Conceptions of Parents, Conceptions of Self, and Conceptions of God.

Different theorists have suggested that an individual's view of God may be related to one's view of one's father, one's mother, or one's self. A study was conducted to examine the relationship of college students' conceptions of the wrathfulness-kindliness of God to their conceptions of their father's and mother's permissiveness, authoritarianism, and authoritativeness, and to their own self-esteem. Catholic college students (N=83) who considered God to be important in their lives, responded to the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, a father's Parental Authority Questionnaire, a mother's Parental Authority Questionnaire, and a conception of God questionnaire. The results revealed that respondents' conception of self was more strongly related to their conceptions of God than were any of the conception of parental authority variables; self-esteem accounted for 24% of the variance in respondents' conceptions of the wrathfulness-kindliness of God. Respondents who felt themselves valuable, capable, and worthy were more easily able to conceptualize God as a loving, patient, and forgiving authority figure than were those who viewed themselves with greater degrees of self-dissatisfaction and self-rejection. (NB)