Free will and determinism

• name four types of determinism

  • Biological
  • Environmental
  • psychic
  • Scientific determinism
• Name two approaches to free will

  • Humanistic approach
  • Moral responsibility
• Outline biological determinism and provide an example. What approach uses it?

  Biological approach uses biological determinism- behaviour is impacted by biology

  • Genetic influences on behaviour- determine destiny
  • Genes influence brain structure and neurotransmitters
  • Eg- SERT gene creates lower levels of neurotransmitter seratonin, linking to development of OCD
• Define free will

  Individuals have the power to make choices about their behaviour
• Define determinism

  Behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual
• Define hard determinism

  All behaviour can be predicted and there is no free will
• Define soft determinism

  A version of determinism that allows some element of free will
• Outline environmental determinism and provide an example. What approach uses it?

  Behavioural approach uses environmental determinism- behaviour is controlled by external influences

  • All behaviour caused by previous experience
  • Learned through stimulus and response links- through processes of classical and operant conditioning
  • Controlled by parents, society, etc
  • Eg- phobic response learned through CC and unlearned through SD by pairing the phobic stimulus with other different (neutral) stimuli
• Outline psychic determinism and provide an example. What approach uses it?

  Psychodynamic approach uses psychic determinism- Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality- behaviour is controlled by unconscious fears/desires

  • Behaviour is a mix of innate drive and early experience
  • Behaviour driven by libido and focuses on erogenous zones
  • Fixations on each zone and methods of obtaining satisfaction dominate personality
• Outline scientific determinism and provide an example. What approach uses it?

  Scientific approach- causal explanations for behaviour

  • Scientific research based on belief that all events have a cause
  • Independent variable is manipulated to examine the causal effect on the dependent variable
  • Eg- Harlows monkeys- IV- wire or cloth covered mother with milk, DV- attachment formed
• What approach uses free will? Outline the key aspects of it

  Humanistic approach

  • Self determinism is a necessary part of human behaviour
  • Healthy self development and self actualisation is not available without it
  • Rogers (1959) - as long as people remain controlled by other people or things, they can’t change or take responsibility for their behaviour
• Outline moral responsibility as an example of free will

  • Individual is in charge of their own actions
  • Children and mentally ill people don’t have this responsibility
  • Humans accountable for actions regardless of innate factors or early experience
• Evaluate determinism

  • ☹️Biological- doubtful that 100% genetic determinism will be found- identical twin studies, 80% intelligence concordance rate, 40% depression concordance rate
  • ☹️Environmental- can’t be sole determining factor in behaviour, there is some genetic input. Also behaviour is too complex to be determined through stimuli and responses
  • ☹️Scientific- accepted that no such things as total determinism (chaos theory- small changes can result in big and complex effects, causal rels are probabilistic rather than determinist- events only increase likelihood of an outcome)
  • 😊Determinism may be undesirable as it provides excuse for behaviour- criminals who try avoid harsh sentences may argue they inherited aggressive tendencies eg - Steven Mobeley, claimed he was "born to kill"
• Evaluation of free will?

  • ☹️ An illusion- skinner argues choices influenced by previous reinforcement experiences
  • ☹️Cultural relativism- self determinism may be individualistic- collectivism focuses on the group as more important
  • ☹️ Research to challenge free will (Benjamin libet et al) recorded activity in motor areas in brain before person had conscious awareness of the decision to move their finger