On July 25, 2019, UPAA-W donated $7,200.00 or the equivalent of P371,520.00 to the UP Foundation to establish the Asuncion Miteria Austria – UPAAW Professorial Chair. This will award P60,000.00 every year to an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology of the College of Social Science and Philosophy in UP Diliman.
To qualify for this chair, the applicant, in addition to the criteria given in the faculty manual, should be “preferably tenured Assistant Professors who are advanced PHD students at the dissertation stage or new PhDs (received their degree within the last 3 years); completed or about to complete the PhD in a timely manner (within 6 years for those who applied with an MA in our field, 8 years for others); has at least 2 peer-reviewed publications while earning the PhD.”
The recipients for this chair are as follows:
Dr. Diwa Malaya A. Quiñones (2019)
Dr. Quiñones has been a full-time faculty member of the department since 2013. He began his doctoral studies in our department in the same year and successfully defended his dissertation during the midyear of this year, finishing within six years. His dissertation, on the predictors of civic engagement among Filipinos, is the culmination of many years’ investigation of the phenomenon. While doing his PhD, he taught very well-received undergraduate classes on Cognition, Perception, Experimental Psychology and Social Psychology. He has actively presented in conferences both local and international, and worked with colleagues, his supervisor, and international collaborators on various projects to come out with five peer-reviewed publications (two international and three local) from the period of 2015-2019. On top of this, Dr. Quiñones has been an invaluable member of the department active in committee work at the department level and the college level, particularly those related to fostering a research culture. He has also led small discussions on Open Science— an important development in our field in light of recently identified problems with replication and falsification of data.
Asst. Prof. Marie Rose H. Morales (2020)
Asst. Prof. Morales has been a full-time faculty member of the department since 2015 and tenured since 2018. She began her doctoral studies in our department in 2015 and is now only 9 units away from completing the required coursework, with Personality as a major and Social Psychology as a minor. Her topic of interest is the Filipino concept of diskarte, which she has published about. She has presented in local and international conferences, worked with local and international collaborators, and done research on positive discipline for the benefit of Filipino families. She most recently came out with a manual on positive discipline for the international non-government organization Save the Children. Asst. Prof. Morales has been an invaluable member of the department active in committee work at the department level and the college level, particularly in curriculum review and the implementation of the new BA and BS Psych
curricula.
Dr. Danielle P. Ochoa (2021)
Dr. Ochoa has been with the UPD Department of Psychology since 2012; she started as a lecturer then was reclassified as a full-time faculty. She was awarded a PhD degree in July 2020. Her dissertation was chosen to be our department’s nominee for the Loreta Makasiar Sicat Prize in the Social Sciences. Dr. Ochoa has been actively working with colleagues and international collaborators on different research projects to publish 11 publications in refereed journals. She has also presented her research work in various conferences. She has been granted numerous grants and awards such as UP Centennial Faculty Grant (January to December 2020), International Publication Award (October 2019), Research Award Programme (May 2019 to 2020), Local Faculty Fellowship (January to December 2019), One UP Faculty Grant for Teaching and Public Service (2019-2021), K.S. Yang Research Grant (August 2015 to December 2017), Outright Research Grant (July 2015 to February 2016), and Best Master’s Thesis (2014). Furthermore, aside from her research work and publication, Dr. Ochoa has greatly contributed to the department’s mission and vision through her excellent teaching and active involvement in different Department (even College and University) committees.
Dr. Samantha Erika N. Mendez (2022)
Dr. Mendez completed her doctorate at the University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Psychology (UPDDP) in 2020. She has already been granted a faculty appointment with tenure in April 2023.
Teaching. She has been teaching both undergraduate courses (Introduction to Psychology, Principles of Learning, Developmental Psychology, and Field Research Methods in Psychology) and graduate courses (Theories in Developmental Psychology and Theories in Developmental Psychology).
Research. Dr. Mendez has contributed to the discipline, specifically in the area of Developmental psychology, through the conduct of research projects, conference presentations, and journal article publication. She disseminated parts of her dissertation at local conferences, an international summer research institute (Mind & Life SRI 2020), and in speaking engagements. In addition, she was granted the PhD Incentive Award to commence research work which extends her dissertation to single women in midlife. She authored and co-authored the following journal articles.
Dr. Francis Simonh M. Bries (2023)
Dr. Bries completed his doctorate degree at the University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Psychology (UPDDP) in July 2022. He has already been granted a faculty appointment with tenure in October 2023.
Teaching. He has been teaching undergraduate courses (Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Research in Psychology, Experimental Research in Psychology, Perception, Cognitive Psychology, and Special Topics in Psychology) and graduate courses (Special Topics in Social Psychology and Survey Methodology).
Research and publication. He has been involved in both basic (e.g., indigenous conceptions of motivation, political attitudes) and applied research projects (e.g., spending for and monitoring of HIV/AIDS interventions. The output from these has been translated into local and international conference presentations, first-author articles in local journals, and various public engagements (e.g., newsletters and talks).
Asst. Prof. John Robert C. Rilveria (2024)
Mr. Rilveria is pursuing a doctorate in the Department. He has already defended his dissertation proposal in October 2021 and is currently working on his dissertation. He has already been granted a faculty appointment with tenure on October 2022.
Teaching. He has been teaching undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Principles of Learning, Theories of Personality, and Abnormal Psychology) and graduate courses. He sees himself as contributing to the Department by offering graduate-level course on therapeutic alliance and its implications for research and practice.
Research. Mr. Rilveria has contributed to the discipline specifically in the area of Clinical psychology by working closely with the UPD PsycServ clinical research team under the supervision of his mentors from the Clinical psychology program. Together with his colleagues, he is currently involved in finalizing a UP-funded project on the basic effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy within the context of the pandemic. In addition, he is working on a personally funded research project on autism interventions and therapeutic
alliance. He is also active in presenting his papers in conferences such as the PAP Annual Convention, PSSP Ginhawa Conference, and CSSP Student Research Conference among others.
