Gender

Question 1

Psychodynamic approach
- Knowledge

Answer 1

1. psychoanalytic theory
   - freuds psychosexual stages start from the oral stage and end at the genital stage
   - the phallic stage is during the ages of 3-6
   - prior to this, children have no idea of gender identity
   - but during this they become more aware of their genitals and experience unconscious conflicts
   - gender identity develops through the oedipus complex for boys and electra complex for girls

oedipus complex :
- boys begin to develop sexual feelings towards their mother
- they have hatred and jealousy for their father as they view him as a rival or competition
- their fear of castration by their father leads to a repression of feelings
- eventually the boys gives up the love for his mum and identifies with his father

electra complex :
- girls experience ‘penis envy’ and see their mother as a rival for their fathers love
- they have a double-resentment to their mother
1. because of their love for their father and mother stands in the way
2. blame their mother for their lack of penis as they believe it was removed
- carl jung’s view is that overtime the girls realise they dont and wont have a penis and replace this envy with the desire to have children so identify with their mother

identification and internalisation :
- child begins to identify with their same sex parent - resolution for the complex’s
- boys adopt their fathers values and attributes while girls do the same with their mothers
- internalisation is when the gender identity process is complete once they have permanently adopted these traits

little hans :
- freuds only case evidence for oedipus complex
- little hans was a 5 y/o boy who had a morbid fear of being bitten by a horse after seeing one collapse and die in the street
- freud interpreted it as the fear of being bitten is represented by his fear of castration by his father due to his love for his mother
- the phobia is a displacement of his unconscious father fear onto the horses

Question 2

Psychodynamic approach
- Evaluation

Answer 2

1. support for oedipus complex
   - freud suggested that boys need a male parent for normal gender development
   - rekers and morey conducted a study where they interviewed 49 boys aged 3-11 and found that those without a father figure were more likely to be gender disturbed
   - support freuds theory of a father figure being important for gender identity
   Counterpoint : - Bo’s and Sandfort compared children from lesbian vs traditional families and found that those from lesbian ones felt less pressure to conform with gender roles but had no difference in their gender identity or adjustment
   - contradicts freud as it suggests a father is not essential for gender identity
2. female development :
   - freud only came up with the oedipus complex whereas the electra one was more developed by carl jung
   - so a criticism is that freud didnt actually understand womens gender development
   - karen horney completely disgreed with the idea of penis envy and argued that a mans experience of womb envy is much stronger
   - suggested that penis envy is a result of cultural rather than biological factors
   - criticises freuds androcentric bias
3. pseudoscientific
   - freuds theories lack scientific credibility due to his reliance on subjective cases
   - his key ideas like penis envy are unfalsifiable because they are unconscious
   - karl popper argues that freuds work is pseudoscientific as they cannot be tested empirically
   - weakens validity of his theories as they lack any objective evidence

Question 3

sex and gender

Answer 3

-sex is fixed and biological status

gender fluid :
- psychological status of masculine and feminine personality
- formed by cultural and social expectations
- sex role stereyotypes
- shared expectations that society holds about behaviour of males and females

evaluation :
- smith + lloyd
- baby dressed in pink - treated like a girl
- baby dressed in blue - treated like a boy

• bandura + bussey
• children reported being happier playing with their gender appropriate toys

Question 4

sex and gender

Answer 4

• gender is a fixed biological status and is detemined by chormrones
• gender fluid is a persons masculine or feminine personalities
• influenced by cultural and societal expectations
• sex role stereyoptyes
• socitities shared expectations which they hold about how mena nd women should behave

evaluation
- smith and lloyd - girl in pink - treated like girl, girl in blue treated like boy

• bandura and bussey
• chikdren happier playingwith gender approiate toys

Question 4

androgny

Answer 4

• sandra bem developed a way of measuring androgny
• high androgny - relates to psych