Gardner E. Lindzey, chairman of the Psychology and Social Relations Department and widely considered to be a front-runner for permanent dean of the Faculty, appears to have withdrawn as a candidate for the post.

Sources inside the Department disclosed yesterday that Lindzey's wife was unhappy with Cambridge, and wanted to return to Texas. Lindzey taught at the University of Texas in Austin from 1965-1971.

Lindzey said last night that he had an administrative offer from the University of Texas for next year. "I am considering the offer very seriously," Lindzey said. "I'm not sure where I'll be next year."

Lindzey said he had informed President Bok of the offer, and that he has kept Bok posted on the possible move. Lindzey's indecision seems to remove him from Bok's dean's list although he refused to confirm the withdrawal.

"My plans are unrelated to the President's decision," Lindzey said. Bok, however, has said he would announce the permanent dean sometime in early April, and Lindzey said that his own decision on the Texas post might not come for several weeks.

Bok narrowed his list to a half-dozen candidates two weeks ago. Lindzey and Henry Rosovsky, professor of Economics, appeared to be the top two candidates. Bok declined, however, to name any of the candidates on his final list.

Sources close to the Administration said last night that Bok's choice will come most likely from inside the Faculty.

Lindzey, who was professor of Psychology at Texas from 1965 until he became chairman of Texas's Psychology Department in 1968, said the Texas offer would be "more administrative than a chairmanship" but was not a deanship.

Lindzey came to Harvard last year to head the combined Psychology and Social Relations Department. He left his post as vice president of academic affairs at Texas for a year's study at the Center for Behaviorial Sciences at Stanford.

The Texas offer seems similar to the vice-president's post Lindzey left in 1971.