Free will and determinism

• Biological determinism = Genes influence behaviours

  • Eg the MAOA-L gene which influences aggressive behaviour
• Environmental determinism = All behaviour is due to past experiended (via classical conditioning, operant conditioning or SLT)

  • Eg acquiring phobias
• Psychic determinism = adult behaviour is determined by innate drives and early experiences

  • Eg Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages
• Scientific determinsm = all events have a cause due to manipulation of an IV to measure the effect of a DV

  • Eg Harlows monkey experiment
• Undesirable consequences - are all criminals actions set in stone?
• Libet et al (1983) - EEG activity shows activity in the motor areas of the brain before the person made a conscious decision to do an action
• Chun Siong Chong (2008) - fMRIs show activity 10s before a conscious choice
• Trevena and Miller (2009) - brain activity is just readiness to act
• Applications - such as treatments
• Ethnocentric - the importance of self-determination varies between cultures. More important in individualist societies
• Oversimplistic - free will and determinism can co-exist (soft determinism)