Gender: Psychodynamic explanation of gender development

Question 1

What’s identification?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What’s internalisation?

Answer 2

Individual accepts influence from a person/ group because of the content of the attitude/ behaviour aligns with their own value system

Question 3

What’s the electra complex?

Answer 3

Occurs during the phallic stage of development when a girl blames her mother for a 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

What’s the oedipus complex?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What’s Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 5

An explanation of gender development.

Question 6

What does the psychodynamic explanations of gender development suggest?

Answer 6

Psychodynamic approaches to psychology in general, focus on unconscious conflicts between different aspects of the mind. The main example of this is Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.

Question 7

According to Freud, when does gender development occur?

Answer 7

Phallic stage

Question 8

When’s the phallic stage?

Answer 8

3-6 years

Question 9

Where’s libido located during the phallic stage?

Answer 9

Genitals

Question 10

What happens during the electra/ oedipus complex?

Answer 10

The child’s gender identity is resolved

Question 11

What’s the 1st stage of the Oedipus complex?

Answer 11

A boy desires their mother and becomes aware of his sexuality.
Wants her sole attention.

Question 12

What’s the 2nd stage of the Oedipus complex?

Answer 12

Boy sees their father as a rival for their mothers love and wished their father dead.
This creates anxiety and fear of castration, which is repressed.

Question 13

What’s the 3rd stage of the Oedipus complex?

Answer 13

Complex is resolved through identification as the boy begins to identify with their father + internalise their father’s gender identity.

Question 14

What does the Oedipus complex lead to in a boy?

Answer 14

The gender identity and identification leads to masculine behaviour as young boys take on attitudes and expectations of their fathers.

Question 15

Who proposed the Oedipus complex?

Answer 15

Carl Jung

Question 16

What is the 1st stage of the Electra complex?

Answer 16

Young girl is initially attracted to their mother, this ends when the girl realises that her mother doesn’t have a penis.
The girl then blames her mother for her own lack of a penis and so, experiences penis envy.

Question 17

What is the 2nd stage of the Electra complex?

Answer 17

The girl’s sexual desires are transferred to her father.

Question 18

What is the 3rd stage of the Electra complex?

Answer 18

Complex is resolved when the girl converts her penis envy into a wish to have a baby, which reduces her anger towards her mother.
The girl can now identify with her mother and and take on gender behaviours.

Question 19

What did Freud propose that’s similar to the Electra complex?

Answer 19

The feminine Oedipus attitude

Question 20

How are the end resolutions different in Jun’s theory and Freud’s theory?

Answer 20

It is less satisfactory for girls as their identification with same-sex parents is not as strong as Freud believed that there was little reason to want to identify with a woman due to their lower status.

Question 21

According to Freud, how is each stage resolved

Answer 21

Through conflict.

Question 22

What does successful resolution lead to?

Answer 22

A healthy psychological outcome.

Question 23

What does frustration or over-indulgence during the phallic stage lead to, according to Freud?

Answer 23

Fixation at the phallic stage, an individual who is incapable of intimacy, amoral behaviour, and homosexuality.

Question 24

What are the 3 defence mechanisms?

Answer 24

Repression
Denial
Displacement

Question 25

AO3 gender development

Answer 25

+Supporting research
-Alternative psychodynamic explanations
-Lacks predictive validity
-Gender bias

Question 26

(+AO3) What’s the supporting research gender development?

Answer 26

There is research evidence for the theory, derived from one single case study of little Hans in 1909.

Hans was a 5-year-old boy at the phallic stage of freud’s explanation of gender development, he developed a sexual desire for his mother and wished his father dead; leading to the development of castration anxiety.

He expressed the repressed fear of castration through his fear of horses. The anxiety was resolved when he came to identify with his father. This research evidence proves Freud’s theory of gender development as Hans exhibits the resolution of conflict at the phallic stage through gender identity.

This is a strength of Freud’s theory, as his ideas may therefore be considered valid.

Question 27

(-AO3) What are the alternative psychodynamic explanations?

Answer 27

Research supports alternative psychodynamic explanations, for example, that mothers and daughters are closer because they are the same sex, whereas boys become more independent.

This is supported by observations that mother-daughter pairs play more closely. In addition, boys and girls attempt to identify with the father but only sons succeed. The advantage of this alternative explanation is that it does not predict problems in families with same-sex parents.

Question 28

(-AO3) Lacks predictive validity

Answer 28

One weakness of the psychodynamic theory is that it lacks predictive validity. It predicts that children in one-parent families or with same-sex parents would have difficulty acquiring a gender identity or normal gender-role behaviour.

A researcher found that children of lesbian parents develop gender identities in a similar way to children of heterosexual parents and have normal social relationships. This means that gender development does not depend on the Oedipus or Electra complex.

Question 29

(-AO3) Gender bias

Answer 29

One weakness of the psychodynamic theory of gender development is that feminists dismiss Freud’s idea of inferior female development due to penis envy. In fact, Freud admitted he didn’t really understand women.

In addition, many people object to the idea that children experience sexual drives at such a young age. However, one psychologist suggested that penis envy can be considered as a symbolic envy of male power in a male-dominated society, rather than being taken literally.