free will and determinism

• some people with psychological disorders, e.g. OCD, feel like they're not in control of their thoughts and actions
• determinism 


  all physical events in the universe, including human behaviour occur in cause-and-effect relationships, so our thoughts, beliefs and behaviours are determined by past events and causes, this is a scientific view that implies that complete knowledge of a cause-and-effect relationship will mean you can predict the future
• free will and determinism 


  most approaches in psychology are trying to identify the causes of behaviour, humans have a sense that they can choose which of several courses of action to take and have a strong sense of free will, in this sense most approaches in psychology are deterministic, if we can explain someone’s behaviour fully then there is no room free will 
• consequences 


  if this was true it would have important consequences for society, we assume the individuals take responsibility for their actions and therefore have free will to choose whether to do right or wrong, however if behaviour is fully determined by factors outside the personas control, then they do not have free will and cannot be responsible for their actions