free will versus determinism

• The concept of free will has significant practical applications, particularly in mental health interventions. For instance, therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) emphasize personal responsibility and the ability to change maladaptive thought patterns. This aligns with the idea of free will, empowering individuals to make conscious choices to improve their mental health.
• Such approaches have been shown to be effective in treating conditions like depression and anxiety, suggesting that the belief in free will can have tangible benefits. However, critics argue that the emphasis on free will might place undue blame on individuals for circumstances outside their control, such as socioeconomic factors.
• A deterministic approach supports the scientific method, enabling psychologists to identify cause-and-effect relationships in behavior. For example, biological determinism is supported by research into genetic predispositions for disorders such as schizophrenia.
• Gottesman's twin studies demonstrated higher concordance rates for schizophrenia in monozygotic twins (48%) compared to dizygotic twins (17%), indicating a genetic influence. This deterministic perspective enhances psychology’s status as a science and allows for the development of predictive models, such as identifying at-risk individuals.
• Free will is criticized for its lack of empirical support and reliance on subjective experience. While individuals often perceive their actions as freely chosen, this may be an illusion. Libet’s research into neural activity preceding conscious decision-making suggests that our choices are initiated by unconscious processes before we become aware of them. Such findings undermine the notion of free will, as decisions appear to be pre-determined by brain activity.
• controlled by external and internal forces, or we have some choice in the way we behave. Free will is the idea that we can have an active role are free to choose how we behave. It assumes that we are self-determined. The humanistic approach adopts a free will perspective. Roger’s client-centred therapy suggested that people are free to cause a change in their lives by choosing to see their situation differently.
• This illustrates his belief in free will because he thinks that the client should discover their own solutions to their problems, therefore, making their own choices on how to grow and develop as an individual.
• Determinism is the idea that free will is an illusion and that our behaviour is governed by internal and external forces over which we have no control; consequently, our behaviour is viewed as predictable. Hard determinism is the view that forces outside of our control have complete authority over behaviour, however soft determinism opposes this view and suggests that we are constrained by these forces, but only to an extent as there is an element of free will in behaviour
• Biological determinism claims we are entirely determined by genetic factors; for example, research has shown that first degree relatives of schizophrenics have a more likely chance of developing the disorder too. Psychic determinism claims that behaviour is a result of childhood experiences and innate drives; for example, Freud’s model of psychological development suggests that gender differences are acquired during the phallic stage of development.
• Environmental determinism claims that behaviour is caused by experience learned through classical and operant conditioning; for example, phobias learnt through classical conditioning.
• psychology also aims to create general laws which predict events puts it on equal footing with other established sciences. These predictions is what has allowed psychology to develop treatments for disorders such as schizophrenia meaning that at least in terms of mental illnesses, the idea of determinism has allowed us to understand, explain and help people
• A limitation of a deterministic point of view is that it would provide a potential excuse for criminal acts. In 19981, Stephen Mobley argues he was ‘born to kill’ as his family had a disposition towards violence and aggression. Hard determinism would support Mobley’s claim proving it undesirable as it allows people to mitigate their own responsibility. Therefore, soft determinism is a more reasonable approach in explaining behaviours as it considers the idea that people have free will
• However, the idea of free will has also attracted some criticism. Skinner argues that free will is an illusion and that behaviour is environmentally determined. Libet et al supports this view as he found that the motor regions of the brain became active before conscious awareness of a decision suggesting many responses are biologically determined. However, it is apparent that behaviour is too complex to be explained solely with biology which draws us back to the conclusion that a soft determinism is a more valid compromise to explain behaviour