Heads of the UP Psych Department
No information could be gathered as to the heads of the UPDP prior to 1925. In September, 1925, Agustin S. Alonzo who just finished a doctorate in Experimental Psychology from the University of Chicago, became the first Filipino Chair of the UPDP. Alonzo finished his MA in Psychology from the UP in 1922, the first MA graduate of Psychology under the College of Education (de la Llana : 4). Upon assuming his post as head of the Department of Psychology, he made plans for a psychology curriculum to be offered for school year 1926-27. At lease nine new courses were introduced but, of these, only Experimental Psychology was taught because of lack of time, lack of competent faculty members as well as facilities and the absence of a genuine interest in Psychology from students who just take psychology courses as a requirement for an Education Degree (Santamaria : 14-15).Alonzo was succeeded as Chair in 1930 by Isidoro Panlasigui who returned to the Philippines in 1928 with a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Iowa. He authored the first Filipino book on Psychology entitled, Psychology: an Introductory Text (1952) (Santamaria: 15; de la Llana: 4).
The next Chair was Sinforoso G. Padilla, who returned to the Philippines with a Ph.D. in Clinical and Experimental Psychology from the University of Michigan. His leadership proved to be a turning point in the growth and development of academic psychology. He succeeded in implementing the curriculum set up by Alonzo by teaching almost all courses outlined therein. Laboratory and clinical courses made use of Dr. Padilla's personal equipment while the rest had to be designed and improvised by the students themselves due to lack of facilities. In 1932, Padilla established the first psychological clinic at the UP in order to provide vocational guidance and educational testing. Shortly before World War II, he established the first Philippine Guidance Association. During Padilla's time, the UPDP announced the offering of psychology as a major field of concentration in the graduate level. Padilla also authored the The Philippine Self-Administered Intelligence Test (de la Llana: 5; Enriquez 1982: 9; Lagmay: 4, 6; Santamaria, 15-17).
Padilla was succeeded as Chair of UPDP in 1955 by a student of B.F. Skinner, Alfredo V. Lagmay. Lagmay has just arrived from Cambridge, Massachusetts where he finished his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Harvard University. He served as Chairman for 22 years. In 1970, an election for the position of Chair was held for the first time in the history of the UPDP and Dr. Lagmay became the first elected Chair. During his chairmanship, he has seen how the UPDP has grown from its small size, both in terms of students and faculty, into its present state.
In 1977, Fredegusto G. David, whom colleagues fondly call F.G., was elected chair. David obtained his Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology from Temple University, Pennsylvania in 1973. David resigned as Chair and Virgilio G. Ph.D. Enriquez was elected to the position in 1978. Enriquez got his masteral and doctoral degrees in Social Psychology from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He held office from 1978 to April 1982. In the succeeding election. David was again elected Chair (UPDP Annual Reports).
Dr. Elizabeth Ventura was the first female Chair of the Department, who served for three consecutive terms (1983 to 1992). Under her leadership, the Department was able to spearhead the teaching of the multi-disciplinary Social Science I and II courses as part of the general education thrust of the University. It is also through her relentless efforts that the Department acquired its own building in 1985 - the Palma Hall Annex or Phan, as it is fondly called. Dr. Ventura is currently the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. She has worked extensively in the area of psychological testing and measurement and child psychology. She was instrumental in the development of the Philippine Thematic Apperception Test together with Dr. Alfredo Lagmay.
Dr. Allan Bernardo briefly held the reins of the office of the Chair (1995-1996) before Dr. Annadaisy Carlota assumed the position from November, 1996 to March, 1999. Dr. Carlota is currently the head of the Admissions Office of the University. She developed the Panukat ng Pagkataong Pilipino (PPP), one of the indigenous personality tests that is currently gaining popularity for school, industry and research use.
When Dr. Carlota moved on to become the Head of the University's Admissions office, Dr. Lynna Marie Sycip, once again assumed the position of Chair until the year 2000. She first occupied the position on June 1992 to April, 1995. Dr. Sycip is known for her work in assessing the construct of well-being and in developing several aptitude tests. She handles most of the statistics courses offered by the Department.
Currently, the Department is under the direction of Dr. F.G. David.
The Teaching of Psychology in Filipino and Filipino Psychology
At the College of Arts and Sciences, U.P., the Department of Psychology was among the first departments that used Filipino as a medium of instruction. This started in 1970, a period marked by a high degree of nationalism which gave way to the initiation of a bilingual policy of education in the Philippines. Dr. Fredegusto G. David and Prof. Amaryllis T. Torres were the first two members of the faculty who used Filipino in teaching Psychology 101 (Introductory Psychology) in 1970-1971 as a response to the call of Dr. Alfredo Lagmay, who was the Chair during that period. For the technical terminology, they used the dictionary published by the NSDB.Towards the end of the year 1971, Dr. Virgilio G. Enriquez arrived from Northwestern University, Illinois, U.S.A. where he obtained his masteral and doctoral degree in Social Psychology. Upon his return, the teaching of psychology courses using the national language became intensive. Foreign articles were translated to Filipino and students were encouraged to write their papers in this language.
The succeeding batch of psychology teachers to teach in the vernacular included Amelia Alfonso, Susan Cipres-Ortega, Rogelia Pe-Pua, Marylou Onglatco, Ma. Trinidad Crisanto, Jose Ma. Bartolome and Lilia Antonio. At present, a big percentage of faculty members of the UPDP tries to use Filipino inside the classroom.
The following undergraduate psychology courses have been taught in Filipino: Psychology 101 (Introductory Psychology), Psychology 108 (Filipino Psychology), Psychology 135 (Perception), Psychology 145 (Psychology of Language), Psychology 150 (Personality), Psychology 155 (Abnormal Psychology) and Psychology 180 (Social Psychology). In the graduate level, the following courses have also been offered in Filipino: Psychology 218 (Field Methods in Social Psychology), Psychology 245 (Seminar on the Psychology of Language), Psychology 280 (Seminar on Social Psychology; Ethnicity), Psychology 287 (Psycholinguistics), Psychology 296 (The teaching of Psychology), Psychology 303 (Environmental Psychology), and Psychology 308 (Philippine Psychology).
Some of the main problems encountered in the use of Filipino in teaching psychology, especially in its initial years, stem from the lack of materials written in Filipino and the lack of a technical vocabulary. These were solved by translations, compilations of local materials, and choosing the appropriate words from the local dialect. There were times when the technical term is retained when no equivalence in the local dialect can be proposed. Other problems included the difficulty of expressing or explaining some Western concepts and theories in Filipino; negative reactions of students who sometimes felt that their skill in speaking and writing in Filipino is inadequate; and students' fluency with the language.
Despite these problems, Filipino has continued to be used in the UPDP because of the benefits brought about by this experience. According to the teachers who have tried it, using Filipino inside the classroom created better rapport between teacher and students. The expression of opinions, thoughts and actual experiences became easy. A different perspective, which is more Filipino, is introduced into the course. Consequently, the scope of topics discussed become broader with the addition of information from local materials and experiences. Discussions also become more concrete in relation to Philippine reality. But the most important contribution of the teaching of psychology in Filipino is the development of a psychology with a Filipino orientation.
The Emergence of Filipino Psychology
A new consciousness labeled sikolohiyang Pilipino reflecting Filipino psychological knowledge, experience and orientation has emerged through the use of the local language as the embodiment of the psychology of the Filipino people (Enriquez 1982: 4-5).Philippine Psychology as an area of concentration in the Ph.D. program makes psychology quite distinctive at the University of the Philippines. As a "special topics" course, Philippine Psychology was taught by Alfredo Lagmay prior to its institution as a separate graduate course by the University Council, UP on October 20, 1978. The course has since been offered by Virgilio G. Enriquez and Zeus A. Salazar. Aside from discussing theoretical and scientific issues, graduate students debated on social and political issues; the different psychologies - the "national", the indigenous and the emic; and the extent psychology in the third world is international or western" (Enriquez 1982: 11).
As an undergraduate course, Filipino Psychology (Psychology 108) was recommended for institution during the 1978 UPDP curriculum workshop. The University Council duly approved it. Jose Ma. Bartolome, at home with a few consciousness, was the first one to teach the course (Enriquez 1982: 11). Rogelia Pe-Pua took over where Bartolome left and faced the problem of articulating the concepts and methods of Filipino psychology with a book entitled Sikolohiyang Pilipino: Teorya, Metodo at Gamit (Filipino Psychology: Theory, Method and Application) (Pe-Pua 1982).