Free Will v. Determinism + Nature v. Nurture

• What is free will and determinism?


  Free will: the notion that humans can make decisions that are not determined by internal or external forces

  
  

  Determinism: the view that an individual's behaviour an decisions are shaped by internal or external forces rather than it being their choice to do something
• What are the 2 levels of determinism?


  Soft determinism: all events, including human behaviour have causes BUT can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion

  
  

  Hard determinism: implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal and external events beyond our control
• What are the 3 types of determinism?


  Biological determinism: behaviour is caused by biological influences (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) that we cannot control

  
  

  Environmental determinism: behaviour is caused by features of the environment such as systems of reward and punishment that we cannot control

  
  

  Psychic determinism: behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control
• What are strengths and weaknesses of determinism?


  1. Scientific basis with supporting evidence: emphasis on scientific causality, which scientists love as it allows general laws to be established. Free will is much harder to measure and control. Libet. et al told participants to flick their wrist at any active time while measuring brain activity, and found that the unconscious brain activated 1/2 a second before they made the conscious movement, showing that our choices our controlled by our subconscious brain rather than our choice

  
  

  2. Too simplistic: tend to oversimplify complex human behaviour which is influenced by many factors like cognitive and biological impulses and is less rigid than animal behaviour. Means psychological research is unlikely to ever find a simple determinist formula due to so many other influences
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of free will?


  1. Believing in free will can improve our mental health: gives us the capability to mould our behaviour and make our own autonomous choices. Roberts et al. looked at adolescents who believed in fatalism (lives decided by events out of their control) and found that as adults they were at a greater risk of developing depression. Suggests free will has a positive impact on mind and behaviour

  
  

  2. Illusionary: Skinner said that there was a difference between having free will and choosing between different choices. A person might choose to do something and believe it is their free will when these choices may actually be determined by previous reinforcement experiences, suggesting that free will is not 'real' and is a product of socialisation or operant conditioning
• What is the nature v. nurture debate?


  Nature: all behaviour is caused by your biology, and some aspects are innate and hereditary

  
  

  Nurture: all behaviour is caused by the environment. We are born as blank slates and our experiences dictate who we are and our behaviour
• What is the heritability coefficient? What are levels of the environment?


  Heritability coefficient: indicates the extent to which a characteristic has genetic basis e.g. 0.8 means 80% of the variability in the trait is due to genetic differences among people

  
  

  Lerner identified narrow levels of the environment such as pre-natal influences, or post-natal conditions such as social conditions, cultural context, and historical context
• What is the interactionist approach?


  Interactionist: suggests that both nature and nurture play a role in human behaviour e.g. Bowlby found that attachment types are determined by the warmth and continuity of parental love (environmental influence) but also affected by their innate personalities (hereditary influence). So psychologists are more likely to ask what the relative contribution of each influence is, taking an interactionist approach
• What is the diathesis-stress model? What are epigenetics?


  Diathesis-stress model: behaviour is caused by a biological or heredity vulnerability but is expressed/activated when coupled with an environmental trigger e.g. someone may have an OCD genetic vulnerability but this may not be expressed until a trigger like a traumatic experience

  
  

  Epigenetics: a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves, caused by aspects of our life that are interactions with the environment e.g. smoking, trauma to war. Can even influence the genetic codes of their children introducing the element of previous generations into the nature v. nurture debate