Generally, to some extent, it had been considered a given until a few years ago that when one talked about psychology, one meant the psychology of Americans. Asian psychology had been unrecognized, or at least, unacknowledged worldwide.
The Zeitgeist in Asian Psychology
Through the years, however, there was an awakening, a realization, by Asian psychologists that western concepts and theories were irrelevant and inapplicable when applied in the Asian context. They began to question the appropriateness of letting western social scientists describe and predict Asian behavior, without consideration for the differences between the Asian and Western cultures.
Thus was born the need for an Asian psychology, a psychology arising from one’s own experiences. With it, there was a movement as well by Filipino psychologists of the need to have their own identity.