Thai Peasant Personality: The Patterning of Interpersonal Behavior in the Village of Bang ChanReaders interested in the psychology of non-Western peoples will find this volume provocative in both descriptive and theoretical detail. The first book-length study of Thai psychological life, Thai Peasant Personality describes the members of a peasant community whose dominant personality traits are aimed at the maintenance of their individuality, privacy, and sense of self-regard. In addition, it offers suggestions for handling many of the theoretical and technical problems crucial to cross-cultural personality research. Basing his research on two years of fieldwork in the Central Plain community of Bang Chan, Herbert P. Phillips offers a systematic analysis and comparison of two kinds of data: observations of the villagers’ overt behavior in workaday social encounters, and their subjective responses to a special psychological test. Readers will find particular value in his discussion of the design, translation, and implementation of psychological research methods in non-Western cultures. Phillips analyzes the central role of affability and play in the villagers’ daily contacts, their use of politeness as a “social cosmetic,” and the implications of this cosmetic for the inner lives of the Thai. He examines the villagers’ readiness to become involved with others and the links that tie them together over time. He demonstrates how the individualistic tendencies of the Thai intrude on the stability of interpersonal relationships and how all social interactionin Bang Chan is set within a framework of cosmic unpredictability, with human volition only one of several indeterminate and uncontrollable factors in life. This “loosely structured” system of social relationships is seen to have its roots in early childhood, with strong support from both Hinayana Buddhist doctrine and the sociologically simple and undifferentiated nature of Bang Chan society. In presenting the psychological test results, the author examines the villagers’ attitudes toward authority, dependency, and aggression; their anxieties and reactions to crises; and their dominant drives and wishes. These various issues are linked to the theoretical problem of conformity and to the basic human need for privacy and psychological isolation. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Village of Bang Chan | 14 |
Naturalistic Observation of Thai Personality | 39 |
Methodology in the Field | 96 |
The Sentence Completion Technique | 122 |
The SCTs Exploration of Thai Per | 143 |
Lessons From Thai Culture | 200 |
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Common terms and phrases
actually adult aggression analytic angry anxiety areas asked attitudes avoid Bang Chan Bang Chaners Bangkok basic behave boss Buddhist characteristics child Clyde Kluckhohn concern conformity considerably Cornell cross-cultural descriptive despite discussion earlier emphasis example explicitly expressed fact farang feelings field frequently function Hanks human important indicate individuals informants insulted interaction interpersonal interpersonal relationships interviews involved khwaan kind kinship Kroeber Land of Smiles living major means merit modal personality monastery motivational naturalistic observation nature never nuclear family one's parents patterns Pedicab Driver percent perhaps phrase phuujinjaj point of view position precisely problem psychic psychodynamic reference relationships relatively represent respect responses rice role sample sanug SCT items sense Sentence Completion Siamese simply situation social psychological structure subordinate suggest superior Thai culture Thai language Thailand things tion translation typical Tzintzuntzan unimodal villagers