Foreign service officer Stacy Alcantara shares how diplomacy works better with the help of social psychology.
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The Social Psychology Group of the University of San Carlos (USC) tackled poverty and inequality issues and the Filipino political behavior in a series of social psychology sessions at the Michael Richartz Hall of USC Talamban Campus recently.
With the theme “Through a Social Psychology Lens,” the forum was focused on social issues in the country today.
Some 300 students attended the forum.
Dr. Ma. Cecilia Gastardo-Conaco, PhD, of the University of the Philippines Diliman talked about poverty and inequality, while Diwa Malaya Quinones, MA, discussed the Filipino political behavior.
Gastarco-Conaco told participants that solving poverty requires not only empowering an individual but also strengthening social structures that would support long-term poverty alleviation.
Quinones, meanwhile, said that research in psychology should be in line with the discipline’s four goals: describing the problem, explaining the factors that cause it, predicting the future consequences and controlling the problem or applying the results of the research done.
Psychology, she added, should strive to change or influence behavior to contribute to the alleviation of societal problems.
Both Gastardo-Conaco and Quinones are well respected in the field of psychology for their contributions in psychological research.
The USC Social Psychology Group started the social psychology sessions last December to emphasize the importance and usefulness of psychology in dealing with the different real-world problems.
In one session of the series, foreign service officer Stacy Danika Alcantara shared that “everything I need to know about diplomacy, I learned it in social psychology.”
Dr. Delia Belleza, PhD, USC dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, “decoded” the essence of social psychology, as research coordinator Jame Bryan Batara discussed how to apply social psychology in health-related behaviors and religion.
The academic forum series emphasized the importance of applying critical thinking in identifying research topics that are timely, relevant and can contribute to society.
“Researches in social psychology provide a holistic understanding of societal problems that policy makers could possibly adapt and incorporate into their programs,” said Professor Mark Vincent Gutib from the USC Department of Psychology. /PR