyang Pilipino, in Filipino, is defined as the philosophical school and psychology rooted on the experience, ideas, and cultural orientation of the Filipinos. It was formalized in 1975 by the Pambansang Samahan sa Sikolohiyang Pilipino (National Association for Filipino Psychology) under the leadership of Virgilio Enriquez, who is regarded by many as the father of Filipino Psychology. Sikolohiyang Pilipino movement is a movement that created to address the colonial background in psychology in the country. It focuses on various themes such as identity and national consciousness, social awareness, and involvement, and it uses indigenous psychology to apply to various fields such as religion, mass media, and health.
The movement has three main areas of protest. First, it is against a psychology that promotes the colonial mentality, and decolonizes the Filipino mind. Second, it is against the imposition of a psychology that is more appropriate to industrialized countries. Finally, the movement is also against the exploitation of the masses through the use of psychology.
Sikolohiyang Pilipino is built on the idea that psychological knowledge can be derived from the culture. It also believes that foreign theories should not be completely abandoned. According to Luis Enriquez, Sikolohiyang Pilipino does not advocate for the removal of foreign ideas from the field of psychology.
In 1978, Enriquez proposed two processes that can be used to indigenize knowledge: indigenization from within and indigenization from without. Indigenization from without involves searching for local equivalents for commonly used psychological concepts. Indigenization from within is a process in which the knowledge and methods related to psychology are derived from the local culture. In the Philippines, Sikolohiyang Pilipino has been working on the concept of cultural revalidation. The process formalizes the knowledge base and the local culture as its source.