The Psychodynamic Explanation of Gender Development (AQA A Level Psychology)

Freud's psychoanalytic theory

• Freud (1901) believed that children were born gender-neutral and and their gender identity developed in unconscious psychosexual stages, from the first two gender-neutral oral and anal stages, when there is no visible difference between the behaviour of boys and girls

• Movement through Freud’s psychosexual stages is by the resolving of unconscious conflict or crisis

• The psychosexual stages start with the phallic stage (for both boys and girls of about three to six years old) when the focus of the libido moves to the genitals 

• The crisis in this stage is for the small child to establish their own gender identity

• For young children to acquire their gender identity they must first identify with the same-sex parent and then internalise from them gendered attitudes and behaviours, adopting them as their own

The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

The Oedipus complex & the Electra complex

• The Oedipus complex and the Electra complex are resolved during the phallic stage (three to six years old) as each child struggles to develop a gender identity

• According to Freud, the Oedipus complex occurs when the small boy’s desire for his mother results in him wanting to take the place of his father 

• The desire the small boy has for his mother causes castration anxiety since he believes that if his father discovers this desire, the father will castrate the son

• The Electra complex was suggested by Jung, but adopted into psychoanalytic theory as describing the daughter’s desire for her father and her realisation that she does not have a penis (penis envy) which leads her to wish that she was a boy

• The girl blames her mother for the girl not having a penis and this creates great tension which the daughter represses and she replaces her desire for a penis with the desire to have a baby

• Thus the girl identifies with her mother to take on the female gender role

• If the young child does not successfully resolve the crisis and form their own identity, then psychological disturbance could be the result, with girls being ‘father-fixated’ and boys being ‘mother-fixated’, instead of identifying with the same-sex parent

According to the psychodynamic theory of gender, after the age of six girls identify with their mothers.

Identification & internalisation

• Identification is the process of acquiring the characteristics of the same-sex parent.

• To resolve the conflict between his desire for his mother and his fear of his father typified by the Oedipus complex, a boy gives up wanting his mother and identifies with his father

• To resolve her conflict between desire for her father and a feeling of being in competition with her mother for her father’s love, a girl represses her desire for her father and identifies with her mother

• Freud believed that a girl’s identification with her mother was more passive and submissive than a boy’s identification with his father, which was active and dominant

• Internalisation is the the incorporation of the same-sex parent into an individual’s personality

• Internalisation of the gendered behaviour, beliefs and attitudes of the same-sex parent is the final step of gender development as the child takes on the norms and roles of either masculine or feminine behaviour

• Freud saw women as inferior to men, whose gender development was the norm, with the female gender development being a deviant version

Research investigating the psychodynamic explanation of gender

• Freud (1909) conducted a case study into the five year-old son of a friend who had a fear of horses which Freud interpreted as a fear of castration by his father for desiring his mother, thus supporting the Oedipus complex as an explanation of gender

• Wiszewska et al. (2007) found that women who had been well treated by and had close relationships with their fathers as children were attracted to men in pictures who resembled their fathers, supporting Freud’s idea of the Electra complex

Evaluation of the psychodynamic explanation of gender

Strengths

• Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has generated research into gender development, such as that of Melanie Klein from the 1920s onwards

• The psychodynamic theory of gender helps to understand the strength of the unconscious mind in gender development and the mental health importance of early childhood experiences

Weaknesses

• Freud’s  hypotheses are untestable and therefore the theory lacks scientific credibility

• The psychodynamic theory of gender development cannot explain how children in same-sex parent households or single-parent households resolve the Oedipus or Electra complex and adopt their gender identity

Link to Issues and Debates:

Focusing as it does on individual case studies, Freud’s theory of gender development might be assumed to be idiographic. However, it would be a mistake to use this side of the debate in an exam answer as Freud viewed his psychosexual stages as universal and generalisable to all children. This makes the theory nomothetic, even though he used idiographic methods. 

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is also androcentric as it takes male gender development as the norm, seeing the gender development of females as a deviant form.

Link to Approaches:

As stated, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of gender development lies within the Psychodynamic Approach which explains human behaviour largely as a product of the unconscious mind. Humans are, according to this approach, motivated by innate drives or instincts.