Other Explanations Of Gender Development: Psychodynamic Flashcards
State Freud’s psychoanalytic theory in terms of his different stages.
- See children pass through five biologically- driven psychosexual stages that begin w the oral stage & end w the genital stage around time of puberty
- The third of these stages- the phallic stage- is when gender development occurs between ages of 3 & 6
- Prior to phallic stage children have no concept of gender identity- no understanding of ‘male’/’female’ & so do not categorise them in that way
- In phallic stage focus of pleasure for child switches to genitals & within this stage children experience the oedipus complex/electra complex
What is the oedipus complex in terms of gender?
- In phallic stage- boys develop incestuous feelings towards ther mother
- Habour a jealous & murderous hatred for their father who stands in the way of the boy possessing his mother
- However boy also recongises his father is more powerful than he is & fears he may be casturated by father for feelings towards mother
- Leading to castration anxiety
- To resolve this conflict the boy gives up his love for his mother & begins to identify with his father
What is the electra complex in terms of gender?
- In phallic stage, girls experience penis envy, seeing themselves & their mother as being in competition for their fathers love
- Girls develop a double resentment towards their mother
- First, mother is a love rival standing in the way of father & second the mother is blamed by daughter for having no penis (daughter believes she was castrated by her mother the same time as mother castrated herself)
- Concept of electra complex came from Carl Jung who suggested that girls, overtime, come to accept they will never have a penis & substitue penis envy w desire to have children- identifying w their mother as a result
What do identification & internalisation have to do with the psychodynamic theory of gender development?
- Children of both sexes identify (identification) w the same gender parent as a means of resolving thier respective complexes
- Boys adopt attitudes & values of their father & girls adopt those of their mother- this involves children taking on board the gender identity of the same gender parent, process Freud referred to as internalisation
What research supported the Oedipus complex
- Hans was a 5 yr old boy w a morbid fear of being bitten by a horse
- Han’s fear appeared to have stemmed from an incident when he had seen a horse collapse & die in the street
- However Freuds interpretation was that Han’s fear of being bitten represented his fear of castration (by his father because of Han’s love for his mother)
- Freud suggested that Hans had transferred his fear of his father onto horses via the unconscious defence mechanism of displacement
Give one strength of Freuds theory of the Oedipus complex?
- OS: There is some support for the role of the Oedipus complex in gender development
- Freuds explanation of gender development means that for boys ‘normal’ development depends on being raised by at least 1 male parent
- Support for this idea: Rekers & Morey (1990):
- Rated the gender identity of 49 boys aged 3-11 yrs based on interviews w their families & the children themselves
- Of those who were judged to be ‘gender disturbed’ 75% had neither their biological father nor a substitue father living w them
Suggests that being raised with no father may have a negative impact upon gender identity- in line w what Freuds theory wld predict
Give one limitation of Freuds theory of gender development.
OL: Is the inadequate account of women’s development
Although Freud wrote extensively about the Oedipus complex, much of the theorising on girls parallel development was undertaken by Carl Jung- one of Freuds contemporaries
- Freud admitted that women were a mystery to him & his notion of penis envy has been criticised as reflecting the androcentric Victorian era during which he lived- where men held so much power
- Feminist psychoanalyst Karen Horney (1942) argues that a more powerful emotion than penis envy is mens experience of ‘womb envy’- a reaction to a womens ability to nurture & sustain life
- Horney argued that penis envy (like womb envy) was a result of cultural rather than biological factors
This challneges the idea that womens gender development is founded on a desire to want to be like a man (an androcentric bias)
Give another limitation of Freuds gender development?
- OL: The psychodynamic explanation lacks scientific credibility
Freud has often been criticised for the lack of rigour in his methods (using subjective case studies) - Also many of his concepts (such as penis envy) are untestable because they are largely unconscious
- This contrasts sharply w other explanations of gender that are based on objective verifiable evidence, derived from controlled lab studies.
