Free will and determinism

• Free will is the idea that we are self-determining
• the notion of free will suggests human beings are free to choose their thoughts and actions

  there are biological and environmental influences on our behaviour- but free will implies we can reject them
• Free will is the view of the humanistic approach
• hard determinism (fatalism):

  all human action has a cause- it should be possible to identify these causes. This is compatible with the aims of science which assume that what we do is dictated by internal or external forces that we cannot control
• soft determinism:

  all human action has a cause but people have conscious mental control over behaviour. James thought scientists should explain the determining forces acting upon us, but we still have freedom to make choices
• biological determinism = control from physiological, genetic and hormonal processes
• the biological approach:

  • physiological processes are not under conscious control (e.g. influence of autonomic nervous system on anxiety)
  • genetic factors may determine many behaviours and characteristics (e.g. mental disorders)
  • hormones may determine behaviour (e.g. the role of testosterone in aggressive behaviour)
• environmental determinism = we are determined by conditioning
• what approach popularised the idea of environmental determinism?


  the behaviourist approach
• the behaviourist approach popularised the idea of environmental determinism- skinner said free will is an 'illusion' and argued all behaviour is the result of conditioning

  our experience of 'choice' is just the sum total of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives

  we might think we are acting independently, but our behaviour has been shaped by environmental events and agents of socialisation (parents, teachers, institutions, etc.)
• psychic determinism = we are directed by unconscious conflicts
• like skinner, freud thought free will is an illusion but placed emphasis on biological drives and instincts underpinning psychological responses rather than conditioning

  freud's psychic determinism sees behaviour as determined and directed by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood

  for example, even a seemingly random 'slip of the tongue' is determined by the unconscious
• science seeks to find causal explanations where one thing is determined by another
• a basic principle of science is that every event has a cause and these can be explained with general laws. knowledge of these allows scientists to predict and control events

  in chemistry, adding a chemical (X) to a chemical (Y) results in a reaction (Z) within the controlled environment of the test tube. In other words the behaviour of Z is determined by X and Y

  in psychology, the laboratory experiment lets researchers simulate the conditions of the test tube and remove all of the extraneous variables to demonstrate a causal effect
• evaluation: determinism is consistent with the aims of science

  the notion that human behaviour is orderly and obeys laws places psychology on equal footing with other more established sciences, increasing its credibility. another strength is that the prediction and control of human behaviour has led to the development of treatments and therapies (e.g. drug treatments to manage schizophrenia). the experience of schizophrenia (loss of control over thoughts and behaviour) suggests some behaviours are determined (no one 'chooses' to have schizophrenia)
• evaluation: hard determinism not consistent with the legal system

  offenders are normally accountable for their actions in law.only in extreme circumstances are juries instructed to act with leniency (e.g. law of diminished responsibility). another limitation is that determinism as an approach to scientific enquiry is not falsifiable. it is based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist, even thought they may not yet have been found. as a basic principle this is impossible to disprove. this suggests that the determinist approach may not be as scientific as it seems.
• evaluation: we often make choices in everyday life

  everyday experience 'gives the impression' that we are constantly making choices on any given day. this gives face validity to the idea of free will (i.e. it makes sense). another strength is that, even if we do not have free will, the fact that we think we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour. Roberts et al. showed that adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism (that their lives were 'decided' by events outside their control) were more at risk of depression.
• evaluation: compromise in the middle-ground position

  approaches in psychology that have a cognitive element (e.g. social learning theory) are those which tend to adopt a soft determinist position. bandura argued that although environmental factors in learning are key, we are free to choose who or what to attend to and when to perform certain behaviours. this middle-ground approach is helpful in understanding aspects of human behaviour which are not a straightforward choice between free will and determinism (e.g. learning)