1 Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences Lecture 19

2 Office Hour Invitations November 4 th, 11:30-12:30 Kenny

3 1. How does psychodynamic theory explain gender development? Psychodynamic Theory 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 (a) the development of personality differences between the sexes and (b) sex differences in morality.

5 How does psychodynamic theory explain gender development? Sigmund Freud proposed psychodynamic theory in the late 19 th century, when pervasive social thought maintained that females were inferior to males. Freud proposed the Stage Theory of Psychosexual Development in an attempt to explain personality development and account for female inferiority.

Psychology 3056 This theory assumes:  There are 5 stages of personality development.  In each of the first 3 stages, we are confronted by an unconscious conflict that revolves around our need to obtain sexual gratification.  In each of the five stages, an erogenous zone becomes the focal point of attention through which we obtain sexual gratification. 6

Psychology 3057  Successful development occurs when individuals navigate through the stages without becoming fixated.  Fixation occurs when the conflict associated with a specific stage is not well resolved.  Individuals who become fixated at different stages develop different personality characteristics.  Fixation at one stage makes it more difficult to successfully resolve conflicts at subsequent stages. 7

8 1. Oral Stage  0 – 18 months.  Erogenous zone: Mouth.  Sexual impulses are largely expressed through nursing at the mother’s breast. The stages of psychosexual development are:

9 Freud (1916/1961) wrote: “Sucking at the mother’s breast is the starting point of the whole of sexual life, the unmatched prototype of every later sexual satisfaction, to which fantasy often enough returns in times of need. This sucking involves making the mother’s breast the object of the sexual instinct. I can give you no idea of the important bearing of this first object upon the choice of every later object, of the profound effects it has in its transformations and substitutions in even the remotest regions of our sexual life.”

10  Main conflict occurs when the infant is weaned from the breast.  Fixation occurs if the infant is prematurely weaned or experiences trauma while being weaned.  Prototypical characteristics associated with fixation: Gullible, cheerful, dependent (oral-incorporative character); sarcastic, quarrelsome, hostile (oral sadistic character).

11 2.Anal Stage  18 months – 3 years.  Erogenous zone: Anus.  Sexual impulses are largely expressed through defecation.

12  Fixation occurs if the child is subjected to strict and rigid toilet training practices.  Main conflict occurs when the child is toilet trained.  Prototypical characteristics associated with fixation: Stubborn, stingy, orderly (anal retentive character); messy, destructive, hostile (anal expulsive character).

13 3. Phallic Stage  3 – 5 years.  Erogenous zone: Genital region.  Sexual impulses are largely expressed through self- stimulation of the genital organs.  Main conflict is referred to as the Oedipus Complex for boys and the Electra Complex for girls.

14  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.

15  Through identification with their fathers, boys resolve the conflict, gain vicarious satisfaction of their sexual impulses towards their mothers, and internalize the values of their fathers.  This fear of castration (i.e., castration anxiety) forces boys to identify with their fathers.

16  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.

17  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.

18  Through identification with their mothers, girls resolve the conflict, gain vicarious satisfaction of their sexual impulses towards their fathers, and internalize the values of their mothers.  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.

19  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.”

20  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.

21 1. How does psychodynamic theory explain gender development? Psychodynamic Theory of Gender Development