A01: Free Will VS/AND Determinism

• Free Will & Determinism DEBATE:

  Is our behaviour is atter of free will o are we the product of internal and/or external influences?

  • Most approaches in psychology are determinist but disagree on the cause of human behaviour.
• Free Will?

  Free Will: as human beings we are self-determining and free to choose our thoughts and actions.

  • A belief in free will does not deny that there may be biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on our behaviour, but implies that we are able to reject these forces and control our own destiny.
  • Self Determining - The notion of free will suggests humans are free to make choices.

  This is the view of the humanistic approach
• Versions of Determinism

  • Hard (FATALISM)
  • Soft
• Hard Determinism

  Hard Determinism (FATALISM):

  • Suggests that all human action has a cause and it should be possible to identify these causes.
  • Suggests all behaviour has  cause and it should be possible to identify and describe these causes
  • Compatible with the aims of science
  • Everything we think or do it controlled by external factors.
  • Bit like external LOC
• Soft Determinism:

  Soft Determinism:

  • Suggests all human action has a cause but people have freedom to make choices within a restricted range of options.
  • Suggests there is some room for manoeuvre in that people have conscious mental control over the way they behave.
  • Although science can explain determining forces which act upon us, we still have freedom to make rational choices and are responsible for such choices.

  DONT SAY FREE WILL (DO NOT REFERENCE IN ANS) NOT TO BE MISTAKEN FOR FREE WILL.
• The man committed the murder of the man he found his wife in bed with - determinism?

  Hard

  • 'DNA is predetermined at birth. I have a faulty gene which makes me aggressive - this man wronged me so I retaliated'

  Soft

  • 'I have a gene which makes me more predisposed to anger. I got so angry this man in MY bed. I was going to kill them both BUT I managed to contain some of my anger and I stopped myself before killing my wife.'
• Types of Determinism

  • Biological Determinism
  • Environmental Determinism
  • Psychic Determinism
• Biological Determinism

  • Many physiological processes not under conscious control (e.g fight or flight)
  • Many behaviours and mental illnesses have a genetic basis (e.g. SZ)

  The biological approach describes many causes of behaviour e.g. the influence of the autonomic nervous system on stress or the influence of genes on mental health.

  
  

  
  

  Modern biological psychologists would recognise the mediating influence of the environment on our biological structures (another determinist influence).

  
  

  FOR EXAMPLE: Javid has an excess of dopamine in the brain and is showing sz symptoms
• Environmental Determinism

  • Skinner described free will as 'an illusion' and all behaviour as the result of conditioning.
  • 'Choice' does not exist but is just a summation of all reinforcement contingencies (i.e weighing up of rewards and costs)

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

  
  

  FOR EXAMPLE: Brian goes to see his fav football team Man U and shouts abuse with the crowd at the Liverpool fans
• Psychic Determinism

  Psyche

  • Behaviour determined by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood
  • 'There are not accidents' and even as seemingly random like a simple slip of tongue represents underlying unconscious thought (Freudian Slip) (can be explained by the unconscious).

  Freud emphasised the influence of biological drives and unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood.

  
  

  FOR EXAMPLE: Felix meets his mum's new boyfriend and says 'please to beat you'
• If psychology science is it: free will / deterministic?

  As a science - needs to be objective so DETERMINISTIC:

  Science seeks to find casual explanations where one thing is determined by another:

  • If psy science more deterministic view be adopted of human behaviour.
  • Basic principle of science is every event has cause & these can be explained with general laws. Science emphasises importance of law so events can be predicted & controlled.
  • In psy, lab experiment allows researchers to stimulate the conditions of test tube & remove all other extraneous variables to demonstrate a casual effect.