G - Psychodynamic explanation of gender development

Question 1

What is the psychodynamic explanation of gender development?

Answer 1

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

Question 2

What are the 2 main concepts of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 2

Identification and internalisation.

Question 3

Electra complex

• When does it occur?
• Describe it

Answer 3

• Occurs during the phallic stage of development.
• A girl blames her mother for her lack of a penis (penis envy), but eventually resolves this through a wish to have a baby and comes to identify with her mother and internalise female gender values.

Question 4

Identification

Answer 4

A form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude because they want to be associated with a particular person or group.

Question 5

Internalisation

Answer 5

Occurs when an individual accepts the attitudes or behaviour of another.

Question 6

Oedipus complex

• When does it occur?
• Describe it

Answer 6

• Occurs during the phallic stage of development.
• A boy wishes his father dead because they are rivals for the mother’s love; this leads to anxiety, which is eventually resolved by identifying with the father and internalising the father’s gender identity.

Question 7

When does gender development occur according to Freud?

Answer 7

During the phallic stage of development (the third stage).

Question 8

What happens during the phallic stage?

Answer 8

A child’s libido (life force) is focused on his/her genitals.

Question 9

At what age does the phallic stage occur?

Answer 9

3-6 years old.

Question 10

How is the child’s gender identity resolved during the phallic stage?

Answer 10

Through the oedipus complex in boys ot the electra complex in girls.

Question 11

Who proposed the oedipus complex?

Answer 11

Freud 1905

Question 12

3 key components of the oedipus complex

Answer 12

1. Boys desire their mothers. At the age of 3 or 4, a young boy becomes aware of his sexuality and desires his mother, wanting her sole attention.
2. Boys then see their fathers as a rival for their mother’s love and, as a result wish their father were dead. This wish creates anxiety and a fear of castration. Such fears are repressed.
3. The complex is eventually resolved because the boy begins to identify with his father. It is through identification with the father that a boy internalises his father’s gender identity and takes this as his own gender identity.

Question 13

What does the gender identity the boy takes from his father lead to?

Answer 13

Masculine behaviour as young boys take on the attitudes and expectations of their fathers.

Question 14

Who proposed the electra complex?

Answer 14

Carl Jung 1913

Question 15

What is the electra complex concerned with?

Answer 15

A conflict between a child and same-sex parent because they are in competition for the opposite-sex parent.

Question 16

What is the basic concept of the electra complex?

Answer 16

1. A young girl is initially attracted to her mother but this ends when the girl discovers that her mother doesn’t have a penis. The girl blames her mother for her own lack of a penis, believing she was castrated, and so as a result she experiences penis envy.
2. The girl’s sexual desires are transferred to the father.
3. The complex is resolved when the girl converts her penis envy to a wish to have a baby, and this reduces her anger towards her mother. The girl can now identify with her mother and take on gender behaviours.

Question 17

Why is the end resolution less satisfactory for girls?

Answer 17

Because their identification with the same-sex parent is less strong - freud believed there was little reason for anyone to identify with a woman because woman had a lower status so why would anyone want to identify with them.

Question 18

In Freudian theory, how is each psychosexual stage resolved?

Answer 18

Through conflict.

Question 19

What does successful resolution lead to?

Answer 19

A healthy psychological outcome - in the case of the genital stage the healthy outcome is identification with the same-sex parent and internalisation of an appropriate gender identity and sex-role stereotypes.

Question 20

What leads to fixation at a particular psychosexual stage?

Answer 20

Frustration and overindulgence (or any combination of the two).

Question 21

What does fixation in the phallic/genital stage result in?

Answer 21

Results in a phallic character who is afraid of or not capable of close love.

Question 22

What did Freud believe the result of fixation could be the root cause of?

Answer 22

The root cause of amoral behaviour and homosexuality.