Social psychological dimensions of political conflict resolution in the Philippines.

Abstract

In this article, the psychological dimensions of internal political conflicts are discussed, and Philippine ways of resolving such violence-prone social eruptions are examined. Internal conflicts are characterized by power asymmetry, duress and hypervigilance, and multiplier effects of resolution outcome. Philippine internal conflict is expressed in three modes: the electoral mode, street politics, and the underground. Data gathered from peace bargaining during coup attempts show that Philippine approaches to conflict resolution are marked with smooth interpersonal harmony, intense emotions, personalized trustworthiness, and Catholic-influenced interventions.

Preferred Attributes of Effective Conflict Resolvers in Seven Societies: Culture, Development Level, and Gender Differences1

“…Parties in the stronger position would tend to prefer resolvers exhibiting more traits of the dominating peacemaker. These findings support past research that established a relationship between power asymmetry and conflict processes (Apfelbaum, 1979;Bonoma, 1976;Donnellon & Kolb, 1994;Montiel, 199%;Zartman & Touval, 1985).…”

Peace psychology in Asia.

“…Asians tend to bow to authority and power (Mabbett, 1985;Montiel, 1995b), and Asian political peacemaking is marked by a fusion of spiritual and secular power. Asians tend to bow to authority and power (Mabbett, 1985;Montiel, 1995b), and Asian political peacemaking is marked by a fusion of spiritual and secular power.…”

Indigenization of psychology in the Philippines

“…For example, Montiel (1997Montiel ( , 2000a and Briones (2000) applied ideas from an imported model of personality and politics in constructing conceptual models for Filipino political and peace psychology; the authors provided indigenous speci cation by incorporating context-speci c elements such as the history of colonization , the Marcos dictatorship, and the role of the Catholic Church. In a series of political psychology studies, Montiel has questioned the assumptions underlying Western theory and research on political trauma and recovery (Montiel, 2000b), discussed Filipino cultural characteristics that may need to be incorporated in imported models of con ict resolution (Montiel, 1995), and suggested that political psychology theories in the Philippines may need to incorporate stronger affective, religious, and collective processes than is typical of political psychology in the United States, where the focus, she argues, tends to be more cognitive, secular, and individualistic (Montiel & Macapagal , 2000).…”

“…Examples of studies that have adddressed applied societal needs include studies of treatment compliance (Orteza, 1996;Ventura, Abella-Matto, & Cipres-Ortega, 1993), adjustment of Filipino overseas workers and their families (Du-Lagrosa, 1986;Samonte, 1998), adaptation of rural migrants in an urbanizing barrio (L.A. , political con ict and peace-making (Briones, 2000;Gonzalez-Intal, 1991;Montiel, 1984Montiel, -85, 1991Montiel, , 1995Montiel, , 1997Montiel, , 2000bSta. Maria, 2000a), pre-election attitudes (Guanzon-Lapeña, 1996), torture of children in situations of armed con ict (Protacio-Marcelino et al, 2000b), child labour (Torres, 1998), and children experiencing sexual abuse, prostitution, or trouble with the law (Araneta-de Leon, 2000;Arellano-Carandang , Fernando, & Sison, 1999;Bautista, 2000;Carandang, 1996;Carlota, 1982-83;Gonzales-Fernando, 2000;Laguisma-Sison , 2000;Nery, 1982; Protacio-Marcelino, De la Cruz, Balanon, Camacho, & Yacat, 2000a; Triviño, 2000).…”