Study on relationship between father and child (1) : Self-evaluation maintenance processes in family

埼玉県越谷市Relationship between father and child was examined in terms of Tesser's (1984) self-evalution maintenance model. At first, outline of the model was described and implication for adaptation of the model to family dynamics was discussed. Next, results of a reseach through questionnaire measuring main three variables in this model (relevance, performance, and closeness to father) and some relevant variables (identification to father, image of father, self-esteem, and so on) in 201 university students were reported. It was found that subjects who percieved their father as performing considerably better than themselves on high relevant matters (1) recognized themselves more close to father, (2) reported higher degree of identification to father, (3) had more positive images of father than the others. These tendencies were especially marked among female subjects. It seems that reflection process is more dominant rather than comparison proccess in father-child relationship. Further research is needed for modification and expansion of the self-evaluation maintenance model in family