The concept of “father”, which has an important role in the family and parents child relationship, has been the subject of many science fields in historical periods. In this research, what the concept of father means according to the age periods was determined by the prototype analysis method. The research was carried out in a qualitative pattern. 241 participants including primary school (40), middle school (40), high school (40), university (40), young adulthood (40), middle age (40) were included in the research. Participants were asked what meant of father to them in a form where expressing a concept was embodied with the example and asked what the meaning of the father meant. “Prototype Analysis Method” was used to analyze the obtained data. The definitions related to the father are classified according to gender and developmental stages in the form of frequencies, and their percentages are listed from the most repeated to the least repeated and shown in a table. During the primary school, paticipants define fathers as love, meeting financial needs, compassion, anger, respect; The participants in the middle school period defined the head of the household, love, happiness, money, altruist. Participants in the high school period defined the father as a protector, the head of the household, love, support, and the university period as a protector, support, source of happiness, trust, sacrifice. Participants in young adulthood define fathers; trust, protector, authority, self-sacrificing, guiding; middle age participants define fathers; such as support,, head of the household,, protector, love, authority. Descriptions about the father were discussed in the light of the literature by developmental stages and gender.
Key Words: Father, developmental stages, family, prototype analysis