Gender development in boys: Freud, Rekers and Moray, Williams

Gender development in boys

• FREUD
• Aim: To investigate Little Han's phobia.
• Method: Han's father wrote to Freud to tell him about Han's development. At the age of four Hans developed a phobia of horses. He was frightened that a horse might bite him or fall down. He was particularly afraid of large white horses with black around the mouth. Freud analysed this information.
• Results: Freud said Hans was experiencing a Oedipus complex. He unconsciously sexually desired his mother and saw his father as a rival and feared castration. He displaced his fear of his father onto the horses. The white horse represented his father who had a dark beard. His fear of being bitted represented his fear of castration and his fear of horses falling down was his unconscious desire to see his father dead.
• Conclusion: This supports Freud's ideas about the Oedipus complex.
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Gender development in a lone-parent household

• REKERS AND MORAY
• Aim: To investigate whether there is a relationship between gender disturbance and family background.
• Method: Researchers rated 46 boys gender disturbance for gender behaviour and gender identity. Their family background was also investigated.
• Results: Of the group, 76% of the most severely gender disturbed boys had neither their biological father nor a father substitute living with them.
• Conclusion: Boys who do not have a father figure present during their childhood are more likely to develop a problem with their gender identity.
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Media and Gender development

• WILLIAMS
• Aim: To investigate the effects of television on the gender development of children.
• Method: Studied the effects of television on children living in Canada. At the beginning one of the towns was given a TV for the first time while the other towns already had one. He measured attitudes of children living in these towns at the beginning of the study and again two years later.
• Results: The children who no had a television were more sex stereotyped in their attitudes and behaviour than they had been two years previously.
• Conclusion: Gender is learnt by imitating attitudes and behaviour seen on television.
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