Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Gender

Question 1

What is 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 is internalisation?

Answer 2

Occurs when an individual accepts the attitudes or behaviour of another.

Question 3

What is 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 is 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 anxiety, which is eventually resolved by identifying with the father and internalising the father’s gender identity.

Question 5

What does Freud’s psychoanalytic theory include?

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

In the phallic stage.

Question 8

What age does the phallic stage occur?

Answer 8

3-6 years.

Question 9

Where is the child’s libido focused during the phallic stage?

Answer 9

On their genitals.

Question 10

How is the child’s identity is resolved during the phallic stage?

Answer 10

Through the Oedipus or Electra Complex.

Question 11

What is the 1st stage of the Oedipus complex?

Answer 11

A boy desires his mother and wants her whole attention.

Question 12

What is the 2nd stage of the Oedipus complex?

Answer 12

The boy sees his father as a rival and wishes he were dead.

Question 13

What is the 3rd stage of the Oedipus complex?

Answer 13

The conflict is eventually resolved by identification with the father, and internalisation of the father’s gender identity.

Question 14

What fear does their wish for their father to die lead to?

Answer 14

Castration fear.

Question 15

What happens to the boy’s castration fear?

Answer 15

It is repressed.

Question 16

What does the Oedipus complex lead to in a boy?

Answer 16

Masculine behaviour as young boys take on the attitudes and expectations of their fathers.

Question 17

What is the 1st stage of the Electra complex?

Answer 17

The girl is initially attracted to her mother, but this ends upon the discovery that her mother doesn’t have a penis. The girl then blames her mother for her own lack of a penis, believing she was castrated, and so experiences penis envy.

Question 18

What is the 2nd stage of the Electra complex?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What is the 3rd stage of the Electra complex?

Answer 19

The girl eventually resolves the conflict by converting her penis envy to the wish to have a baby which reduces anger towards mother. The girl now identifies with her mother and internalises her gender behaviours.

Question 20

Who proposed the Electra complex?

Answer 20

Jung, a neo-Freudian.

Question 21

What idea did Freud propose that was similar to the Electra complex?

Answer 21

The feminine Oedipus attitude.

Question 22

Why is the end resolution different in the Electra complex?

Answer 22

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 23

According to Freud, how is each stage resolved?

Answer 23

Through conflict.

Question 24

What does successful resolution lead to?

Answer 24

A healthy psychological outcome.

Question 25

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

Answer 25

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

Question 26

What are the 3 defence mechanisms?

Answer 26

• Repression
• Denial
• Displacement

Question 27

Evaluation: lacks predictive validity

Answer 27

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 28

Evaluation: alternative psychodynamic explanations

Answer 28

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 29

Evaluation: 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.

Question 30

Evaluation: research evidence

Answer 30

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 age of freuds 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.