ABSTRACT
The child's first experiences with the functioning of authority are in association with parental control, and these experiences are the beginning of learning about constituted authority. Historians and political scientists have called attention to the specific effort of the founders of the American form of government to establish laws and regulations to avoid giving too much authority to one person. The patriarchal system and the absolute rule of the father is no longer characteristic of the American family. The present role of the father also results in the training and instruction of children in this culture being carried on largely by women, not only at home, but in school as well. Sometimes conflict with authority comes about not necessarily because authority interferes with satisfaction or that it unrealistically limits the child, but rather because conflict becomes an outlet for displaced feelings.
