Horney suggests that penis envy is no more significant than the frequently observed wish in boys for breasts and a womb. .
"Modern" feminist psychoanalysis has rejected Freud's basic premise of biological/sexual determinism, which implies that female and male personality traits are "inevitable" and universal. These theories recognize two points: (1) the andocentric bias of Freud's theories in which the penis forms the core of gender identity and personality and females are devalued such that their unique biological capacities are trivialized; and (2) that gender development exists within a cultural context and cannot be separated from it. Chodorow says that because females are normally the caretaker, boys identify and break away from the feminine-dominated home and thus become more autonomous. Jean Baker Miller suggests that relatedness is the central goal of development and that it is only within the context of relatedness that autonomy can develop. .
Cognitive psychologists are interested in the ways in which people organize and understand their perceptions of physical and social reality and how these perceptions change at different developmental stages. The social learning theory holds that we learn both "female" and "male" behavior by observing others. However, the behavior we perform is a function of whether it is rewarded or punished. Sandra Bem proposes a "gender schema theory," which attempts to incorporate cognitive, childrearing, and cultural factors in explaining the development of gender identity and roles. Basically, children see things in the world and categorize them as male or female and act accordingly. Alice Eagly explains gender-typed behaviors as compliance to gender-role expectations. Candace West and Don Zimmerman conceive gender as something we do, not as something we are, and that each of us does gender through our dress, speech, behavior, and interactions with others.
