social-psychological

• psychoanalytic theory - lionel oversey and ethel person argued that GID in males is caused by the child experiencing separation anxiety before gender identity is established

  • the child fantasises of a symbiotic anxiety with his mother to relieve anxiety and the danger of separation is removed

  consequence of this - the child becomes the mother and adopts a female gender identity
• psychoanalytic theory supported by robert stoller 


  in interviews with GID males, they were seen to display overly close mother-son relationships that would lead to greater female identification and confused gender identity in the long term
• cognitive explanation - lynn liben and rebecca bigler extended the gender schema theory that emphasises individual differences in gender identity 


  suggests 2 pathways of gender development

  1. acknowledges the development of gender schema which then directs gender appropriate attitudes as part of normal development
  2. describes how the child’s gender attitudes are affected by their activities

  • personal interest dominate over gender identity and influence gender schema by developing a non gender schema
  • can lead to androgynous behaviour and a more flexible attitude to gender
• X oversey and persons explanation is inadequate for females by only focusing on male transgender individuals
• X george rekers suggests that gender disturbance in boys is more likely to be associated with the absence of the father rather than separation from the mother
• X difficult to test the assumption that GID is caused by separation anxiety in childhood

  • the individual may not even be aware of the fantasies that trigger GID and centre on the mum as it occurs unconsciously
• X liben and bigler give little explanation of why a child may become more interested in activities that are not consistent with their own gender and how these activities bring the development of non sex-typed schema