Today we present research in the area of "Morality," investigating how Thai people view themselves in the rapidly changing current society, dealing with risks such as emerging diseases or keeping up with the technology-driven world.
The Center For Morality Promotion (CMP), an international organization, in collaboration with the Faculty of Education, Srinakharinwirot University, surveyed Thais under the circumstances of morality in Thai society in 2023. Each individual self-assessed their behavior (self-reflection behavior) in five aspects: sufficiency, discipline, responsibility, integrity, public spirit, and respect for elders. The morality index surveyed in six regions, in three age groups: children and teenagers, early working age, and working age, in six occupational groups: agriculture, civil servants / state employees, private employees, state enterprise employees, general laborers, and self-employed/ freelance. Life capital is an assessment of the positive forces of the ecosystem surrounding humans in five forces: self-force, family force, intelligence-creating/organization force, friend and activity force, and community force. Both the morality index and life capital are indicators at the national level set by the National Economic and Social Development Council.
The research studied a group of Thai population aged 13 - 60 years old across the country, divided into three age groups: children and teenagers aged 13 - 24 years, working age 25 - 40 years, and elderly age 41 years and above in three main topics:
The results of the study in all three aspects reflect the attitudes of Thai people and Thai society towards "Morality" in the present age. The overall image of Thai morality seen by Thais themselves is just sufficient. They still adhere to respect for elders, while sufficiency decreases in retirement age.
The research results also found that Thais of all ages assess that they possess complete morality in all 5 dimensions, but it's only at a sufficient level. Thais still have a high level of respect for elders, but honesty is at a sufficient level, and sufficiency is at a low level.
In the dimension of morality in respect for elders, all age groups in the sample assess themselves as having a high level of respect for elders. This reflects that respect for elders, a traditional virtue of Thai society, still receives importance from contemporary people.
While in terms of integrity, children and working-age people assess themselves at just a sufficient level. This reflects that there should be more promotion of integrity in Thai society.
The virtues affected by the current situation are the principles of sufficiency. The older population aged 41 and above evaluates their sufficiency as minimal. The researchers suggest this could be due to economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic over the past three years, causing this age group to spend their savings before retirement more than they anticipated.
The research on the dimension of "Five Power of Life Capital" virtues in Thai society shows that overall, the evaluation is good for all age groups. However, community strength is low and should be fortified. These five life capitals influence attitudes and behaviors of individuals. The public, across all age groups, assessed their community power to be less than other powers. The recommendation is to expedite the promotion or design activities to enhance community strength, such as activities that allow children to participate in designing community activities.
The current state of virtues in Thai society still reflects worrying conditions regarding the quality of Thai people's life, such as the situation of "household debts soaring to a high in 18 years," the situation of "elderly people facing the condition of living alone" with no caregivers, and the alarming signal from the global quality of life ranking amid the deteriorating environmental quality crisis in Thailand.
The accident situation in 2023 escalated due to lack of discipline in driving. There are situations involving the cyber world from a range of online scams and the media to youth threats and family problems. However, a phenomenon of volunteerism is occurring when virtuous people must have their stand. These are the situations of virtues reflecting both positive and negative attitudes of Thai people.
The research results serve as an important academic foundation for social driving in the dimension of virtues, based on knowledge and information corresponding to the current situation. The Virtue Center plays a role in developing knowledge and innovation so that social networks can use knowledge and innovation to drive virtue work according to the context of each agency and serve as a knowledge base that can be used to make decisions, determine policies, and design processes to promote virtues in practice.
Data updated on March 15, 2023
Source: Center For Morality Promotion (CMP) (Public Organization)
Tel. +66 2644 9900
Srinakharinwirot University
Tel. +66 2649 5000
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