Chapter 5: Theories of Gender Development Flashcards
Gender Role
- socially significant activities that men and women engage in with different frequencies and become associated with sec and gender
- socially discouraged scripts of behaviour
- social learning theory
Gender Identity
- how individuals come to identify themselves as male or female
Psychodynamic Approach to Personality
- Freud
- emphasized the difference between personality development and the functioning of men and women
- (remains controversial)
- casts women as inferior to men
Freud’s Theory of Personality
-theorized the existence of the unconscious
(instincts- dynamic forces underlying thought and action)
- personality and gender identity develops through psychosexual stages
Feud’s Psychosexual Stages
Oral (0-1) mouth, tongue, lips
Anal (1-3) anus, toilet training
Phallic (3-6) genitals, resolving oedipus
Latency (6-12)
Genital (12+) genitals, reaching sexual maturity
The Phallic Stage for Boys
- Oedipus complex: attracted to mother and hostile to father
- castration complex: boys fear their father will remove their penis, this leads to identification with the father and a masculine identity (strong morality)
- boys believe that girls have suffered this resulting in viewing girls as inferior
The Phallic Stage for Girls
- penis envy: feelings of inferiority over their genitals
- wounds from castration
- hold their mothers responsible
- desire to have sex and babies with father as a substitute for penis
- weaker identification with mother (weak morality)
Freud and Women
- Freud’s theory was uncomplimentary to women
- viewed as “failed men”
- however ,women may not be inferior in intelligence
- thought the sexes could never be equal and disparaged feminism.
Horney’s Theory of Personality
- re-examined many of Freud’s concepts
- argued against male bias in psychoanalytic theory
- replaced penis envy with womb envy
- penis envy as a longing for social prestige
- men see women as inferior to keep them from dealing with their own feelings of inferiority (lack ability to create and give birth)
What are the 3 major criticisms of Freud
- Fails to recognize social factors
- overestimation of sexuality
- overemphasis on early childhood experience
Contemporary Psychodynamic Theories of Personality Development
- attempts to remove sexist elements from traditional psychoanalytic theory as well as to reformulate psychoanalytic concepts within a feminist perspective
- Nancy Chodorow
- Ellyn Kaschak
Chodorow’s Emphasis on Mothering
- concentrates on the pre- Oedipal period
- like freud, pessimistic about gender equality
- mother-infant relationship is ket to personality development
- boys and girls experiences are different
boys: have to strive for separation (hard time with self and identity, reject femininity)
girls: neither striving for nor attaining to same level of separation (Easy time with self and identity, embrace femininity)
Kaschak’s Antigone Phase
Psychodynamic but social role embodied
- female personality development in terms of antigone (oedipus’s daughter and half sister)
- oedipus symbolizes women’s self - sacrifice and devotion
- historically perpetuates by society, social structure perpetuates differential power for men and women.
Mens Oedipal Role (Kaschak’s antigone phase)
unresolved: - social power and status -proprietary over women - women: subservient - patriarchal terrorism: systematic violence within family - sexually self-centered Resolved: - non patriarchal - power is not a major issue - women: independent - sexually unselfish
Womens Oedipal Role (Kaschak’s antigone phase)
Unresolved:
- accept subservience (passive and dependant)
- accept male-defined sexuality and may limit their own (Eating disorders)
- Deny own needs (few female friendships)
Resolved:
- reject subservient role, assertive and independent
- define own sexuality
- accept and express needs
- from female relationships
Social Learning Theory
Classifies gender development as learned behaviours and emphasizes social environment
- variation of traditional learning theory
operant conditioning (reinforcement and punishment)
- observation of others (modelling)
power and prestige
positive and negative consequences
Cognitive Theories of Gender Development
- social learning theory criticized as too passive
- evidence suggests that children actively organize information about their gender
1. cognitive developmental theory
2. gender schema theory
Cognitive Developmental Theory
The acquisition of gender- related behaviours as part of a general cognitive development
-occurs though interactions with the environment
- forming increasingly complex and accurate understandings of our body and world (abstract thought)
-similar to piaget
age 2- fail at gender labelling and lack gender constancy
age 6-7 gender constancy
Gender Schema Theory
Children develop schemas for gender
- gender - related behaviours appear
1. as a result of general cognitive development
2. due to the adoption of specific schema related to gender
Which theory is best
- development is complex and no theories explain all the data
- social learning theory- gender labeling before gender typical toy and clothing preference
- cognitive developmental theory: does not allow for differences in boys and girls development
- gender schema theory: doesn’t address differences in schemata between boy and girl but allows for the possibility
