Buddhist Psychology for Development of Virtues and Happiness in Thai Country Songs

Abstract

Objectives of the study aimed to analyze the structure, content, elements and process of country songs based on Buddhist Psychology in terms of principles, methods and goals of Thai country songs; to integrally synthesize the Buddhadhamma and Psychological principles for the development of virtues and happiness in Thai country songs; and to propose the development model of virtues and happiness based on Buddhist Psychology in Thai country songs as a mixed methods research between a qualitative research and quantitative one, using an In-depth interview to collect qualitative data from 17 key informants and questionnaire to collect quantitative data from 440 samples who are students of  King Mongkul Institute of Technology Ladgrabang, using a content analysis to analyze qualitative data and statistics including Frequency, Percentage, Mean and Inferential analysis statistics comprising t-test, F-test and One-way ANOVA to analyze quantitative data, the results of which found that the development model was related to the development principle in the process of the Four Noble Truths in terms of the content of songs. The authors explained the condition of problems or social problems, its causes, cessation of problems and ways out of problems. Composing a song as the process of the Four Noble Truths was the determination of problems covered the realization of reasons of points, ways out and solutions and because Thai country songs were various and flexible in the aspects of content, goal and methods they could have integrally synthesized contents and positive reality in multi-dimension in association with circumstances based on Buddhist Psychology.