Psychodynamic

• Freud believed that children have no concept of gender identity before the phallic stage and it only becomes established when children experience the oedipu/electra complex
• Idenitification is where children identify with the same-sex parent as a means of resolving their respective complexes
• Identification leads to the development of a superego
• Internalisation is where children take on board the gender identity of the same-sex parent
• The Oedipus complex is where a boy's love for his mother causes feelings of rivalry towards the father as they want to possess her
• The boy experiences castration anxiety due to fear that his father will find out about his desires
• The boy recognises that the father's penis is larger therefore he is more powerful
• The boy develops a belief that his father has castrated his mother so may do the same to him
• The Electra complex is a similar concept developed by Carl Jung for females
• The girl develops a passionate desire for her father
• The girl resents her mother for not giving her a penis due to the belief that she has been castrated which leads to penis envy
• The girl substitutes the desire for a penis with the desire for a son so lusts after father
• Phallic fixation is where the child becomes stuck in the phallic stage as they do not resolve their conflict
• Phallic fixation leads to anxiety & guilt for sex, castration anxiety (men), narcissistic personality, homosexuality, curiosity, exhibitionism
• Freud believed that women never progress past the phallic stage so maintain a sense of envy & inferiority
• Boys overcome the phallic stage using repression to push desire for mother and hostility for father into the unconscious, reducing the tension between father and son which allows identification
• Girls identify with their mother but are less motivated than boys due to lack of castration anxiety so develop a weaker gender identity
• Girls retain their mother's love in the hope that it will attract their father in the same way
• Children in non-nuclear families are unable to experince the oedipus/electra complex so cannot resolve conflicts necessary to develop a healthy gender identity
• Freud's theory is supported by his study of Little Hans as he explained that his fear of horses was displacement of his castration anxiety towards the horse
• Freud's theory has a lack of falsifiability and reliability therefore is highly unscientific
• Freud's theory is androcentric as it is focused on male values
• Karen Horney proposed 'womb envy' in men as a desire to be able to nurture life