Abstract
As a result of Freud's seminal postulations of the psychoanalytic bases for one's God-concept, it is a frequently accepted hypothesis that an individual's image of God is largely a reflection of experiences with and feelings toward one's own father. While such speculations as to an individual's phenomenological conceptions of God have an intriguing psychoanalytic appeal, supporting empirical evidence has been mixed. This study investigated the relationship of 213 college students' connotations of the "wrathfulness-kindliness" of God to their mother's and father's nurturance; their mother's and father's permissiveness, authoritarianism, and authoritativeness; and their own self-esteem. While parental nurturance, authoritarianism, and authoritativeness were related to participants' conceptions of God (thus providing support for psychoanalytic assertions), the variable of self-esteem far outweighed all other variables in accounting for the variance in God-concepts. These results suggest that previous empirical support for psychoanalytic speculations as to the parental origins of individuals' God-concepts may largely derive from the influence of a strong correlate of parental nurturance and authority, i.e., self-esteem. (Author/ABL)