POVERTY AND THE FILIPINO MINDSET

A research report

Abstract

The researcher intends to investigate and evaluate the Filipino psyche in

order to comprehend the true meaning of poverty in the Philippine environment.
The study proceeds to illustrate the true cause or causes of poverty inherent in the
psycho-social well-being of poor Filipinos by analyzing the abovementioned
theme. The process is carried out through survey research, which entails gathering
and analyzing the responses of small samples of poor people classified under the
DSWD's 4P's (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) to questions designed to
elicit their opinions, attitudes, and sentiments on the topic of "Poverty and the
Filipino Mindset." The findings show that Filipinos are poor not because they have
a "obsession with happiness." Some poor Filipinos are content, but not because
they are losers. And happiness has a propensity to boost productivity and motivate
people to work more. The analysis indicates that Benigno's article, "Filipinos
Obsession with Happiness," is inaccurate in many ways and is what keeps them
impoverished. It is suggested that more research into chronic poverty be
conducted. There are few microstudies that look at persistent poverty and how the
impoverished get out of it. These researches are critical in developing more
effective policies and initiatives.

Introduction

"Filipinos preoccupation with happiness is what keeps them buried in

chronic poverty," according to a GetRealPhilippines.com article. Such an
expression is ironic given that happiness is normally connected with material
riches or fortune.
 POVERTY AND THE FILIPINO MINDSET
A research report

Filipinos are poor for a variety of reasons. We can blame poverty on our
economy's inability to cope with rapid population increase. Unemployment,
inflation, inequality, and corruption are all direct causes of poverty among
Filipinos. However, if we want to simplify the issue, we may argue that most
Filipinos are poor because they were born into a poor family.

According to a SWS survey, the poverty rate in Luzon is 45%, 74% in the
Visayas, and 71% in Mindanao. Needless to say, many Filipinos are impoverished
even before they can spell "happiness." Filipino children are impoverished even
before they have tasted a little comfort, with glimmers of simple happiness visible
on their faces. As these children grow older, they realize they are poor and begin to
wonder, even while still in their infancy, why they are in such a situation and not in
the same way they saw with other children who are clean, well-dressed, well-fed,
and cared for by nannies on their way to school and back home. As a result, poor
children begin to wonder why and what makes them poor as they grow older, and
they begin to feel discriminated against, bullied, deprived, and so on by their well-
off peers.

Psychologically, disadvantaged children experience greater unpleasant

feelings as adults. According to Science Daily (2013),

Researchers found that test subjects who had lower family incomes at
age 9 exhibited, as adults, greater activity in the amygdala, an area in
the brain known for its role in fear and other negative emotions. These
individuals showed less activity in areas of the prefrontal cortex, an
area in the brain thought to regulate negative emotion.
 POVERTY AND THE FILIPINO MINDSET
A research report

That is, someone who experienced chronic stress from childhood to

adolescence may be less capable of suppressing negative emotions like fear.
According to surveys, one-sixth of poor children develop mental disorders.

Childhood poverty and stress have the same psychological consequences

that can prevent a person from becoming more successful in adulthood.
Furthermore, impediments to prefrontal cortex development can impair a child's
ability to learn, making it more difficult to compete with children who did not
grow up in poverty.

Method

This research is carried out by carefully analyzing and interpreting the

information gathered from the respondents' responses. The process is carried out
through survey research, which involves collecting and analyzing the responses of
small samples of poor people in the urban and rural areas of Zamboanga classified
under the DSWD's 4P's (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) to questions
designed to elicit their opinions, attitudes, and sentiments about the topic: "Poverty
and the Filipino Mindset." The sample survey, on the other hand, enables the
researcher to obtain uniform but superficial information about a subset of the
population.

Result

Thirty-seven (37) important informants are included in the study. This study
focuses on the following specific areas of concern using the Survey Questionnaires
Method.
 POVERTY AND THE FILIPINO MINDSET
A research report

a. The common problems of poverty that exist in both urban and rural parts of
Zamboanga City from the DSWD's 4P's program's ninety-eight (98)
barangays.
b. Determine the socioeconomic attitudes of impoverished people who are
living in extreme poverty and whose mentality prohibits them from
improving their financial condition.
c. The questionnaires were designed with the respondents' economic
circumstances in mind, including, but not limited to, property ownership (if
applicable), education and training, ethnicity, socioeconomic barriers or
inequity, environmental influences, psychological influences, religious
beliefs, and social upbringing.

The table below show the total number of students from various Zamboanga
barangays enrolled in various WMSU courses. It also displays the responses of the
respondents to the various survey questions.

Table 4.1
No. of
Question Response Option Rank %
Respondents
Lack of education 8 8 21.6
Lack of opportunities 13 13 35.1
What are some Low self-esteem (no self confidence 1 1 2.7
factors that Poor mentality 1 1 2.7
hinder poor Timid, not ingenious (walang diskarte) 10 10 27
people from
changing their No ambition / low aspiration 4 4 10.8
lives for the No inspiration or innate desire to change for the
better? Better 0 0 0

Total 37 37 100%
 POVERTY AND THE FILIPINO MINDSET
A research report

Conclusion

In conclusion, Filipinos are poor not because they have an “obsession with
happiness.” In fact, there is no evidence that suggests that “contentment” can cause
poverty. Some poor Filipinos are happy not because they have a loser mentality.
Some poor Filipinos are happy simply because nothing is preventing them from
feeling otherwise. Happiness has a tendency to increase a person’s productivity
and make him work harder. If a person thinks that the problem of poverty is due to
a poor person’s lack of productivity, the scientifically correct thing to do is to help
them recover their self-esteem and encourage them to be happy, to improve their
cognitive function and increase their productivity.