psychodynamic explanation to gender development Flashcards
what does freud suggest that children go through?
Freud claims that children go through various psychosexual stages from birth to adolescence. (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital)
what stage do children develop their gender identity?
the phallic stage
what do children know about gender before the phallic stage?
children have no concept of gender- bisexual (neither feminine or masculine)
what is the focus of pleasure during the phallic stage and what do the children experience?
During this the focus of pleasure moves to the genitals and this is where the child experiences the oedipus or electra complex.
what is identification?
a desire to be associated with a particular person or group, often because they possess certain desirable characteristics
what is internalisation?
when an individual adopts the attitudes and/or behaviour of another
what is the oedipus complex?
The boy develops a desire for their mum, they want her sole attention.
The father is a rival for the mothers love, the boy may wish him dead and they experience emotions of jealousy and murderous hatred towards the father- this causes castration anxiety.
This conflict is resolved through identification with the father and the fathers gender identity is internalised as the boys own.
what is the electra complex?
Girls are originally attracted to their mum but this ends as soon as they realise she has no pens.
The girl blames her mum for her own lack of penis which is known as penis envy.
Her sexual desires are then transferred to her father and her penis envy will transfer to the wish of having a baby.
This decreases her anger towards her mother and she eventually identifies with her mother and internalises her gender identity and behaviours and their conflicts are resolved.
AO3: how is ‘supporting evidence for the oedipus complex’ a strength to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development?
one strength to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development is that it has supporting evidence for the oedipus complex. For example, the little Hans case where a 5 year old boy called Hans had an intense fear of being bitten by a horse. Freuds interpretation of this was that Han’s fear of being bitten by a horse represented his fear of castration and suggested that Hans had transferred his fear of this father onto horses via the unconscious defence mechanism of displacement. They found that Hans was experiencing the oedipus complex which when resolved by identifying with his father, the fear would disappear. Therefore, this supports the idea that we go through unconscious conflicts as a child and these conflicts are resolved when we identify with our parent and their gender identity.
AO3: how is ‘contrary evidence’ a limitation to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development?
one limitation to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development is that there is contrary evidence. This is because this explanation suggests that boys with harsh and punitive fathers would have a more robust sense of gender identity. This means that as castration anxiety is higher, the boy is more likely to identify with their father. Therefore, this suggests that boys with more liberal fathers tend to be more secure in their masculine identity compared to boys with more harsher and punitive fathers. However, Blakemore and Hill found the opposite to be true.
AO3: how is ‘gender bias’ a limitation to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development?
one limitation to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development is that there is gender bias. This is because there is very little information and detail about how this effect women. For example, the concept of penis envy is thought to reflect the patriarchal, Victorian era in which he wrote. Researchers such as Horney suggested that a more powerful emotion than penis envy is a men’s experience of ‘womb envy’, this is a reaction to a women’s ability to nurture and sustain life and that this was culturally constructed. Therefore, there is evidence to suggest that the idea of gender development is a result of cultural influences and not innate as Freud suggests.
AO3: how is ‘family differences’ a limitation to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development?
one limitation to the psychodynamic explanation of gender development is the influence of family differences. This is because this theory relies on two parents of both genders to manage the oedipus and electra complex effectively. This suggests that there may be adverse effects in other non-nuclear forms. For example, Golombok et al showed that children from lone parent families went on to develop normal gender identities and that children who have same sex parents developed a normal gender identity. Therefore, this opposes the idea that in order to develop a normal gender identity, you need both gender parents as Freud suggests.
