psychodynamic explanation

• pre-phallic children

  • Freud states that pre-phallic stage (occurs between 3 and 6), children have no concept of gender identity
  • described them as bisexual as they are neither masc nor fem
• oedipus complex

  • in phallic stage boys develop feelings toward mother and a jealous hatred for fathers who stands in his way of possessing mother
  • boys recognise his fathers power and fears castration
  • to resolve this conflict boy begins to identify with father
• electra complex

  • girls experience penis envy
  • resent mother as she is a rival for the fathers love and because girls blame the mother for their lack of penis
  • over time girls accept they will never have a penis and substitute this with desire for children, in turn identifying with her mother
• identification and internalisation

  • children identify with same-sex parents to resolve their conflicts
  • adopt their attitudes and values
  • children take on board their gender identity, which freud called internalisation
• little hans

  • 5 year old with morbid fear of being bitten by a horse
  • freud said this fear represented his fear of castration because hans loved his mother
  • hans transferred the fear of his father onto horses via displacement
• W - non-nuclear families

  • freuds theory relies on children having two parents of different genders so they are able to manage their complexes
  • it would suggest that being raised in non-nuclear families would have an effect on gender development
  • evidence shows that children in single parent families developed normal gender identities (Golombok)
• W - inadequate account of female development

  • the notion of penis envy has been criticised as reflecting the patriarchal victorian era in which it was developed
  • Horney argues that penis envy was a cultural concept rather than an innate trait
  • also challenged the idea that female gender development was founded on a desire to be like men - an androcentric assumption
• W - not scientific

  • the concepts he refers to in terms of gender development focus on the unconscious and are therefore untestable
  • contrasts with other explanations that are based on objective, verifiable evidence
  • this therefore cant be considered scientific as it cant be falsified
• W - theories based on a case study

  • it isnt possible to make such universal claims about human nature
  • also very subjective
  • likely doesnt tell us much about gender development since the whole theory was based around the complexes and the use of little hans as support for this