Psychology is known as the “scientific study of behaviour and mental processes”. In line with the nature of psychology, the BS Psychology program of Xavier University aims to provide students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude for jobs that may involve interpersonal relations, ethics and research, mental health and psychological welfare and development and functioning of the person, the group, the community and organizations or institutions. The program embodies the university’s core values of competence, conscience and commitment through its courses and through encouraging students to become actively involved in working for the marginalized community. In addition, the program prepares students for further study in fields such as law, business and management and medicine.

XU Psychology Department is faithful to the vision mission of the university. Students are trained to be responsive of the issues confronted by the different communities of Mindanao specifically issues related to peace, mental health, and well-being.

The department's integrative framework aimed at strengthening psychosocial competencies that helps preserve and maintain wellness among individuals in the community. Specifically, programs and curriculum content are designed in ways that promote and enhance the cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual competencies of individuals.

Side by side with the promotion of competencies, the department sees the need to give equal value and importance on scientific researches and explorations. Scientific outputs are building blocks of knowledge in serving the community.

Vision-Mission

XU Psychology program intends to produce compassionate, conscientious and competent psychologists and psychometricians who can help individuals and groups in different settings or fields. Specifically, the program intends to equip students the skills that are necessary for them to be able to practice psychological assessment and diagnosis, individual and group counseling and psychological research, particularly in the community.

Student-Teacher Relationship

The faculty members value student-teacher relationship and try to ensure that students attain holistic growth and development so that they may become proud of who they are and who they will become while at the same time maintaining good and humble hearts.  

Community Engagement

MA Psychology students are encouraged to serve people from all walks of life particularly the marginalized members of the community. They are able to do this through joining activities such as disaster response, psycho-education in change management and psychosocial processing that are facilitated or organized by the department.

Research and Publication

Students are required to engage in research studies/thesis that can be granted funding by the Kinaadman Research Center, the university’s “main arm for research development and management”. To date, the department has had 15 research studies (both Graduate and Undergraduate) that were funded by KRC, 4 of which have been published by the same body and 1 of which has been published internationally.

1) Organizational Development Program - This program works on building the capacities of community leaders and the organizations where they belong towards self-governance. The Xavier Ecoville Homeowner’s Association is the highest governing body and under it are the different sectoral groups of the community.

Sectoral groups in Xavier Ecoville:

1. Youth Club
2. Senior Citizen
3. Dayong
4. Xavier Ecoville Tricycle Operators and Drivers  Association (XETODA)
5. Persons with Disabilities (PWD)
6. Community Health Navigators (CHN)
7. Kasilingan Formation Core (KFC)

2) Livelihood Development Program Development - This program implements income- and employment-generating programs for the families to sustain their basic needs and for the cooperative to thrive.
                 
Xavier Ecoville currently has six enterprises:

1. Credit & Loan
2. Wholesale
3. Food
4. Manpower
5. Sewing
6. Agri-Enterprise

3) Knowledge Product Development Program - This program focuses on producing and developing different knowledge products for the project such as training modules and manual of procedures. The Knowledge Products are intended for groups and organizations who will be interested in replicating the framework of the Xavier Ecoville Project to other resettlement communities.