Psychodynamic explanation

• Pre-phallic children

  the 3rd stage of Freuds 5 psychosexual stage is the phallic stage, this is when gender development occurs

  Prior to this, children have no concept of gender identity
• Oedipus complex

  in the phallic stage boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother

  They have a jealous and murderous hatred towards their father, who stands in the way of the boy possessing his mother, however the boy recognises his dad is more powerful

  To resolve the conflict, the boy gives up his love for his mother, and begins to identify with his father
• electra complex

  in the phallic stage, girls experience penis envy, seeing themselves and their mother in competition for their fathers love

  girls develop a double resentment towards their mother, as a love rival and lack of penis

  Overtime, girls accept they won’t have a penis and substitute penis envy for the desire to have children and so identify with their mother
• identification and internalisation

  freud says children identify with the same sex parent as a way of resolving their respective complexes

  boys adopt the attitudes and values of their father and girls adopt these of their mothers

  this involves children taking on the gender identity of the same sex-parent, this is internalisation
• A limitation is the inadequate account of women’s development

  Freud has admitted women were a mystery to him, his penis envy theory has been criticised as reflecting the androcentic Victorian era that he lived in where men held so much power

  much of the theorising of girls was taken on by one of freuds contemporaries
• A limitation is it lacks scientific credibility

  Freud is often criticised for the lack of rigorous in his methods, many of his concepts are untestable as they are largely unconscious

  this makes the theory not genuine science as his key ideas cant be falsified

  this questions the validity of the theory
• A strength is the support for the oedipus complex

  Normal development for boys requires being raised by at least 1 male

  gender identity of 49 boys aged 3 to 11 years was rated, out of those who were gender disturbed, 75% didn’t have a father

  However, generally, the relationship between the absent father and gender identity problems isn’t supported, children from lesbian families feel less pressure to conform to gender stereotypes and are less likely to assume that own gender is superior, but there are no differences in gender identity