Free Will vs Determinism

• Determinism

  • behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors
• Hard determinism

  • all behaviour can be predicted and there is no free will
• Soft determinism

  • allows some elements of free will
• Free will

  • every individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour
• Fatalism

  • all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable
• Biological determinism

  • genetic influences on behaviour
  • not just physical characteristics but also intelligence
  • IGF2R gene - intelligence - Hill et al, 1999
  • MAOA gene the CDH13 gene - aggression/criminality
  • genes influence our brain structure and nuerotransmitters, both of which have been linked to behaviour
  • the dopamine hypothesis in schizophrenia
  • however, twin studies that look at determination only find about 80% similarity on intelligence - genes therefore do not entirely determine behaviour
  • reductionist - ignores other factors
• Environmental determinism

  • all behaviours are caused by external factors/previous experience through classical and operant conditioning
  • these principles of learning can be applied to many other areas of behaviour such as aggression or eating behaviour (learning theory of attachment, token economy as a two-way process to manage schizophrenia, differential association theory)
  • phobias can be learned (classical conditioning) and they can be unlearned (systematic desensitisation)
• Criticism of environmental determinism

  • however, research show that the environment cannot solely be responsible for determining behaviour, and there must be genetic input
• Psychic determinism

  • Freud suggested that an adult's personality suggests that behaviour will be determined by innate drives and early experience, with no free will
  • Behaviour is driven by urges, particularly the libido and erogenous zones such as the mouth or anus
  • Tripartite personality
• Scientific determinism

  • casual explanation
  • all behaviour has a cause
  • an independent variable is manipulating to test the dependent variable
  • emphasis on casual explanation allows us to come up with general laws and predict and control future events
• Support of genetic determinism

  • concordance rates for intelligence rates are high and rates for disorders are around 40%
  • however, behaviour is not 100% determined by genes, the data implies that environment has some role to play
  • there is neither genetic or biological determinism offer a valid account of behaviour
• Evidence for both environmental and biological determinism

  • Bandura's study of aggression imitation shows that children model the behaviour influenced on them, they were also all boys with higher levels of testosterone
  • There is some evidence to support different types of determinism, but each does not deem to be able to explain behaviour in isolation
• Real world application of determinism

  • drugs to manage OCD and schizophrenia and counter conditioning techniques in phobia therapy
  • in terms of mental health behaviour does seem to be determined
  • however, if we accept disorders are caused by genes people overlook the control they have over their situation and ignore other successful approaches that aren't drug therapy
• What are the negative implications of mental illness in moral and legal contexts?

  It complicates the assessment of moral responsibility
• Self determination

  • Individual takes an active role in controlling their behaviour
• Humanistic approach

  • soft determinism is a necessary part of human behaviour and without this sled-development and self-actualisation are not possible
  • if an individual who is controlled by other people or things will not take responsibility and therefore cannot change their behaviour
• Moral responsibility

  • an individual is in charge of their actions
• Libet (1983)

  • we are physically pre-determined to act/not responding to the environment
• Self-determination could be culturally relative

  • some cultures may place greater emphasis and value on certain behaviours
• Free will has face validity

  • life experience shows that we have free will, since we make different decisions every day
• How is internal locus of control a strength of free will?

  • those with an internal locus of control tend to be mentally healthy and are more protective of their lives
• Free will as an illusion

  • Skinner argues that free will is an illusion and that having options to select from is not really free will
• Trevena and Miller (2009)

  • brain activity preceded decisions but concluded that this represented readiness to act rather than a decision to move, this undermines the empirical challenge to free will