Psychodynamic Theory of Gender Development

Question 1

When Gender Development Occurs

Answer 1

In phallic stage of the psychosexual stages where pleasure focus moves to gentials

• between age 3-6, prior to this = no gender identity
• Freud argues children don’t categories themselves or others by gender

Question 2

Oedipus Complex

Answer 2

• boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mothers + hatred towards father (is competition)
• fear father castrating them (castration anxiety) if desires are discovered
• Conflict resolved by identifying with the father and adopting father’s superego

Question 3

Electra Complex

Answer 3

• girls experience penis envy
• feel in competition w/ mother for father’s love + blames mother for lack of penis (thinks mother castrated her)
• Eventually accepts they won’t have a penis + desire is subbed for children + identifies with mother

Question 4

Internalisation

Answer 4

These conflicts are resolved, in both male + female cases, by identifying with the same sex parent + adopting their values/attitudes

=> results in internalising parent’s gender identity

Question 5

(S) Support for the Oedipus Complex - Rekers + Money (1990)

Answer 5

• Rated the gender identity of 49 boys (aged 3-11)
• Found 75% of those judged as gender disturbed had no father figure

Suggests => being raised w/o a father may have negative impact on gender identity in line w/ Freud’s theory

Question 6

COUNTER to Rekers + Money (1990)

Answer 6

Bos and Sandfort - compared 63 children w/ lesbian parents vs 68 from nuclear families
Found no difference in psychosocial adjustment or gender identity

Suggests fathers aren’t necessary for healthy gender development, contradicting Freud’s theory

Question 7

(L) Criticisms of Freud’s theory of female development by feminists - Horney et al (1982)

Answer 7

Notion of penis envy reflected andocentric Victoria era where men held much of the power
- Argues womb envy (the reaction to women’s ability to nurture + sustain life) than penis envy

Suggests => penis envy is a result of cultural not biological factors (not innate) => is an androcentric assumption

Question 8

(L) Freud’s theory seen as pseudoscientific - lacks scientific credibility

Answer 8

• lack of rigour in methods from use of subjective case studies
• many concepts are untestable as ideas are largely unconscious

This sharply contrasts explanations of gender w/ objective, reliable evidence from lab studies

Karl Popper - suggests key ideas can’t be falsified - questions validity of Freud’s theory due to lack of evidence