Psychodynamic explanations of gender development AO3 Flashcards
1
Q
Name a first AO3 point
A
- There is supporting evidence of this theory in the real world
- in 1999 Freud conducted a case study of a five year old named Little Hans who developed a fear of horses that resembled his father
- Freud interpreted this using the oedipus complex
2
Q
Name a second AO3 point:
A
- It lacks predictive validity
- according the Oedipus complex, children should have difficulty acquiring a gender identity if they live one-parent families or same sex parents
- Patterson in 2004 reports from a view of research that sexual identities develop in the same way among children of lesbian parents as they do children of heterosexual parents
- Patterson stated that they have normal social relationships with peers and adults
- this suggests that gender development is not dependent on the oedipus or electra complex which means this theory lacks predictive validity
3
Q
Name a third AO3 point:
A
- There are alternative psychodynamic explanations
- Nancy Chodorow in 1994 proposed that mothers and young daughters are precisely close because there are the same sex whereas sons are able to become more independent because they are different to their mothers
- Research from Goldberg and Lewis in 1969 supports this with observations that mother/daughter pairs show greater physical closeness when playing
- both boys and girls attempt to identify with the father, but because the fathers treat sons and daughters differently only sons succeed.
4
Q
Name a fourth evaluation point
A
- Feminists argue that Freud’s theory suffers from gender bias
- Freud himself claims that he didn’t seem to understand women
- French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in 1966 suggested that penis envy is a symbolic envy of male power in a male dominated society
- in addition, many people have objected to the idea that children are sexually active at a young age
- his theories are better when taken symbolically than literally
