Research Report No.27 
The Awareness of Thai Government Officials of Social and Cultural Change 
by 
Chancha Suvannathat,Ravipan Somnapan 
Padtra Sukontasarp, Sumnuk Comurai 
Wiladlak Chuawanlee, Laddawan Pornsrisamud  
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Objectives Seven main objectives of this research were : 
           1. To survey Thai government officials' awareness of social and  cultural change during the past 10 years. 
           2. To study the direction of Thai government afficials' attitude  towards social and cultural change. 
           3. To investigate the correlations among the awareness of change  and attitude towards change, social 
               adaptation, and modernity. 
           4. To compare the degree of awareness of change, attitude  towards change, and modernity between 
                samples who had different  demographic and work section background (location, age, sex, education, 
                and work section). 
           5. To study the interaction between education variables and the  awareness of change on the attitude 
                 towards change. 
           6. To examine the interaction between education variables and  attitude towards change on social 
                 adjustment. 
           7. To investigate the interaction between education variables  and social adjustment on modernity.
               Methodology 
                Sample and Sampling Technique The sample consisted of 973 government officials working in  Bangkok and other provinces. In Bangkok 3 urban and 3 suburb areas  (khets) were reandamly selected, and all officials working in these  district offices were asked to participate in this research. Six other provinces were randomly selected and all officials working in the City  Halls and Municipality Offices in these provinces were used as  participants. The participants were categorized by levels of education  attainment and division of work. The levels of education attainment  of interest was (1) lower than tenth grade, (2) tenth grade to degrees  prior to bachelor's, and (3) bachelor's degree and upper. Division of  work or work section studied was Education Section, Agricultural  Section, Administration Section, and Municipality Section. Instruments Four questionnaires constructed in this study were (1) Awareness of Social and Cultural Change included 96 items in � four areas : social and religious values, regislative aspects,  materialistic aspects, and etiquette aspects. (2) Attitude towards Social and Cultural Change consisted of 48  main items. (3) Social Adjustment including 20 items in each of the  following scales Self - Concept Scale, Anxiety Scale, and Attitude  towards Surrounding People Scale, and (4) Modernity Scale, modified from Overall Modernity Scale (OM- 12) by Smith and Inkeles, Consisted of 14 items. Statistical Analysis Statistial techniques applied in this study were correlations, t- test, Z-test, one-and two-way analyses of variance. 
                Conclusion 
                    1. Thai government officials were highly aware of social and  cultural change during the past 10 years and they expressed negative attitude towares the change. 
                    2. From correlational analysis, there was a linear and positive  relations among the awareness of change, attitude towards the change,  social adjustment, and modernity. 
                    3. Thai government officials who resided in Bangkok and other  provinces, who were in different age levels, and who worked in  different sections showed different degree of the awareness of change,  attitude towards the change, social adjustment, and modernity, except that officials who had different education showed no difference in the  awareness of change and attitude towards the change. Furthurmore,  officials who worked in different sections also showed no difference  in attitude towards the change, and there was no difference between  males and females in any variablles. 
                    4. No interaction effects were found to be significant. 



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