Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Freud’s theory Flashcards
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Freud’s theory
parts
Pre-phallic children Identification and internalisation Oedipus complex Electra complex Little Hans case study
Pre-phallic children
└Freud’s 5 psychosexual stages
└3rd stage (phallic stage, age 3-6)= when gender development occurs
└before this, children have no concept of gender identity
└pre-phallic children= bisexual (neither masculine or feminine)
└at phallic stage, focus of pleasure= genitals
└experience Oedipus complex (boys) or Electra complex (girls)
Identification and internalisation
└identification: a desire to be associated with a particular person/group because they possess desirable characteristics
└children identify with their same sex parent to resolve their complexes
└=take on board gender identity of same sex parent (internalisation)
└internalisation: an individual adopts the attitudes and behaviour of another
Oedipus complex
└Freud’s explanation of how a boy resolves his love for his mother and feelings of rivalry towards his father (and castration anxiety) by identifying with his father
└identification with the aggressor
Electra complex
└neo-freudian Carl Jungs explanation of how a girls attraction to and envy of their father (penis envy) is resolved through identification with their mother (and desire to have children)
└Freud (1909) was not clear on gender regarding girls, Jungs expanded.
Little Hans
└5 year old boy, fear of being bitten by a horse
└due to accident where he saw horse collapse and die in the street
└Freud interpreted it as Hans fear of bitten represented his castration anxiety from his father due to his love of his mother- displaced this onto the horse
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Freud’s theory
limitations
summary
Research does not support the Oedipus complex - Lack of scientific rigour
Inadequate account of female development - Karen Horney
Doesn’t account for non-nuclear families - Susan Golombok et al (1983), Richard Green (1978)
Lack of scientific rigour - Karl popper (1959)
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Freud’s theory
limitations
Research does not support the Oedipus complex
└Freud’s theory implies that sons with harsh fathers should develop a more robust sense of gender identity
└because higher levels of anxiety should produce stronger identification with the aggressor
└Blakemore and Hill (2008)
└found the reverse was true
└boys with more liberal fathers had a more secure masculine identity
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Freud’s theory
limitations
Inadequate account of female development
└Freud wrote extensively about Oedipus complex
└Carl Jung theorised most about girls development
└Freud admitted women were a mystery to him
└penis envy criticised for being patriarchal
└Karen Horney (feminist)
└males experience womb envy (woman’s ability to nurture and sustain life), more powerful than penis envy
└argued both were a cultural concept rather than innate trait
└female development founded on a desire to want to be like men= androcentric
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Freud’s theory
limitations
Doesn’t account for non-nuclear families
└Freuds theory requires two parents of different genders
└so they van manage the Oedipus or Electra complex effectively
└=assumes that being raised in a non-nuclear family would have a negative effect on a child’s gender development
└evidence doesn’t support this
└Susan Golombok et al (1983)
└children from single parent families developed normal gender identities
└Richard Green (1978)
└studied a sample of 37 children raised by gay/transgender parents
└only one had non typical gender identity
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development: Freud’s theory
limitations
Lack of scientific rigour
└unconscious nature of concepts
└=untestable
└biological approach e.g.
└=based on objective testable evidence
└Karl popper (1959)
└Freuds theory= pseudoscience (fake science)
└as key ideas can’t be falsified
