Determinism: causes of behaviour

• Behaviourist

  • the consequences of behaviour, which determines the likelihood of a behaviour reoccurring
  • behaviourists such as skinner emphasise the importance of external forces in the environment in shaping our behaviour
• social learning

  • observation of others and so behaviour is largely a product of our experience.
  • although learning process provides the 'tools' to conduct a particular behaviour, it is up to the individual how and when to apply these to tools
• cognitive

  • our own thought processes, which determine our behaviour. Therefore the individual has some degree of control over their behaviour
• biological

  • physiological factors and/or inherited genetic factors, both of which are outside of our control
• psychodynamic

  • unconscious factors, which are largely unknown to us and therefore beyond our conscious control.
  • freud believed that trivial phenomena such as freudian slips are caused by unconscious factors operating within the individual's motivational system
• humanistic

  • our own free will
  • humanistic psychologists believed that people excersize choice in their behaviour, rather than being at the mercy of outside forces such as biological predispositions