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Xavier University
Current Issues in Psychology

Seminar Concept Paper Writing

Members

Team Leader: Patica, Irish Jane

Documentation: Abucay, Karen
Braña, Deciri
Panal, Diana Via
Peguit, Ruwilyn
Sotto, Dannica Adeline
Emcee: Noynay, Lasseny
Opema, Julie Anne

February 28, 2019

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Title: “Looking into the Political Spectrum of Voters through the Lens of
Psychology”

Resource Speaker: Atty. Ernesto Neri

Agency: Neri & Neri Law

I. INTRODUCTION

One of the problems that our country, the Philippines, faces today is the divisiveness in
politics. Politics is a tricky business and often controversial. One of its controversies is
the election of political leaders. There have been issues regarding the elections in the
Philippines which includes vote-buying, black propaganda, violence, influence of
political dynasties, and inefficiency of PCOS machines (Oliveros, 2013). With this,
Filipinos often face a challenge in deciding who to vote in an election. Voters tend to
have varied political stance and ideological orientations, however, most voters in the
Philippines are uneducated and have lack of knowledge on political ideology.

The number of uneducated voters are much higher and whom basis for voting are really
different from those who are educated (Santiago, 2012). According to Miller and Shanks
(1996, p.288-294), that some of the voters are extremely liberal and others are
extremely conservative but there are also who are political moderates. Such general
ideological orientations influence voting behavior, for example the voting population who
have strong conservative ideologies would rather take on conservative positions on new
concerning issues. Political ideologies also influence how voters perceive a certain
candidate, even if they are not sure of a candidate’s stand and position on specific
policy issues, they would generalize the candidate as long as they fit their political
ideologies. (Saunders & Abramowitz, 2007).

In the upcoming 2019 national and local elections, it is crucial to discuss the voting
behavior of the Filipinos based on their political spectrum between “left wing” or liberals
and “right wing” or conservatives which is a widespread conceptual framework that is
used for understanding political beliefs and values (Block & Block, 2005). The terms
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liberalism and conservatism are among the most heard words in political discussions,
however not all of us know what this terms really mean. A clear understanding of what
liberalism and conservatism means and its relation to the values that we hold, will help
us have a better understanding of our political positions. In addition, Spencer (2011)
explained that political spectrum is a set of opinions and values individuals hold about
political issues, events, and personalities. It ranges from gradually extreme to moderate
to extreme: from liberal (left wing) to conservative (right wing). Moreover, knowing one’s
political ideology is really important because it will determine one’s choice and one’s
political decisions which will have an impact on the lives of many

Politics is very complex. Despite of its complexity, educating ourselves about it and
what our government does will actually help us in choosing the right leaders. The future
of the society depends on us because we are the ones who choose people to be
leaders in leading and helping us solve conflicts in our society. Votes from the Filipino
people will either make a difference or break society. Let us start thinking and
acknowledging the long-term effects of our votes. It may or may not change our lives
and perhaps affect the society as a whole. Thus, choosing the right politician is very
important and requires deeper understanding and knowledge on political orientations,
and which side our we in the political spectrum.

II. RATIONALE
To educate and inform psychology students about political spectrum that will help them
understand and identify their political position that serves as a guide to their future
voting choices.

III. BODY

The common understanding of most people about political spectrum is about the
classification and differences of an individual’s political stand. But, Biddle, 2012
elaborated the idea of political spectrum as two different forces which both could be a
determinant of an individual’s political behavior, especially its right to vote. The figure
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below is the simplified illustration of a political spectrum which classifies the forces and
certain groups in a political system an individual belongs to.
In the Philippines, the left-right political spectrum is not totally applied by politicians and
thus, its context is not clear to all Filipinos. Since 1946, the year wherein the country
has become independent, these two polar forces were not totally different from each
other, says Philip Camara on his article at The Manila Times (2017). He highlighted that
this idea of political spectrum would not make sense to a common citizen because it
would not even know its differences due to the fact that this is not effectively applied in
the political system of the country. Thus, he believed that political spectrum should be
understood in a bottom-up perspective in psychology.

In the bottom-up theory, this believes the idea of understanding a context from the
simplest system until the complex one. Relating this theory to cognitive psychology,
information starts from the eyes (sensory input) which in turn are processed by the brain
to interpret an image. Same with understanding the political spectrum, one should start
by the simplest idea until one could fully understand the complexity of it. This gives rise
to a more comprehensive understanding of the political system in the country.

However, political spectrum is a general and vast topic to dwell on. Thus, the group
focused on studying on a certain behaviour which could relate to an individual’s attitude
in the realms of political spectrum- and that is the behaviour of voting. In the 1987
Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, article V which is Suffrage, equates the
rights of every Filipino who are qualified to vote. This alone holds a great aspect to
study in terms of an individual’s behaviour politically. In a psychographics study
conducted by the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER), their 2003 results
had found out that there are four factors wherein voters are considering.

First is the benefit factor in which voters needs to have something to benefit in return of
its vote. Those politicians who seems to be helpful in the community and those who
have great advocacies on people especially those who are in need, are much favour
with this kind of voters. In this study, most of the voters falls in the bracket whose
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income are less than 10,000 per month and most of their educational attainment were
on the secondary level. This implies that much of the voters in this study belong to the
middle and lower class of the society. With this, the patron-client framework can be
applied. This framework is greatly biased and manipulative because the politicians
which are considered the patron are using their position to its advantage through the
acts of helping, which the voters (client) in return will commit their vote because of the
benefit they received. Going back to the demographic profile of the participants in this
study, most of them are living in an unfair and unprivileged situation wherein learned
helplessness could possibly developed. In Martin Selligman’s concept of learned
helplessness, an individual will not try to improve its negative situation due to its past
experiences that will then contribute to its helplessness. Thus, an individual will have
the tendency to cling onto things or person that will aid its negative situation, which is
clearly manifested in a political situation of the rich and the poor.

However, this does not apply to everyone of course, that is why the second factor found
on this study is about political machinery or the act of commanding people to work for
the politician. In return, these people will receive a reward from the commanding
person. Clark Hull established the incentive theory as a predictor to explain the
motivation of human behaviour. This proposes that behaviours are motivated not on
intrinsic forces, but on behaviours that will lead to rewards or positive consequences.
Just like the concept of operant conditioning, an individual performs the behaviour again
because of reinforcement. A good example for this would be receiving money after
doing labour, just like how political machinery works, the “reward” a person gets
motivates the individual to work and at the same time, commits its vote to the person
where he/she is working into. The incentives or the rewards these people are receiving
are motivated by the physiological and social aspects of the individual thus it is really
important to identify the demographic of the voter when it comes to understanding the
political spectrum of each individual.

Then, the third factor in this study was popularity. This is greatly inclined to social
influence which motivates the change of behaviour. One characteristic of it is the
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conformity of an individual. Conformity usually understood as how an individual follows

social norms to strengthen their weak self-esteem and the satisfaction to belong to other
people. But, there are also people who are directed to conform because of group
pressure. One form of group pressure/majority influence is persuasion and since
politicians who are popular were very good with persuading people, they are easily
remembered by the people who are especially just following the decision of majority.

Lastly, the fourth factor found in this study was endorsement of traditional network and
organization. One example of it is the endorsement coming from a family member. If we
relate this to the culture of Filipinos, an individual tends to follow what a family member
chooses to vote. But, this does not mean that all Filipinos choose to follow the decision
of a family member, since there are also individuals who take their freedom and liberty
to decide on whom they choose to vote. Going back to the political spectrum, there are
individuals who values their individual rights and fights for it and there are also
individuals who choose to violate it. On another note, this factor could also relate to
social influence under the concept of compliance and obedience. As Filipinos who are
strong with family ties, some individuals tend to just abide on the decision of other family
members. Some are also affected to comply because of the certain reward or
punishment these networks or organizations will bring to the individual.

Given these four factors found in the study of IPER (2003), the group realized that
politics could really affect an individual’s behaviour especially when it comes to voting.
Yet, it is important to note that the motivation or reason behind the behaviour of an
individual could be driven by several factors such as the affective, cognitive,
economical, physiological and social aspects of a person. Thus, a political stand of an
individual does not end solely on the political group he/she belongs to, but one should
delve into the demographic profile of an individual to fully understand its stance on the
complexity of political spectrum.

IV. METHODOLOGY
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The group members started with setting the objectives and goals of the talk. They
discussed and decided on what specific field in psychology the talk will be about. As
soon as the basic element of the talk has been identified, the group took time to select
the best topic and a knowledgeable speaker fit for the topic. After the group agreed on
the topic and the speaker, a letter of invitation was given to the chosen speaker for
formalities. The speaker then accepted the group’s invitation. As soon as the topic and
speaker were set, the group went into a full event planning and accounting mode. They
identified the details and cost projections by creating and outline of the talk and
budgeted the costs assigned to each segment of the program. Once the group had the
details, the group came up with the materials, certificates for the audience and speaker,
program flow and the expense budget. When all details are already in place, the group
set a schedule for a final meeting before the talk to ensure a smooth flowing talk.

V. LINE BUDGET

Table 1.A Time table

January 14-18, 2018 All team members

> Preparation of materials:
-certificates for the speaker
and for the students
> Follow up with the speaker
January 21, 2018
Call time and 6:30AM All team members
Preparations
PROGRAM
Budget time: Hosts: Julie Anne Opema and
7:30AM-9AM (1 hour Lasseny Noynay
and 30 minutes)
Opening Prayer 7:30AM Dannica Adeline Sotto
Welcome Address 7:33-7:38AM Irish Jane Patica
Just Dance Zumba 7:38-7:43AM Via Panal and others
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Introduction of the 7:43AM-7:45AM Karen Abucay

Speaker
Talk Proper (Political 7:45AM- 8:30AM Atty. Ernesto Neri
Spectrum)
Q&A 8:30AM-8:45AM
Giving of certificates and 8:45AM-8:50AM Lynn Peguit
honorarium to speaker
Picture taking 8:50-8:55AM Deciri Braña
Clean time 8:55AM-9:00AM All team members

The program will begin at 7:30AM at SS 511A (Psychology Laboratory). It will start with
a prayer and to be followed by a welcome message from one of the group members.
There will be a 3-minute zumba dance after to energize everyone. Afterwards, a
member will introduce the speaker and the talk proper will be followed. The duration of
the talk will be 30-45 minutes. There will be another 10-15 minutes for the speaker to
accommodate the audience’s questions. Giving of certificate and honorarium to the
speaker will be followed and a group picture taking.

Table 1.2 Line Budget

Projector and speaker Already
provided
Breakfast for the speaker 120.00
Certificate’ materials
Certificate holder for the speaker 50.00
Papers for the certificates 200.00
Honorarium for the Speaker 1000.00
TOTAL: 1,370.00

In terms of the budget for the program, a total of eight hundred seventy pesos (Php
870.00) will be spent. This includes the breakfast for the speaker (Php 120.00),
Materials for the certificate (Php250), and honorarium for the speaker (Php500).
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VI. REFERENCES

Biddle, C. (2012). Political “Left” and “Right” Properly Defined. The Objective Standard.
Retrieved from https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/2012/06/political-left-and-right-
properly-defined/

Boyd, N. (n.d). How Seligman's Learned Helplessness Theory Applies to Human

Depression and Stress. Psychology 104: Social Psychology. Chapter 9/Lesson 12.
Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-seligmans-learned-helplessness-
theory-applies-to-human-depression-and-stress.html

Camara, P. (2017). The need for a different political spectrum. The Manila Times.
Retrieved from https://www.manilatimes.net/need-different-political-spectrum/338052/

Cherry, K. (2018). The Incentive Theory of Motivation. Are Actions B a Desire for
Rewards?. Theories. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-incentive-
theory-of-motivation-2795382

Harman, J. C. (n.d.). The Psychological Spectrum: Political Orientation and its Origins
in Perception and Culture. White Rose University Press. Retrieved from
https://www.ujpir-journal.com/articles/10.22599/ujpir.25/

Institute for Political and Electoral Reform. (2003). A Voter’s Choice: Myself: A
Psychological Study on Voting Behavior of the Filipino Electorate. Retrieved from
http://www.ombudsman.gov.ph/UNDP4/a-voters-choice-myself-a-psychological-study-
on-voting-behavior-of-the-filipino-electorate/index.htmls

Miller, W. &Shanks, M. (1996). The New American Voter. Massachusetts: Harvard

University Press. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/27551745

Mortensen, A. (2016). The importance of politics. Centre Daily Times. Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.centredaily.com/opinion/article69564172.html

Santiago, R. et al (2015). The Voting Behavior and Preferences of Voters in Purok 5,

Brgy. 31-D, Davao City. Retrieved from
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/39169476/The_Voting_Behavior_
and_Preferences_of_Voters_in_Purok_5_Brgy_31-D_Davao_City.pdf

Saunders, K.L., & Abramowitz, A.L. (2007). Is Polarization a Myth?. Retrieved from
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1017/s0022381608080493.

Sepetjian, R.K. (2013). The Political Spectrum: Understanding the Grossly

Misunderstood. Wordpress. Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/sepetjian.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/the-political-
spectrum-understanding-the-grossly-misunderstood/amp/
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