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Loving the Philippines: History, Culture, Cinema, Hope

The eight levels of interaction

Filipino social life does not switch between outsider and insider in one step. Enriquez mapped eight graded levels, and the border runs between the fifth and the sixth.

Inside ibang-tao, the outsider category:

  1. Pakikitungo, civility. Transacting properly with someone you do not know.
  2. Pakikisalamuha, mixing. Being in the same social space.
  3. Pakikilahok, joining in. Taking part in what the group is doing.
  4. Pakikibagay, conforming. Adjusting yourself to fit.
  5. Pakikisama, adjusting. Going along with the group.

Inside hindi ibang-tao, one of us:

  1. Pakikipagpalagayang-loob, mutual trust. The loob, the inner self, is opened.
  2. Pakikisangkot, getting involved. Their problem becomes your problem without being asked.
  3. Pakikiisa, oneness.

Two things are worth reading off the map. First, pakikisama, the value most often cited as the essence of Filipino character, sits at level five, still on the outside. Second, there is no ceremony at the border. The crossing happens and both people know it, which is what pakikiramdam is for.

Source: Virgilio G. Enriquez, From Colonial to Liberation Psychology: The Philippine Experience, University of the Philippines Press, 1992, free to borrow on the Internet Archive, where the levels are set out in his own words. Summarised with the same ordering in Rogelia Pe-Pua and Elizabeth Protacio-Marcelino (2000), “Sikolohiyang Pilipino: A legacy of Virgilio G. Enriquez,” Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 3(1), 49 to 71, free PDF.

First used in: 2.2 · One of us, or not one of us