psychodynamic

• Psychodynamic Explanation of Gender Development


  • Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
  • Oedipus Complex
  • Electra Complex
  • Identification
  • Internalisation
• Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory


  • Conscious behaviour is motivated by unconscious drives
  • Personality consists of id, ego and superego
  • Ego balances demands of id (pleasure principle) and superego (morality principle)
  • Conflicts occur in 5 stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital
• Phallic stage - 5-6 yrs old


  Crucial for gender development
• Gender identity development


  1. Oral/anal stage: no noticeable differences between boys and girls

  2. Phallic stage: Oedipus complex (boys) or Electra complex (girls)
• Identification


  Process of acquiring characteristics of same-gender parent to resolve Oedipus/Electra complex
• Internalisation


  Incorporation of same-gender parent's gender identity into individual's personality
• Oedipus Complex


  Boy's libido directed towards mother

  2. Resentment and jealousy towards father, fear of castration

  3. Boy identifies with father, internalises male gender
• Electra Complex


  Girl's desires directed towards father, believes she has been castrated

  2. Desires penis, converts to desire for baby

  3. Identifies with mother, internalises female identity
• Resolution of Electra Complex


  Urge to identify as female not as strong as in males, Freud saw male development as the norm
• girl thinks she’s already been castrated the urge to identify as female is not as strong as the urge to identify in males as they are fearful of losing their penis. Freud believed that if the Electra complex is not satisfactorily resolved there will be confusion about sexual identity. Freud also believed that male development was the norm and female development being a deviant form of development.