CONCEPT OF GOD AND PARENTAL IMAGES.

UNITED States; BELGIUM

This research investigates the relation between images of parents and of God, with special attention to the difference between maternal and paternal characteristics. Subjects rated each of their parents and God on eighteen maternal and eighteen paternal characteristics. Subjects were selected to permit comparisons between sexes, different ages, and different fields of study. Data presented here are drawn from United States samples, but comparisons are also made with previously reported results from Belgium samples. In all samples, the image of God is more paternal than maternal. In the American samples, unlike the Belgian, God appears to become gradually more maternal. American females and males both emphasize the paternal qualities of God (the males somewhat more so), unlike the French speaking Belgian sample who emphasize the parental qualities corresponding to their own sex. In the American sample, specialized field of study does not appear related to the God concept, unlike the Belgian among whom scientific students conceive of God more maternally and literary students more paternally. (In the American sample, liberal arts students do report a more maternal mother and a less paternal father than science students.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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