Gender - psychodynamic explanations Flashcards
psychodynamics
how unconscious drives shape behaviour
identification (gender dev.)
children want to be accepted by same-sex parent and not seen as threat so imitate gender role of same-sex parent. emerge from phallic stage having internalised their gender identity/role
what psychosexual stage does gender identity develop in?
phallic
when does the phallic stage occur
around age 3-6
what age is a child’s gender identity flexible and they are known as ‘bisexual’
up to around 3
when does a child’s gender identity stop being ‘bisexual’?
6
what part of the tripartite personality does identification develop
superego (adopting parents morals)
what happens in a single parent family in regards to psychodynamic theory of gender
no electra/oedipus complex. boys become homosexual as no father figure to identify with.
electra complex
girl desires father and is hostile towards mother as she believes she castrated her. also experiences penis envy of father
oedipus complex
boy desires mother and is scared of and hostile towards father will find out and castrate him (castration anxiety)
strengths of Freud’s gender theory
+ first attempt to explain gender dev.
+ evidence - boys with absent father at age 5 display less sex-type behaviour
+ some face validity. matches pattern of early emotional connection in many families. e.g. ‘mummy’s boy’
limitations of Freud’s gender theory
- meta-analysis of father absent families, found boys over 6 actually showed slightly more masculine behaviour than fathered families
- stigmatise and criticse same gender and single parent families (lack social sensitivity)
- Martin and Little found that children as young as 3 began to display gender behaviours such as prefering gendered toys, so earlier than Freud predicted
- unfalsifiable and unscientific
- uses of case studies (Little Hans) - bias
- lack temporal validity
- alternative theories e.g. Kohlberg
