INDIGENOUS APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY

1. INDIGENOUS APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY Classic and Contemporary Approaches

2. LECTURE OUTLINE • Personality Theories • Personality and Indigenous Psychology • Yoga and the Hindu Tradition • Background • Basic Concepts and Personality Dynamics • Routes to Self-realization • Obstacles • Evaluation

3. LECTURE OUTLINE(Cont) • Personality Research in the Philippines • Background • Traits and constructs • Future recommendations

4. PERSONALITY THEORIES • Broad and comprehensive theories of human behaviour • Psychoanalytic, Behavioural, Cognitive, Humanistic, Trait theories

5. PERSONALITY… Relatively stable psychological structures and processes that organize human experience and shape a person’s actions and reactions to the environment Lazarus

6. PERSONALITY AND INDIGENOUS PSYCHOLOGY • Systematic attempts to interpret ancient religious, philosophical writings and traditions • Empirical research based on observations of distinct, indigenous traits or characteristics

7. PERSONALITY AND INDIGENOUS PSYCHOLOGY

8. YOGA • Sanskrit- to unite • School of Indian philosophy systematized in Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali • Vedas- world’s oldest recorded literature

9. BASIC CONCEPTS AND DYNAMICS • Purusha (Spirit) • Self • Chitta (consciousness) • Samskaras (Subconscious tendencies) • Karma (action and its consequences)

10. KARMIC ACTION Waves of consciousness Subconscious tendencies Actions

11. ROUTES TO SELF-REALISATION • Karma Yoga (action) • Jnana Yoga (knowledge) • Bhakti Yoga (devotion) • Hatha Yoga (physical) • Raja Yoga

12. RAJA YOGA • Abstentions • Observances • Postures • Vital Energy Control • Interiorization • Concentration • Meditation • Illumination

13. RAJA YOGA- KUNDALINI AND CHAKRAS • Muladhara • Svadistrana • Manipura • Anahata • Vishudahi • Ajna • Sahasrara

14. KUNDALINI AND CHAKRAS

15. OBSTACLES TO SELF-REALISATION • Ignorance • Egoism • Desire • Fear

16. EVALUATION • Shares some concepts similar to modern personality theories • More emphasis on moral codes and prescriptions • Emphasis on transpersonal growth

17. ….The human being seems to be striving basically to assert and expand his self-determination. He is an autonomous being, a self-growing entity that asserts itself actively instead of reacting passively like a physical body to the impacts of the surrounding world. This fundamental tendency expresses itself in a striving of the person to consolidate and increase his self-government, in other words to exercise his freedom and to organize the relevant items of his world out of the autonomous center of government that is his self. This tendency- “the trend towards increased autonomy”- expresses itself in spontaneity, self-assertiveness, striving for freedom and for mastery (Angyal, 1956).

18. ….The person appears to seek a place for himself in a larger unit of which he strived to become a part. In the first tendency we see him as struggling for centrality in his world, trying to mold, to organize, the objects and events of his world, to bring them under his jurisdiction and government. In the second tendency he seems rather to surrender himself willingly to seek a home for himself and to become an organic part of something that he conceives as greater than himself. The super-individual unit of which one feels oneself a part, or wishes to become a part, may be variously formulated according to one’s cultural background and personal understanding (Angyal, 1956).

19. INDIGENOUS PERSONALITY RESEARCH IN THE PHILIPPINES • More limited resources • Fewer scholars • More inter-disciplinary work • Greater diversity

20. POSITIVE FILIPINO TRAITS(Lapuz) • Pakikisama • Hiya • Utang na loob • Makiramay • Pagtitiis

21. NEGATIVE FILIPINO TRAITS (Lapuz) • Bahala Na • Mañana habit • Ningas Kogon • Amor proprio

22. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH • Agreeableness: pakikisama • Inadequacy: hiya • Locus of control and bahala na

23. BAHALA NA It is risk-taking in the face of the proverbial cloud of uncertainty and the possibility of failure. It is also an indication of an acceptance of the nature of things, including the inherent limitations of oneself. It is an acceptance which is not passive, however. It is as if one is being forced by the situation to act in his own capacity to change the present problematic condition. He is being required to be resourceful and, most importantly, creative to make his situation better. Instead of the passive, expectant motivation often ascribed to bahala na, it is clear that bahala na operates to raise one's courage and determination (Enriquez, 1990,p. 302).

24. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH • Greater development of indigenous theories and methods • Less emphasis on national culture and values • More attention to measurement issues

25. QUESTIONS • Do we need indigenous personality theories? • What should be the priority issues of concern and development in indigenous personality theory and research?