Psychodynamic explanation of gender development Flashcards
During what stage does the electra or oedipus complex take place?
Phallic
Briefly explain the oedipus complex.
- A boy resolves love for his mother and rivalry with his father by identifying with his father.
- Incestuous feelings towards mother and murderous feelings towards father.
- Recognises the father is more powerful and fears castration.
Briefly explain the electra complex.
- How a girl resolves love for father and rivalry with mother.
- Experience penis envy and believe they are in competition with their mother.
- Experience double resentment: mother is the love rival and blamed for the girl having no penis.
What is identification?
The desire to be associated with a certain person or group often because they possess certain desirable characteristics.
What is internalisation?
An individual adopts the attitudes and/or behaviours of someone else.
What does Freud believe in terms of identification?
That it is stronger in boys as their fear of castration is worse than penis envy.
Briefly explain the Little Hans case study.
- Evidence for oedipus complex.
- Was a 5 year old boy who had a fear of being bitten by a horse.
- Freud said this stemmed from seeing a horse collapse and die but developed this into saying it represented his fear of castration.
- Referred to this as displacement.
A strength of the psychodynamic explanation is that there is support for the Oedipus complex.
- Freuds explanation says that boys have ‘normal’ gender development and depends on being raised by at least 1 male parent.
- Rekers and Morey: rated gender identity of 49 boys aged 3-11 based on interviews with their families and children.
- Those who were ‘gender disturbed’, 75% didn’t have a biological father/father figure.
- Suggests no father figure could result in poor gender development for boys.
A limitation of the psychodynamic explanation is that there is an inadequate explanation of female development.
- Most of development in females was done by Carl Jung.
- Freud admitted women were a mystery and his notion of penis envy had been criticised.
- Karen Horney: a more powerful emotion than ‘penis envy’ is ‘womb envy’.
- Penis envy was a result of cultural rather than biological factors.
- Challenges the idea that female development is founded on the desire to want to be a man.
A limitation of the psychodynamic explanation is that it lacks scientific credibility.
- Freud was criticised for the lack of rigour in his methods such as case studies.
- Concepts are untestable as they are mostly unconscious.
- Contrasts with other explanations that are based on scientific, objective and verifiable evidence from lab studies.
- Questions the validity of Freud’s theory.
