MODULE 5

POLITICAL SELF &

BEING A FILPINO
 Overview
Western colonial
psychology has traditionally
represented the Filipino ‘self’ as
mainly concerned with the value
of “smooth inter-personal
relationship” or pakikisama,
implying a penchant for
avoiding conflict at all cost.
 Module Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you must be
able to:

1. develop a Filipino identity;

2. identify different Filipino values and
traits; and
3. reflect on your selfhood in relation
to your national identity
 What makes Filipino a
genuine Filipino??

Do physical
characteristics
(such as having Or is it a person’s
dark hair, flat
language, birth
nose, and dark
complexion) make place, and ethnicity?
one a Filipino?
If you were to introduce yourself as a
Filipino to a person of another
nationality and he or she asks,”Who
are Filipino’s ?” what will you
reply??
Come to think of it, the Philippines
as we know it has only emerged in
the 1890’s after over three
centuries of colonization. Their
foreign culture , beliefs, language,
and religion have made a huge
dent in our own by setting a
foundation to the contemporary
Filipino identity and culture.
 To date, colonial mentality
remains an issue. Given the wide
discrepancy between the two
periods, would it be safe to say
that Filipinos have truly
developed an identify of their
own? Or are we still living in the
shadow of our colonial friends?
 In this chapter, you will learn that
an individual’s race, ethnicity,
physical characteristics are not the
only factors that make a person’s
national identity. Values and traits
are also important indicators that
set apart one nationality from the
others.
 Introduction
The Philippines as we know it today has only emerged in
the 1890s after over three centuries of colonization of the
Spaniards. Meanwhile, liberati the last colonizers, the
Japanese, only occurred in 1946. Foreign Cultureon from
beliefs, language, and religion have made a huge dent on our
own by setting a foundation to the contemporary Filipino
identity and culture.
Filipinos are often referenced to globally renowned
personalities like Manny Pacquiao, Lea Salonga, and Michael
Cinco who have made Filipinos recognized around the world
through their expertise. However, being a Filipino is far more
than just being related to these notable figures.
Culture and history have greatly influenced the manner
Filipinos learn, live, and behave to date. People who were
born and grew up in the same culture develop and share
common personality traits and values. Generations after
generations, common traits and values have been passed on
that the Filipinos of today still embody.
Filipino Values and Traits
Tourist who have visited the Philippines
can never forget the big ond bright
smiles that greeted them, the colorful
and loud jeepneys, the common
Filipino phrases such as “Mabuhay”
and “ Salamat” and habits such as
saying “po” and “opo” to the elders,
leaving shoes or slippers at the fronty
door before entering a house, and the
importunate asking of “Kumain ka na
ba?” meaning “ Have you eaten yet?”.
Indeed, it is a marvel to experience
first-hand these unique traits of the
Filipinos. Few of these traits are
discussed in the next section.
The Filipino Hospitality
 A Filipino trait that is
known everywhere is the
Filipino's brand of
hospitality. Filipinos
welcome their guests and
tourists as if they are their
own brothers and sisters;
they always make their
guests feel at home,
offering them or even a
place to stay.
Respect for elders
Filipino greet their elders by
kissing their hand while
saying “Mano po” and
constantly using “po” and
“opo” in conversations.
Close Family Ties
Filipinos maintain a tight
relationship with their
family regardless that the
children are old enough
and already have their
own.
Cheerful Personality
 Filipinos have the habit of smiling and
laughing a lot. They smile when they are
happy, sad, or sometimes even when
they are angry. Smiling has been a
coping strategy for many Filipinos
especially during trying times and
calamities.
Self-Sacrifice
The self-sacrificing attitude
of Filipinos can be seen as
an extension to the Filipino
hospitality.
Bayanihan
 The bayanihan spirit is giving or
helping without expecting
something in return. Filipinos are
always ready to share and to help
friends and loved ones who are in
need.
 “Bahala Na” Attitude

The Filipino version of the famous line

Hakuna Matata meaning “no worries.” This
phrase is said to have originated from
“Bathala Na “ where Bathala means God
and the phrase meaning leaving everything
into God’s hand.
 Colonial Mentality

Colonial mentality is regarded as

the lack of patriotism and the
attitude where Filipinos favor
foreign products more than
their own.
 Mańana Habit
This is the Filipino term for
procastination. It was derived from a
longer Filipino phrase called “mamaya
na,” which means doing things that
could have been done at the present at a
later time. It is a poor habit of laziness
which reault in a heavier workload.
 Ningas Kugon
Ningas is a filipino term for a flame and
kugon is Cogon grass that easily burns
out after it is put into flames. Ningas
kugon refers to the attitude of eagerly
stating things, but quickly losing
eagerness soon after experiencing
difficulty just as fast as the fire has
ignited.
 Pride
Most Filipinos hold on to their pride as if
this is more precious than keeping a
good relationship with family and love
ones. When two parties are not in good
terms, they find it so hard to apologies
and wait until the other party asks for an
apology first.
 Crab Mentality
A toxic trait among Filipinos where one
resents the achievement of another, instead
of feeling happy for that person. Just like
crabs in a container, they pull each other
down and ruin each other’s reputation
rather than bringing them up, which result
in no progress. Filipinos should change this
troublesome attitude and focus more on
own inadequacies in other to improve one’s
self.
 Filipino Time
Filipinos have this common attitude
of arriving late at commitments,
dinner and parties especially if they
are meeting someone close to them.
They tend to not observe punctuality
altogether.
Filipino Marker

What then are the hallmaks of

our being a Filipino? What
makes us truly relish in our being
a Filipino? The following are
constant reminders of our
nationality.
1. Proverbs or Salawikain
2. Superstitions
3. Myths and Legends
3. Heroes and Icons
HOW TO BE A GOOD FILIPINO
1. Be an active Filipino citizen

2. Study the Philippine History

3. Support Local Products

4. Speak the Filipino Language

5. Do not spread fake news and be

democratic in engaging with dissent
 Summary
Individual's race, ethnicity, and physical characteristics
are not the only factors that make a person's national
identity. Values and traits are also important indicators
that set apart one nationality from the other. These
values and traits may not always be a positive thing, but
being able to identify one's self apart from other
nationalities and point out weaknesses and mistakes,
paired with unity and commitment, progress a possibility.
Through common goals, principles, and values of its
people, a nation empowers a nation itself.
WHO AM I IN A CYBER
WORLD?
 The existing literature on peer relationships indicates that friendships with age
mates are crucial for the psychosocial development and general well-being of
youth. It is also evident that technology and online communication is currently
ubiquitous for youth, particularly as a tool for socialization. As Barth (2015)
observes, adolescents who have grown up in a world of constant online
communication cannot imagine the childhoods of most clinicians, who grew up
without it, and paradigms of development, socialization, sexualization, and
education have fundamentally changed. This constant communication is primarily
maintained via the Internet (social networking sites, such as Facebook, status
update sites such as Twitter, and media sharing sites such as Instagram) and via
modern cellular phones (in the form of text messaging and instantaneous picture
sharing). The many different forms that this communication can take are often
considered under the umbrella term of ‘‘social media’’. (Von Muhlen and Ohno-
Machado 2012). In the current article, we endeavor to illustrate the importance
of friendship and social media in the lives of youth, particularly preadolescents
(the period of development between the ages of 10 and 12) and adolescents
(between the ages of 13 and 17), and the impact that these factors have on their
emotional well-being. Our goal is to show that social media may serve as a setting
that plays a role in shaping emotional development in certain young people
 Selective Self-presentation and
Impression Management
According to Coffman (1959) and Lea (1995), self-presentation is the try
"process of controlling how one is perceived by other people" and is the key to
relationship inception and development. To construct positive images,
individuals selectively provide information about them and carefully cater this
information in response to other's feedback.
Anything posted online should be considered "public" no matter what our
"privacy" settings are. Let us say, a student wrote online about how much he
hated another student in school, and started bullying him online. Does it matter
if the student said, "Well, this is my personal account"? Even if the student
wrote it in a "private" account, it can become public with a quick screen capture
and shared with the world. Personal identity is the interpersonal level of self
which differentiates the individual as unique from others, while social identity is
the level of self whereby the individual is identified by his or her group
memberships.
 Belk (2013) explained that sharing ourselves is no longer new and has
been practiced as soon as human beings were formed. Digital devices
help us share information broadly, more than ever before. For those who
are avid users of Facebook, it is possible that their social media friends are
more updated about their daily activities, connections, and thoughts than
their immediate families. Diaries that were once private or shared only
with close friends are now posted as blogs which can be viewed by
anyone.
As Schwarz (2010) mentioned, we have entered an extraordinary era
of self-portraiture. Blogs and web pages have been continuously used for
greater self-reflection and self-presentation. Facebook and other social
media applications are now a key part of self-presentation for one sixth of
humanity. As a result, researchers and participants become concerned
with actively managing identity and reputation and to warn against the
phenomenon of "oversharing" (Labrecque, Markos, and Milne 2011;
Shepherd 2005; Soler 2002; Zimmer and Hoffman 2011). Sometimes
people become unaware of the extent of information they share online.
Gender and Sexuality Online
According to Marwick (2013), while the terms "sex," "gender," and
"sexuality" are often thought of as synonymous, they are actually quite distinct.
The differences between the common understandings of these terms and how
researchers think about them yield key insights about the social functioning of
gender. Sex is the biological state that corresponds to what we might call a "man"
or a "woman." This might seem to be a simple distinction, but the biology of sex is
actually very complicated. While "sex" is often explained as biological, fixed, and
immutable, it is actually socially constructed (West and Zimmerman 1987).
Gender, then, is the social understanding of how sex should be experienced and
how sex manifests in behavior, personality, preferences, capabilities, and so forth.
A person with male sex organs is expected to embody a masculine gender. While
sex and gender are presumed to be biologically connected, we can understand
gender as a socio culturally specific set of norms that are mapped onto a category
of "sex" (Kessler and McKenna 1978; Lorber 1994). Gender is historical. It is
produced by media and popular culture (Gauntlett 2008; van Zoonen 1994). It is
taught by families, schools, peer groups, and nation states (Coffman 1977). It is
reinforced through songs, sayings, admonition, slang, language, fashion, and
discourse (Cameron 1998; Cameron and Kulick 2003), and it is deeply ingrained.
Performing Gender Online
Theorist Judith Butler (1990) conceptualized gender as a
performance. She explained that popular understandings of gender
and sexuality came to be through discourse and social processes. She
argued that gender was performative, in that it is produced through
millions of individual actions, rather than something that comes
naturally to men and women. Performances that adhere to normative
understandings of gender and sexuality are allowed, while those that
do not are admonished (for example, a boy "throwing like a girl")
(Lorber 1994). in the 1990s, many Internet scholars drew from Butler
and other queer theorists to understand online identity. According to
the disembodiment hypothesis, Internet users are free to actively
choose which gender or sexuality they are going to portray with the
possibility of creating alternate identities (Wynn and Katz 1997).
 Setting Boundaries To Your Online
Self:
Smart Sharing
The following guidelines will help you share information online in a
smart way that will protect yourself and not harm others. Before
posting or sharing anything online, consider the following.
• Is this post/story necessary?
• Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-hearted,
teachable—or am I just making noise online without purpose?
• Have we (as a family or parent/child) resolved this issue? An
issue that is still being worked out at home, or one that is either
vulnerable or highly emotional, should not be made public.
• Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family
values?
• Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, or 15 years? Or is this post better
suited for sharing with a small group of family members? Or maybe
not at all?
Rules to Follow
Here are additional guidelines for proper sharing of
information and ethical use of the Internet according
to New (2014):
• Stick to safer sites.
• Guard your passwords.
• Limit what you share.
• Remember that anything you put online or post
on a site is there forever, even if you try to delete it.
• Do not be mean or embarrass other people
online.
•Always tell if you see strange or bad behavior
online. Be choosy about your online friends.
• Be patient.
 Summary
These days, more people are becoming
active in using the Internet for research,
pleasure, business, communication, and other
purposes. Indeed, the Internet is of great help
for everyone. On the other hand, people
assume different identities while in the
cyberspace. People act differently when they
are online and offline. 'We have our real
identity and online identity.
 Activity 5.1
Make an acrostic below which will describe
you, in relation to your being a Filipino:
F-
I-
L-
I-
P-
I-
N-
O-
 Activity 5.2 .
Discuss how being a Filipino affects
your "self." How can becoming a
better Filipino influence your duty
to becoming a better version of
yourself?
 Activity 5.3
Three Facts, One Fiction
Construct four sentences that should start with "I am Three
of the four sentences should be true about yourself. You can talk
about your characteristics, strengths, weaknesses,
accomplishments, personalities, and behavior. One statement
should be a lie—something that you just made up about yourself.
1. l am
2. l am
3. I am
4. l am