psychodynamic explanations Flashcards
AO1
Centres in the work of Freud, who believed conscious behaviour was motivated by unconscious drives, with the structure of the mind consisting of the id, ego and superego, the three components of personality. The Unconscious conflicts between these structures occur during the psychosexual stages of development
In the first two stages (oral + anal) the child is perceived as bisexual, gender identity is not seen as existing and there is no visible difference between behaviour of boys and girls
Phallic stage Child is increasingly focused on the genitals and the child identity develops the resolution of either Oedipus or Electra complex
Oedipus complex AO1
Boy develops sexual desires to his mom + wants to posses her exclusively (sees father as rival).
CASTRATION ANXIETY: fears his dad will find out + castrate him
∴ resolves tension by identifying w/ his dad + supressing his love for his mom. By identifying, he takes on dads values + that’s how he develops his superego + sense of gender identity. If the boy was not resolve his Oedipus complex, Freud believed he would have been confused about his sexual identity and could become homosexual
ELECTRA complex AO1
Girl desires father, but realises she doesn’t have a penis → PENIS ENVY + wished to be a boy.
Girl resolves this by substituting desire of penis w/ desire for a baby
Girl blames mom for ‘castrated state’ ∴ creating tension. Girl then represses this + identifies w/ mother + take son a female gender role
research relating to oedepus complex
5 y/o boy w/ phobia of horses → particularity afraid horse may bite him. FREUD suggested Hans unconscious mind used the horse to symbolise his dad. BUT bc he had a close relationship w/ his dad, he displaced his fear of his dad onto the horse (Defence mechanism). His fear of being bitten actually symbolised his fear is being castrated by his father. Freud used Hans dreams to demonstrate the complex + the eventual resolution of it. E.g. he asked Han’s, who had a dream about giraffes if thought their necks represented penises. Hans said no but Freud argued he was repressing it. hans was seen to overcome his Oedipus complex by having to fantasies, one where plumber exchanges is widdler for a larger one and a second where he fathered children
This shows gender identity comes from resolving the Oedipus complex
The planner fantasy is evidence for identification, the fantasies of fathering his own children is evidence for internalisation
research relating to electra complex
Wiszewska asked female pps to rate attractiveness of pictures of different men to assess quality of relationship with their father. Those who had been well treated by fathers in childhood were later attracted to men who resembled their fathers physically. TS Freud’s idea of the Electra complex as her desires are centred around her father
That could be interpreted in other ways e.g. father creating a scheme of the good male partners
Green (1978) studied 37 children growing up in non-traditional nuclear families (with gay or transsexual parents). In all cases but one the children developed typical gender identities and role behaviours. TDNS Freud’s theory as according to him children would not be able to identify if both parents are at opposite sex but they still had normal gender identity
Limitations
Freud’s ideas are considered non-falsifiable – theories may appear to reflect evidence, but you cannot observe the relevant constructs directly (esp. unconscious mind) to test them scientifically, such that they could be proved wrong ∴ not sceintificUnfalsifiable dreams can’t be directly observed
case study: intensive study on 1 pts. Due to ind diffs, can’t make universal claims about human nature based on 1 pts
overall approach is deterministic as suggests gender is determind by unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood. This is an extremely determinist stance + suggests free will has no influence on behaviour
