free will and determinism

• Free will

   free will does not deny biological and environmental forces on behaviours, however it implies we are able to reject these and control our own thoughts and behaviours
• Determinism

  Proposes we have no free will in our behaviour through soft and hard versions.
• Hard determinism

  Aka fatalism – suggests all behaviours have a causes which can be identified
• Soft determinism

  We can predict behaviour but there is room for personal choice
• Biological determinism

  • Biological approach – behaviours are the result of internal processes

  • Role of the ANS on the stress response

  • Influence of genes on mental health

  • Modern biopsychologists recognise the influence of the environment on bio structures
• Environmental determinism

  • Operant and classical conditioning

  • Skinner – free will is an illusion and argued all behaviour is the result of conditioning and reinforcement
• Psychic determinism

  • Innate drives

  • Psychodynamic approach

  • Freud – free will is an illusion and behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts
• strength

  One strength of free will is its practical value.

  A study by Rebecca Roberts et al. (2000) looked at adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism. The study found that these adolescents were at significantly greater risk of developing depression. It seems that people who exhibit an external, rather than Internal, locus of control are less likely to be optimistic.

  This suggests that, even if we do not have free will, the fact that we believe we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour
• weakness

  One limitation of free will is that brain scan evidence does not support it but does support determinism.

  Benjamin Libet et al. (1983) conducted a study and found that the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision to move came around half a second before the participant consciously felt they had decided to move.

  This may be interpreted as meaning that even our most basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain before we are aware of them
• weakness

  However, Libet's findings showing that the brain is involved in decision-making is not surprising and is, in fact, just as we would expect. Just because the action comes before the conscious awareness of the decision to act, doesn't mean that there was no decision to act - just that the decision to act took time to reach consciousness.

  Our conscious awareness of the decision is simply a read-out' of our unconscious decision-making.

  This suggests this evidence is not appropriate as a challenge to free will
• weakness

  One limitation of determinism is the position of the legal system on responsibility.

  The hard determinist stance is that individual choice is not the cause of behaviour. This is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates. In a court of law, offenders are held responsible for their actions.

  Indeed, the main principle of our legal system is that a defendant exercised their free will in committing the crime

  This suggests that, in the real world, determinist arguments do not work