psychodynamic explanation of gender development

• Freud believed that conscious behaviours were motivated by unconscious drives with the structure of the mind consisting of the id, ego and super-ego to make up the three components of an individuals personality.
• According to Freud, during the phallic stage, which occurs between the ages of three and six years, the child's libido is focused on his/her genitals. The child's gender identity is subsequently resolved during this stage either through the Oedipus complex in boys, or the Electra complex in girls.
• Freud believed children experienced an unconscious conflict as they progressed through the psychosexual stages of development. In the first two stages, the organ stage and anal stage, a child is perceived to be bisexual as their gender identity does not exist at this stage and there is no visible differences in behaviour between boys and girls.
• When a child enters the phallic stage however, which is between 3 and 6 years old, the child's libido (life force) is seen as increasingly focused upon it's genitals and it is during this stage the child's gender identity develops through either the resolution of the Oedipus complex for boys or the Electra complex for girls.
• oedipus complex

  1. boys desire their mothers. at age 3 a young boy becomes aware of his sexuality and desires his mother
  2. boys then see their fathers as a rival for their mother's love and wish their father dead. this wish creates anxiety and a fear of castration.
  3. complex is eventually resolved because the boy identifies with his father
• Electra complex


  • proposed by Carl Jung

  1. The young girl is attracted to her mother but this ends when she realises that mother doesn't have a penis and blames her mother for own lack of a penis. child believes she was castrated, she experiences penis envy as it is a symbol of male power.
  2. The girls sexual desire are then transferred to the father.
  3. The complex is resolved when girl converts her penis envy into her desire to have a baby, this reduces anger towards her mother. This allows the girl to then identify with her mother and take on the gender behaviours associated with being a female.