Jirawathana  Manyean.  1993.  University  Experierce as Antecedence of Buddhist and Psycholagrcal
Characteristics of students in Bangkok.  Dissertation, M.S. (Behavioral Science) Behavioral Science Research 
Institute. 


             The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Buddhist experiences in Thai
universities and Buddhist Characteristics and psychological traits of the students. The three purposes were, first, to
examine whether the students with different Buddhist experiences in the universites would have different Buddhist
beliefs, pratices, moral reasoning ability and ego identity attainment, secondly, to explore the relationships among the
socio-economic aspects and background of the students together with Buddhist experiences in the universities and
Buddhist beliefs, practices, moral reasoning ability and ego identity attainment, and thirdly, to investigate whether the
degree of Buddhist beliefs and pratices would be related to moral reasoning ability, ego identity attainment, mental health
and academic achievement of the students. 
                    The subjects were two hundred and sixty students of the second, third and fourth year from seven
universities in Bangkok. Half of them were members of Buddhism Club, the others were non-members. Both groups
were matched in gender, class and major subjects area. 
                  In this correlational field study, variors types of measures and questionaires were employed to collect
data. Three groups of varriables were examined : 1) Four aspects of Buddhist experiences in the universities consisted of
Buddhist experience receiving from courses taken, amount of participation in Buddhism Club religious experiences from
attending university activites and Buddhist ordination experience.  2)  Five Students' characteristics consisted of Buddhist
beliefs, Buddhist practices, moral reasoning ability, ego identity attainment, mental health and academic achivement 3)
Six bio-social charcteristies and background Variables especially the assesments of Buddhist socialization  from
secondary school and on Buddhist modeling of parents. 
                    Three-way Analysis of  Variance, Multiple Regression Analysis and Canonical correlation procedures were
used to analysis the data. Data analysis was performed on the whole group of students and also on sub groups divided by
the socio-economic and background of variables. 
                    The prominent results were as follows  : 
                    1)  It was found that three Buddhist experience in the universities which were very important to students
characteristics were primarily, experience in being a Buddhism Club member, secondly, experience from the courses
taken and thirdly ordination experience. There was less evidence of the effects of buddhist experience in joining the
university activities. The more experiences  in these three categories the students had, the higherthe scores Buddhist
beliefs (predicting 36 % in the whole group); the more they practiced Buddhism (prediction  33%  in the whole group) ;
the higher the Budhist ego identity scores they showed  (prediction 25 % among senior students) ; the better mental health
they had (predicting 25% among senior students) and the higher their moral  reasoning were (predicting 12  % among
senior students). 
                2) when the socio-economic and background variables of the students were used, it was found that good model
of parents in  Buddhism heightened the students' Buddhist beliefs and practices. The results were most revealed apparent
in female, sophomore and third-year students. In addition it was found that students who were highly socialized in
Buddhism in secondary school were high scorers in Buddhist practice. The results turnded up clearly in sophomore
students and students with highly educated parents. 
                3)  It was apparently found that beliefs and practices in Buddhism were related to moral reasoning ability
(predicting  20% in female and senior students) ; to ego identity in Buddhism (predicting 30% in senior students) and to
good mental health (predicting 23% in the students of lower socio-economic family). It could be concluded that the
higher their beliefs and practices in Buddhism the more their moral reasoning ability, Their ego identity attainment and
their mental health. This clearly appeared in female, senior students and students from lower socio-economic family. 
                    A certain notewerthy results indecated the significant effects of Buddhist experiences in the universities
upon the Buddhist charcteristics  of these studends. The prominemt characteristics of the Thai students that could be
developed in the universities were Buddhist beliefs, Buddhist practices, moral reasoning ability, ego identity attainment in
Buddhism and mental health. Moreover this study identified the types of students who could gaine Buddhist experiences
during university life, i.e., female students, students  from lower soio-economoc families and students who recived less
Buddhist socialization from their secondary school. 
                The recommendations included : 
              Fist the effort could be made to motivate female students students from lower socio-economic families and
students who got less Buddhist socialization from school to have  more participation in  Buddhist Club and take more
courses on Buddhism in the university. Furthermore, more morality and ethies should be inserted in courses in the
universities. 
              Scondly buddhist beliefs and practices should be developed in the parents at home and in the secondary schools'
curricular so that the students can benefit from this program. 
              Finally university activities scolud be organized such that more Buddhist socialization shoud be included in
Universties' s general activities so that it can better sake be beneficial to the non-members of Buddhism Club who are
more likely to participate in other university activities. 

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