Psych Paper

08

        Each individuals has a different interpretation of an event. And this interpretation relates to their thinking and behavior. According to the Attribution theory, when there's an action we attribute situationally or dispositionally. This paper talks about how Hofstede's cultural dimensions, conformity, obedience and personal power can apply in the articles of Amanda Taub's “How the Philippines fell into vigilante violence” and Gideon Lasco's letter to Duterte.

        These articles served as an eye opener for me because it shows how our present situation is. In the first part of the letter of Lasco, we can see how high his Personal Distance Index to Rodrigo Duterte as the Philippine's president as he states “...I regard you very highly and as our head of the state, I consider you the father of our nation.” We, filipinos, also regard Duterte as our head of state. Personal data index (PDI) of Hofstede's states that it is the degree to which we recogize that some people is powerful than us. In the latter part of his letter, I agree that Duterte can use his power in a good and helpful way. This “Personal power” of Duterte can utilize either to inspire, dominate, or destroy other people, can be evaluated from an ethical point of view. Personal power is more an attitude or state of mind than an attemp to manuever or control others. Its primary aim is mastery of self, not others. I honestly didn't like Duterte as President of our country not because of the way he speak or the the way he addresses things but because I'm afraid he might over use his power and can harm us and our fellow citizen. Recently, as stated in the article, over 1800 people have been killed by the police and vigilantes since then, and the wave of killings shows no sign of subsiding. This is the promise of Duterte in his campaign last spring, to kill the criminals. Because we want to change the system and we demand for new leaders who would take more decisive action to provide security, some Filipinos tend to embrace extrajudicial killings after the inability of Aquino to provide basic security. The obedience of the police officers in the extrajudicial killings is a compliance with the command given by their leaders. Filipinos were also involved in conformity. When we begin to see the justice system as thoroughly corupt and broken, we feel unprotected from the crime. That sense of threat makes some people willing to support vigilante violence for they are desperate for security. Which can result to some Filipinos acting like the majority, encouraging this kind of informalization of violence. I disagree on what people were supporting because it is not the only way or the best option to solve the problem of our country. “The real problem is not just the violence. Rather, it is the way it alters the rules of society itself: what is acceptable, and that is necessary to live.” Said Gemma Santamaria according to the article. Filipinos also have medium percentage in UAI (Uncertainty avoidance index). UAI describes how well people can cope with anxiety. People attempt to make life as predictable and controllable as possible. Therefore, Filipinos support extrajudicial killing for they demand for security because they think that it is the only way to eradicate criminals.