Psychodynamic explanations of gender development Flashcards
1
Q
What occurs during the phallic stage in children
A
- the third psychosexual stage, the phallic stage gender development occurs between the age of 3 and 6
- prior to this, children have no concept of gender identity
- In the phallic stage, the focus of pleasure of children is the genitals and boys experience the oedipus complex whereas girls experience the electra complex
2
Q
What occurs during the oeidpus complex?
A
- In the phallic stage, boys develop an incestuous feeling towards their mother. They harbour jealousy and murderous hatred for father who stands in the way of possessing his mother.
- However, the boy recognises his father as more powerful and fears he will castrate him, this is called castration anxiety
- To resolve this conflict, the boy gives up his love for him mother and begins to identify with his father
3
Q
What occurs during the oedipus complex?
A
- In the phallic stage, girls experience penis envy and see themselves and their mother as in competition for their fathers love
- Girls also develop a double resentment to their mother. First, for being a love rival for their father. Second, they blame their mother for having no penis and believe they were castrated by their mother
- This came from Carl Jung who suggested overtime girls accept they will never have a penis and substitute penis envy for a desire to have children, identifying with their mothers
4
Q
How does Freud define identification and internalisation?
A
identification = children identify with their same gender parent to resolve their respective complexes and adopt their attitudes and values
Internalisation = A child taking on board the gender identity of their same - gender parent
5
Q
Describe the little Hans study
A
- Hans was a 5 year old boy who had a morbid fear of being bitten by a horse
- This fear stemmed from an incident where he had seen a horse collapse and die
- Freud’s interpretation of this fear was represented by his castration anxiety and he suggested this fear of his father was displaced on to horses as an unconscious defence mechanism
6
Q
What is a strength of the oedipus complex?
A
- One strength of Freud’s theory is that there is some research support into the role of the oedipus complex
- Rekers and Morey rated the gender identity of 49 boys aged 3 - 11 based on an interview with their parents and found that out of those who were judged to be gender disturbed, 75% had no biological father figure nor a subsitute
- This suggests having no father has a negative impact
7
Q
What is a counterpoint to Reker and Moreys research?
A
- A study by Bos and Sandfort compared data from 63 children where both parents were lesbians and 68 children from traditional families. Children raised by lesbians felt less pressure to conform to gender stereotypes and were less likely to assume their own gender was superior
- There were no differences in psychosocial adjusment or gender identity which shows fathers are not necessary for healthy gender identity development.
8
Q
What is a limitation?
A
- Freud has an ineduquate account of womens development and although he wrote extensively about the oedipus complex, the girls parallel was researched by Carl Jung
- Freud admitted that women were a mystery to him and his notion of penis envy has been criticised as being sexist.
- Karen Honey argues that a more powerful emotion is womb envy that men expierence as they are unable to nurture and sustain life
- This challenges that womens gender development is founded on wanting to be a man
9
Q
What is another limitation?
A
- Freuds psychodynamic explanation lacks scientific credibility as his methods lack rigour and are largely untestable as they are unconscious
- This contrasts with other explanations such as the biological explanations which are objective and verifiable.
- As freuds methods can not be falsified, according to Popper they are pseudoscientific which questions the validity of his research
