Psychodynamic

• The psychodynamic explanation


  Freud (1905)devised a developmental theory which sees children pass through 5 biologically driven psychosexual stages;oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.Freud believed that the psychosexual stages of development were crucial for the formation of gender identity.The psychodynamic theory of gender development suggests that gender identity is acquired during the third stage of psychosexual development;the phallic stage.(3-6years)
• Freud's psychoanalytic theory


  human behavior isinfluenced by unconscious memories, thoughts, and urgesId, ego and superego
• The oedipus complex


  During the Oedipus complexa boy's sexual energy (libido) is directed towards the phallus (penis) and the boy wishes to possess his mother sexually, seeing the father as a rival.The boy's ego realises that the father is more powerful than himself and starts tofear castration, causing an unconscious conflict which leads to anxiety. The ego resolves this anxiety by repressing (defence mechanism) his feelings for his mother andidentifying with the father(identification with the aggressor).It is here, where the boy will adopt his Father's characteristics (including his male gender characteristics), values, morals and behaviours (internalisation)leading to a masculine identity.
• The Electra complex


  During theElectra Complex, girls become aware that they do not have a penis. They also see their mum as not having a penis and start to think she has castrated her, blaming her for their own lack of power.The girl wants to have a penis as it is a symbol of power and experiencespenis envyleading the id to desire her father sexually because he has what she wants.However, she realises that she cannot grow her own penis so the idconverts her penis envy into a desire for a baby(the penis-baby making project). The girl's id wants her father to provide the baby hence why she lusts after her father. The girl's ego resolves this byidentifying with the mother but girls do this in a more passive waythan boys and results in females adopting a quieter and more passive gender role.
• Little Hans (AO3)


  little Hans who had a fear of horses. According to Freud, the horse represented his dad for example, the horse's blinkers (dad's glasses) and dark round mouth (dad's beard). Little Hans was scared to leave the house as he thought a horse might fall on him and feared that the horse would bite him. Freud argued that this was really a fear of his dad castrating him if he found out about his feelings for his mother.However, this was a case study of one individual which means it's very difficult to generalise the findings to how gender develops in all children.
• Okami et al (AO3)

  followed 200 children from age 6 onwards who had been exposed to adult nudity when younger and found that at 18 years old, the girls were more likely to become pregnant or infected with STI's which does suggest a link between sexual experiences during the phallic stage and later sexual behaviour.However this study is correlation and does not demonstrate cause effect.This means that there could have been many other factors that led to pregnancy rather than their early childhood experience
• Limitations of psychodynamic


  Much of Freud's research in the psychodynamic explanation isandrocentric

  Psychodynamic explanations for gender developmentlack temporal validityas they reflect the stereotypical gender roles in the early 1900s, which do not represent society today.