Belief Systems and Conceptual Images of Parents and God

Abstract

Summary The purpose of the this investigation was to study whether the structure of the divine Image could be differentially modeled on parental images according to the belief system of the individual. The Score-Dieu-Parent instrument (God-Parent-Score), which measures the semantic similarities between the divine and parental images, and the Conceptual Systems Test, which identifies concrete and abstract Ss, were administered to 390 male and female university undergraduates, who were divided into two groups according to belief system: abstract or concrete. Factors were extracted for each image (the mother, father, and God images) and for each group (concretes, abstracts, and total), and the degree of congruence was determined for all possible pairs of factors. Semantic distances between the three images were calculated. An analysis of variance using a 2 × 2 × 3 factorial design revealed a significant influence due to the sex of the respondent, another due to the particular distance score considered, and finally a significant interaction effect between the belief system of the respondent and the particular distance score used.