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other explanations of gender development: Psychodynamic - Coggle Diagram
other explanations of gender development: Psychodynamic
electra complex
Freud suggested girls experience
penis envy
during the phallic stage
girls see themselves and their mother as being in competition for their father's love
girls develop double-resentment towards their mother
first mother is love rival standing in way of father & second mother is blamed by their daughter for having no penis (daughter believes she was castrated by her mother at same time mother castrated herself)
concept of electra complex came from
Carl Jung
who suggested girls, over time, accept they'll never have a penis and substitute penis envy with the desire to have children, identifying with their mothers as a result.
Freud's psychoanalytic theory
Freud's gender development theory sees children pass through 5 biologically-driven
psychosexual stages
begin with
oral stage
end with
genital stage
around age of puberty
gender development occurs between age 3-6 (
phallic stage
)
before
phallic stage
children have no concept of
gender identity
have no understanding of male/female & don't categorise themselves or other in that way
focus of pleasure in phallic stage switches to the genitals as during this period children experience the
oedipus complex
(boys) or
electra complex
(girls)
these stages are
crucial
in formation of gender identity
Oedipus complex
boys develop incestuous feeling towards their other during phallic stage
they harbour jealousy and murderous hatred towards their father who stands in the way of the boy possessing his mother
however, boy also recognises his father is more powerful than he is and fears he may be castrated by his father for his feelings towards his mother, leading to
castration anxiety
to resolve conflict, boy gives up his love for his mother an begins to identify with his father
Little Hans
Freud's evidence of Oedipus complex was limited but he did show case of Little Hands to illustrate the concept
identification and internalisation
crux of Freud's theory is children of both sexes identify (
identification
) with same-gender parent as a means of resolving their respective complexes
boys adopt attitudes & values of their father & girls adopt those of their mother
involves children taking on board gender identity of same-gender parent, process Freud referred to as
internalisation
evaluation