Free will and determinism

• What is determinism?

  Behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual.
• whats hard determinism?

  Belief that all events are predetermined.
• what is soft determinism?

  A version of determinism that allows for some free will.
• what’s biological determinism?

  Our behaviour is determined by our genes. For example research on intelligence suggests that a particular gene is found in intelligent people Known as the IGF2R, this gene influences brain Structure and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
• what is environmental determinism?

  The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience, through the process of classical and operant conditioning.
• what is psychic determinism?

  Adult behaviour is determined by a mixture of innate drives and early experiences. Freud.
• whats scientific determinism?

  All events have a cause. An independent variable is manipulated to observe the causal effect on a dependant variable.
• whats free will

  each individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour.
• What’s the humanistic approach of free will:

  Psychologists believe individuals are in control of their behaviour and are trying to achieve personal growth.
• What’s moral responsibility?

  States that Individuals are in control of their actions and exercise free will. The law states that children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility. Normal adult behaviour is self determined and therefore humans are held accountable for their actions regardless of innate factors or the influence of early experiences.
• AO3: genetic versus environmental determinism.

  neither can be the sole determining factor. For example studies that compare identical twins find about 80% similarity in intelligence. if one twin has a high IQ there is only 80% chance that the other twin has. Therefore genes do not entirely determine behaviour.
• AO3: free will is an illusion and a culturally relative concept.

  Being able to decide on different courses gives us the illusion of free will but it actually isn’t. Skinner put forward this argument, and suggested that we may think we’re able to buy a certain car or pick a movie however our choices are determined by previous reinforcement experiences.
• AO3: Does it matter?

  There have been many attempts Where criminals try to justify there behaviour using biological determinism, for example Stephen Mobley claiming that he was born to kill as his family had a history of violence.