Folklor/Edebiyat (Nov 2022)
An Example of the Interpreting of Folklore Texts with Positive Psychology Concepts: Lullabies about Love /Folklor Metinlerini Pozitif Psikoloji Kavramlarıyla Yorumlamada Bir Örnek: Sevgi Konulu Ninniler
Abstract
Positive psychology seeks to help people to have positive experiences throughout their lives while protecting their mental health through behaviours that improve their subjective well-being. Lullabies are oral culture products presented in early childhood, and their short but rich content serves as language-culture carriers and memory transmitters. Lullabies are a genre with an ancient love feeling and the value of universal love, both which have survived to present day. The study’s objective is to examine love-themed lullabies, one of the anonymous folk literature genres, in the context of psychology and literature, using positive psychology principles. The study also intends to explain the results using functional theory, one of the folklore theories, as an example of interdisciplinary research and contribution to the literature. The study’s research questions in this respect are “What are the positive impacts of love-themed lullabies on human life and spirit?” and “What are their roles in this context?” The “hermeneutic” and “basic qualitative research” designs were employed in the study since the texts will be handled using fundamental positive psychology concepts. Lullabies were interpreted for the themes of happiness, subjective well-being, and secure attachment, which created the framework of the thematic setting based on positive psychology expert opinions. According to positive psychology, love-themed lullabies are essential in maintaining one’s mental health and happiness, which is vital to positive childhood experiences. Thus, love-themed lullabies support positive psychology for clinical applications in a “metaphorical sense”. As a result, oral folk literature genres such as fairy tales and legends may be examined using positive psychology principles.
Keywords
