Some problems of child’s identification with father were examined in terms of Tesser’s (1984) self-evaluation maintenance model in 201 undergraduate students. A questionnaire measured two of three main variables in the model (relevance, performance) and some other variables (father-image, self-esteem and so on). Two weeks later, closeness to father-remaining variables in the model―was measured through Schematic Projective Technique (Mizushima, 1986).
It was found that subjects who perceived their fathers as performing considerably better than themselves on high relevant matters (1) recognized themselves more close to father, (2) repeoted higher degree of identification with father, (3) had more positive images of father, than the other students. These tendencies were especially marked among female subjects.
These results were interpreted in flame of the model and some problems for adaptation of the model to father-child relationship were discussed.