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Gender

Psychodynamic explanation of gender development

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 3

Overview

Freud's psychodynamic explanation of gender development: the phallic stage, the Oedipus and Electra complexes, identification and internalisation, the case of Little Hans, and the criticisms of the theory's evidence and timing.

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Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Process

According to Freud, when does gender development take place?

Key term

What is identification in Freud's explanation of gender development?

Key term

What is internalisation in Freud's explanation of gender development?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    According to Freud, when does gender development take place?

    Model answer

    During the phallic stage, from around age three to five; Freud believed children had no fixed sense of being male or female before this.

  2. 2

    What is the Oedipus complex?

    Model answer

    Freud's idea that a boy develops an unconscious desire for his mother and sees his father as a rival, becoming jealous of him and fearing that he will be castrated.

  3. 3

    How does a boy resolve the Oedipus complex?

    Model answer

    He represses his desire for his mother and identifies with his father to reduce his castration anxiety, taking on his father's masculine gender identity.

  4. 4

    What is the Electra complex?

    Model answer

    The girls' equivalent of the Oedipus complex, in which a girl desires her father, sees her mother as a rival and blames her for her lack of a penis, experiencing penis envy.

  5. 5

    How does a girl resolve the Electra complex?

    Model answer

    She represses her desire for her father, replaces penis envy with a desire for a baby, and identifies with her mother, taking on her feminine gender role.

  6. 6

    What is identification in Freud's explanation of gender development?

    Model answer

    The child adopts the attitudes and behaviour of the same-sex parent because they want to be like them.

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