psychodynamic explanation

• Freud described pre-phallic children as bisexual in that they are neither masculine or feminine.
• In the phallic stage, the focus of pleasure is on the genitals and it is within this stage that children experience the oedipus or the electra complex, which are crucial in forming gender identity.
• Identification - the child adopts the traits of the same-sex parent and copies the behaviour of that parent
• Internalisation - the process of a child identifying with parental standards and making these standards their own.
• Resolving the oedipus complex means a boy begins to have a sense of male gender identity
• • During the phallic stage, sexual energy is directed into the penis and a boy develops sexual feelings towards his mother. 
  • Father is a love rival
  • they are afraid their father will castrate them if he discovers their desire for their mother (castration anxiety)
• To resolve the oedipus conflict, the boy gives up his love for his mother and begins to identify with his father (identification with the aggressor)
• Boys develop a strong identity with father because fear of castration is strong
• Boys adopt the attitudes and behaviours of their father and develop a male identity. Through the process of identification they become active and dominant. Internalisation of male identity
• Resolving the electra complex means a girl gets a sense of female gender identity
• • During the phallic stage, girls notice they don’t have a penis
  • See mother as love rival standing in the way of them and their father. They see themselves and their mother as powerless and the penis as a symbol of male power
  • They believe they have been castrated by their mother and blame her for the lack of penis
• To resolve the electra complex, girls substitute penis envy for the desire to have children and so identify with their mother
• Women develop a weaker identity than men because their fear is not as strong as the fear of castration that men feel
• Girls adopt the attitudes and behaviours of their mother and develop a female identity. Through the process of identification they become quiet and submissive. Internalisation of female identity
• Freud’s theory implies that sons of very harsh fathers should go on to develop a more robust sense of gender identity than other boys because the higher levels of anxiety should produce higher identification with the aggressor.
• Blakemore and HIll (2008) believe boys with more liberal fathers tend to be more secure over their masculine identity.
• The electra complex was based on the work of Carl Jung and Freud admitted that females were a mystery to him.
• Horney criticised Freud’s ‘penis envy’ and believes a more powerful emotion is that of ‘womb envy’. Horney argued that penis envy was a cultural construct rather than an innate trait and challenged this androcentric approach adopted by Freud’s research.
• Freud’s theory relies on the child having two parents of different genders to manage the oedipus or electra complex effectively.
• Golombok et al (1983) and Greene (1978) both demonstrate through their research that in non-nuclear families (single parent or gay or transgender parents) that healthy gender development can occur.
• Freud is criticised because many of his concepts of gender development are of an unconscious nature, meaning they are unfalsifiable and untestable. Complexes such as oedipus and electra are impossible to measure and this cannot be tested in an empirical way