free will and determinism A01

• -          This debate focuses on the extent to which our behaviour is down to our own conscious control or whether it is already predetermined for us in some way
• Determinism

  -          Determinism Is the suggestion that we have no free will over our thoughts and actions and that they are predetermined by internal and external factors – meaning our behaviour is predictable – which allows psychologists to develop theories of behaviour
• Determinism

  -          Soft determinism  – is a version of determinism which allows for some elements of free will and suggest that all events including human behaviour has a case – the cognitive approach suggests that individual can reason and make decisions within limits if their cognitive system
• Determinism

  -          Hard determinism – is an extreme view that all behaviour can be predicted according to the actions of internal and external forces beyond our control and so there can be no free will
• Determinism

  -          An example of hard determinism would be behaviourism which suggest that all behaviour is a product of classical and operant conditioning and the biological approach sees behaviour as a product of gene .
• Determinism

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  -          There are 3 types of hard determinism

  Biological determinism

  Environmental

  Psychic
• Determinism

  -          Biological determinism = believe that behaviour is always cause by internal biological forces beyond our control – influence of genes – for example research on intelligence has identified particular genes in those with high intelligence like the IGF2R gene discovered by hill et al . there are also genes which affect brain structure and neurotransmitter production
• Determinism

  An example of biological determinism would be the genetic explanation for OCD  – suggest that OCD  is determined by having the COMT and or SERT gene – so we have no control weather we carry out compulsions its simply in our DNA – this is a positive means we can identify those at risk early on
• Determinism

  -          Environmental determinism = the belief that behaviour is caused by previous experiences through classical and operant conditioning – for example phobias are learned through conditioning demonstrated in Watsons little albert experiment and skinners box – operant  conditioning determined the behaviour of the rats and these are external forces which we have no control over manipulating and controlling our behaviour
• Determinism

  An example of environmental determinism would be social learning theory explanation for aggression – the explanation states that our aggressive behaviour is determined by previously seeing a role model behaving aggressively – who is then also rewarded for this behaviour – this is a problem as it removes responsibility of aggressive behaviour away from the individual which creates a problem with justice
• Determinism

  -          Psychic determinism – Freud’s theory of personality suggest that that adult behaviour is determined by a mix of innate drives and early experiences and these result in unconscious conflicts over which we have no control over – therefore our behaviour is determined by unconscious forces so although we think we are in control experiences in early childhood will have influenced our unconscious
• Determinism

  An example of psychic determinism would be the psychodynamic explanation for gender identity disorder – which explains that a failure to move through the Oedipus complex or Electra complex leads to gender identity disorder – this is an issue as it puts the blame on the family and a weak mother as the cause of the disorder
• Free will

  -          Each individual has the power to make there own choices about their behaviour without it being determined by internal and external forces beyond their control – which is a common feature of the humanistic approach
• Free will

  -          Maslow and roger argued self-determinism was a necessary part of human behaviour without it healthy self-development and healthy self , self-actualisation are not possibleRodgers argued if an individual remains controlled by others or other things they cannot take responsibility for their behaviour and therefore cannot change it
• Free will

  Moral responsibility

  -          The basis of moral responsibility is that an individual is in charge of their own actions so can exercise there free will
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  Moral responsibility

  -          Law state children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility but other than that the assumption is that ‘normal’ adult behaviour is self-determined
• Moral responsibility

  -          Overall humans are accountable for their actions regardless of innate factors or influences of early experiences
• Importance of scientific research

  -          Scientific research is based on the believe that all events have cause enables us to give casual explanations
• Importance of scientific research

  -          The concept of free will does not allow for casual explanations to be made as the outcome in response to an event it not predictable
• Importance of scientific research

  -          To test specific causes of behaviour the laboratory method is sued whereby all extraneous variable are controlled and an IV is manipulated and DV is measures and means any difference in the DV are due to IV so cause and effect can be established and we can develop casual explanation
• Importance of scientific research

  -          Determinism is all about establishing what causes behaviour and in order to prove that x causes this behaviour (y behaviour) we need evidence form scientific experiments