Other explanations of gender development: psychodynamic

Question 1

What is the third stage of the psychodynamic stages?

Answer 1

The phallic stage.

Question 2

What happens during the phallic stage?

Answer 2

Gender development occurs.

Question 3

What ages does the phallic stage occur?

Answer 3

Between ages 3-6.

Question 4

Prior to the phallic stage do children have a concept of gender? And how do they categorise themselves and other people?

Answer 4

Before the phallic stage children have no concept of gender identity and so don’t categorise themselves or others as male or female.

Question 5

What is the focus of pleasure switch to in the phallic stage?

Answer 5

Genitals

Question 6

What do children experience in the phallic stage?

Answer 6

The oedipus complex or the electra complex.

Question 7

What do boys develop in the phallic stage?

Answer 7

Incestuous feelings towards their mother and a jealous and murderous hatred for their father who stands in the way of the boy possessing his mother.

Question 8

What does the boy recognise in the phallic stage?

Answer 8

That his father is more powerful and fears he may be castrated by his father for his feelings towards his mother (castration anxiety).H

Question 9

How do boys resolve the conflict in the phallic stage?

Answer 9

The boy gives up his love for his mother and begins to identify with his father.

Question 10

What did Freud suggest girls experience in the phallic stage?

Answer 10

Penis envy.

Question 11

How does Freud suggest girls see themselves in the phallic stage?

Answer 11

As their mothers competition for their father’s love.

Question 12

What do girls develop in the phallic stage?

Answer 12

A double-resentment towards their mother.
First the mother is a love rival in the way of the father.
Second the mother is blamed for the girl having no penis - girls believe their mother castrated them at some point.

Question 13

Who came up with the electra complex?

Answer 13

Carl Jung

Question 14

What did Carl Jung suggest girls come to accept over time?

Answer 14

That they will never have a penis and substitute penis envy with desire to have children identifying with their mothers.

Question 15

What is the crux of Freud’s theory?

Answer 15

Identification - Children of both sexes identify with the same-sex parent as a means of resolving their retrospective complexes.

Question 16

What is internalisation?

Answer 16

Children taking on board the gender identity of the same sex parent.

Question 17

What was Freud’s evidence of the Oedipus complex?

Answer 17

Little Hans - 5 year old boy who had a fear of being bitten by a horse because he had seen a horse collapse when he was younger.

Question 18

How did Freud suggest that Little Hans shows the Oedipus complex?

Answer 18

Freud suggested that Han’s fear of being bitten represented his fear of castration.
Freud suggested Hans had transferred his fear of his father onto horses via the unconscious defence mechanism of displacement.

Question 19

Support for the role of the Oedipus complex.

Answer 19

• Freud’s explanation of gender development means that for boys, ‘normal’ development depends on being raised by at least one male parent.
• There is some support for this idea - Rekers and Morey rated the gender identity of 49 boys aged 3-11 based on interviews with the boys and their families.
• 75% of those judged to be gender disturbed had neither a biological father nor a substitute father living with them.
• This suggests that being raised with no father may have a negative impact on gender identity.

Question 20

Generally the relationship between absent fathers and problems of gender identity isn’t supported.

Answer 20

• A study by Bos and Sandfort compared data from 63 children where both parents were lesbians and 68 children were from traditional families.
• Children raised by lesbians felt less pressure to conform to gender stereotype and were less likely to assume their own gender was superior but there was no difference in terms of psychological adjustment or gender identity.
• This contradicts Freud’s theory as it suggests fathers aren’t necessary for healthy gender identity development.

Question 21

Freud’s inadequate account of female development.

Answer 21

• Most theorising on girl’s parallel development was done by Jung.
• Horney argues a more powerful emotion than penis envy is womb envy which is a reaction to women’s ability to nurture and sustain life.
• Horney argued that penis envy was a result of cultural rather than biological factors.
• This challenges the idea that female gender development is founded on a desire to want to be like a man which has androcentric bias.

Question 22

The psychodynamic explanation lacks scientific credibility.

Answer 22

• Freud has often been criticised for the lack of rigour in his methods.
• Many of his concepts are untestable because they are largely unconscious.
• This contrasts with other explanations of gender which are based on objective, verifiable evidence derived from controlled lab studies.
• According to Popper this makes Freud’s theory pseudoscientific as his key ideas can’t be falsified.
• This questions the validity of Freud’s theory because it isn’t based on sound scientific evidence.