Psychdynamic explanation for gender development

Question 1

Which psychologist came up with the psychodynamic explanation for gender development?

Answer 1

Freud

Question 2

What did Freud describe pre-phallic children as?

What does it mean?

Answer 2

Bisexual

They don’t display masculine or feminine characteristics.

Question 3

Which stage does gender development occur?

What age?

Answer 3

Phallic stage

Age 3-6

Question 4

What complex do boys suffer from?

Answer 4

Oedipus complex

Question 5

What is the oedipus complex?

Answer 5

• In the phallic stage boys are sexually attracted towards their mother and fear their father finding out.
• They harbour a jealous and murderous hatred for their father who stands in the way of the boy possessing his mother.
• Develops castration anxiety.
• To resolve the conflict, the boy gives up his love for his mother and begins to identify with his father and gender identity is fixed.

Question 6

What is the electra complex?

Answer 6

• In the phallic stage girls experience penis envy, seeing themselves and their mother as being in competition for their father’s love.
  Develop a double resentment towards their mother:
• Love rival
• Blame mother for their lack of penis
  They substitute penis envy with the desire to have children, identifying with their mother as a result.

Question 7

What is identification in the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 7

A desire to be associated with a particular group or person often because they possess desirable characteristics.
Both sexes identify with the sam-sex parent as a means of resolving their respective complexes.

Question 8

What is internalisation in the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 8

An individual adopts the attitudes and/or behaviour of another.

Question 9

Describe the case of Little Hans.

Answer 9

• 5 year od boy with a morbid fear of being bitten by a horse.
• Stemmed from when Hans seeing a horse collapse and die in the street.
• Freud’s interpretation was that Hands fear of being bitten was actually fear of castration.
• Transferred fear - defence mechanism of displacement.

Question 10

State 3 negatives of the psychodynamic approach for gender development.

Answer 10

Research doesn’t support the oedipus complex:
- Little Hans
- Horney - ‘womb envy’ and penis envy are social constructs.
- Inadequate account for female development.
Non-nuclear families:
- Golombok
- Green
Lack of scientific rigour:
- Many concepts are untestable because of their unconscious nature.
- Popper - pseuodscience, can’t be falsified.