1 Psychology 320: Gender Psychology Lecture 19

2 Invitational Office Hour Invitations, by Student Number for November 5 th 11:30-12:30, 3:30-4:30 Kenny

3 1. How does psychodynamic theory explain gender development? (continued) Psychodynamic Theory of Gender Differences 2. What are the primary criticisms of psychodynamic explanations of gender development?

4 By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 1. describe the Stage Theory of Psychosexual Development. 2. discuss Freud’s explanation for the development of personality differences between the sexes. 3. identify the primary criticisms of psychodynamic explanations of gender development.

5 3. Phallic Stage How does psychodynamic theory explain gender development? (continued)  3 – 5 years.  Erogenous zone: Genital region.  Sexual impulses are largely expressed through self-stimulation of the genital organs.

6  Oedipus Complex  Boys experience a desire to achieve sexual union with their mothers.  This desire leads boys to perceive of their fathers as rivals who will retaliate against them by castrating them.  Main conflict is referred to as the Oedipus Complex for boys and the Electra Complex for girls.

7  Through identification with their fathers, boys resolve the conflict, internalize the values of their fathers, and gain vicarious satisfaction of their sexual impulses towards their mothers.  This fear of castration (i.e., castration anxiety) forces boys to identify with their fathers.  Boys emerge from the Oedipus complex with a fear of or contempt for women due to the trauma associated with their attraction to their mothers. Moreover, boys perceive females as inferior and devalue females because they lack a penis.

8  Electra Complex  Girls begin life with a strong attraction towards their mothers.  When they realize that both they and their mothers do not have penises, they develop contempt for their mothers, blaming their mothers for their perceived deficiency.

9  Through identification with their mothers, girls resolve the conflict, internalize the values of their mothers, and gain vicarious satisfaction of their sexual impulses towards their fathers.  As their contempt grows, girls shift their affection towards their fathers. Girls develop envy for their father’s penis and, ultimately, experience a desire to achieve sexual union with their fathers.  Girls emerge from the Electra complex with a sense of inferiority because they lack a penis and have feelings of contempt for other women because they, too, are “deficient.”

10  Fixation occurs if the child is unable to identify with the same-sex parent.  Fixation results in distinct personality types for males and females and poor moral development in males and females.  Freud argued that females are more likely than males to become fixated at this stage.

11 “She has seen it and knows she is without it and wants to have it …. The hope of someday obtaining a penis in spite of everything and so [the hope of] becoming like a man may persist to an incredibly late age and may become a motive for the strangest and otherwise unaccountable actions. Or again, a process may set in which might be described as a “denial”… a woman may refuse to accept the fact of being castrated, may harden herself in the conviction that she does possess a penis and may subsequently be compelled to behave as though she were a man.” (Freud, 1925/1974, p )

12 “We shall not be very surprised if a woman analyst who has not been sufficiently convinced of her own desire for a penis also fails to assign an adequate importance to that factor in her patients.” (Quoted in Garrison, 1981)

13 4. Latency Stage  6 years – puberty.  Erogenous zone: Genital region.  Sexual impulses are less pronounced during this stage. Children direct their energy toward learning and peer group activities.  There are no specific conflicts. The stage is one of relative calm, in which little psychological growth occurs.

14 5. Genital Stage  Puberty – adulthood.  Erogenous zone: Genital region.  There are no specific conflicts. Freud described the stage as an ideal, as the stage of “psychosexual maturity.”  Sexual impulses are largely expressed through mutually gratifying sexual interactions with other individuals.

15 2. The theory was developed on the basis of a relatively small number of case studies involving upper class, young adult females. 1. The theory overemphasizes sexuality and, thus, provides a simplistic view of personality development. What are the primary criticisms of psychodynamic explanations of gender development?

16 4. The theory maintains that male personality is the norm and that female personality deviates from this norm. 3.Many of the constructs proposed by the theory are not testable and, thus, are not falsifiable.

17 Near the end of his life, Freud acknowledged the limitations of psychodynamic theory in explaining the gender development of females: “Infantile sexuality had first been studied in males, and the complete parallelism between boys and girls has shown itself untenable; the little girl has to shift both in her sexual object and her dominant genital zone. From this, difficulties and possible inhibitions result, which do not apply to the man.” (Freud, 1935)

18 In light of these criticisms, a host of “neoanalytic” theories have emerged to explain gender differences.

19 1. How does psychodynamic theory explain gender development? (continued) Psychodynamic Theory of Gender Differences 2. What are the primary criticisms of psychodynamic explanations of gender development?