Freewill/determinism

• Determinism

  • Idea every event is determined by unbroken chain of prior events- no miracles
  • Cause and effect
• Freewill

  Experience ourselves deciding and making choices what to do rather than just responding like automators to prev events
• Issue with determinism

  If our behavior is a response to prev events then we have little or no control over it. In which case we can't be held responsible for things we do
• Freud and determinism

  Freud claimed most of causes of our behaviour are largely hidden from us and unconscious, ee may think we're acting freely but our behavior determined by unconscious forces
• Skinner and determinism

  Behaviorist skinner argued we think we are free but that is bc we are not aware of how our behavior is determined by reinforcement
• Humanistic psychologists and freewill

  • Humanistic psychologists believe behaviorists and Freudians overlooked important role of freewill in human behavior and drive of humans to be self determining
  • Carl rogers proposed theory in contrast w Freuds- theory built on self actualizing tendency- rogers suggested taking responsibility for oneself is route to healthy self development
• Chaos theory

  • proposes small changes in initial conditions can lead to major changes-butterfly effect
  • Determinist
• Application of determinism

  • determinist ideas been given boost recent yrs w development brain scan studies
  • these studies match up brain changes to changes in behavior and commonly proposes brain changes are cause of behavior
  • Casey sperry
• Casey- determinism

  Casey used scanning technique and sjgfsdtsd that brain structure in frontal lobes have been determined in persons abilities to delay gratification
• Sperry-determinism

  • In Sperry study behavior of split brain patients is determined bc of the lack of communication between hemispheres due to corpus callosum being severed.
  • They have no control over this.
  • However they do compensate in everyday life by using other senses-could be argued as free will as is decision they have made in order to cope
• Criminal responsibility deciding

  • raine reported large number of brain scan studies in Partic on ppl involve w criminal behavior and psychiatric conditions.
  • In 1 study he found men who had antisocial personality disorder had deficiency in frontal lobe of brains
  • Determinism
• Connections

  • Milgram-social suggests some of ppts behavior was caused by situation they were in rather than their spontaneous choice
  • Bandura- developmental children's behaviour was determined by adult models behavior
• Determinism links IS and reduct

  • links to individual vs situation - situation that brings behavior or genetics and chemicals inside
  • Reductionism
• Strengths and weaknesses of

  • Strength- Explains why we do things. Explanation we chose affects what sort of society we create and what laws we pass to manage society
  • Weakness- when we make choices they are not just limited by our biology but also affected by cog processes and env live in