Gender Identities and Socialization

Identification Theory

Identification theory views gender socialization as a process by which children learn gender-appropriate behaviors by identifying with, and modeling their behavior after, their same-sex parent. Identification theory is associated with Sigmund Freud, who focused on unconscious motives and drives to explain individuals' behavior. In this vein, identification theory posits that children develop motivational systems through unconscious learning; behaviors, feelings, and attitudes all form involuntarily. Because of their close emotional relationship, an unconscious psycho-sexual bond forms between the child and the same-sex parent, which shapes the child's sex-role identity.

[Page 357]Many theorists have provided revisions to Freud in the years after he initially conceptualized identification theory. Several theorists reinterpreted his notion of penis envy by taking it out of the realm of the psychological and putting it into the realm of the social. In this revision, it is posited that women are not jealous of men's actual phallus, but rather that they are jealous of the symbolic phallus; in other words, women are envious of what the penis represents: power, status, and privilege.

Object Relations Theory

Nancy Chodorow's feminist psychoanalytic theory of gender identity called object relations theory is another, well-known revision of Freud's theory. As in identification theory, children are thought to model themselves and their behavior after their same-sex parent. However, object relations theory also states that as children develop their identities, they must become psychologically separate from their parents. This means different things and has different consequences for the formation of gender identities in boys and girls.

Object relations theory posits that boys must psychologically separate themselves from attachment to their mothers and instead model themselves after their fathers. Fathers often spend a lot of time away from the home, so boys develop personalities that are more detached from others and are oriented inward. By disconnecting from others, boys cultivate a personality that stifles most emotional expression. Conversely, girls never have to psychologically separate from their mothers because they learn how to be girls by emulating their mothers. Mothers often have close attachments to others, so girls develop personalities that are more attached to, and oriented toward, others. Through modeling, girls develop nurturing behaviors and the psychological capabilities necessary for mothering.

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