free will v determinism

• free will - the belief that humans have the ability to make choices rather than being controlled by ecternal or biological factors
• free will

  humans are self-determining and free to choose how to think and act

  • accepts we are influenced by biological and external factors but assume we can reject these influences and make the decisions ourselves
  • holds the principle we are able to choose our own destiny
  • eg. the humanistic approach
• determinism - human behaviour is controlled by external forces rather than a person's desire
• hard determinism

  all human behaviour has an internal or external cause that we can't control and free will is completely impossible

  • compatible with science as it aims to establish causal laws
  • if all human behaviour is the product of a controlling force we should be able to identify and explain these causes and so behaviour
• soft determinism


  the belief that all human behaviour has causes but humans have the ability to mak esome conscious choices that aren't pre-determined

  • james - scientists must explain the determining forces that control us but it doesn't take away from the freedom to make decisions in everyday life
  • eg. the cognitive approach
• biological determinism

  hard determinist - the perspective that behaviour is entirely caused by biological influences out of our control

  • eg. genetic, hormonal and evolutionary influences
  • there are some psychological processes that aren't under conscious control eg. autonomic nervous system processes
  • several disorders have a genetic basis
  • eg. biological approach and biological explanations for ocd and criminality
• environmental determinism

  hard determinism - behaviour is caused entirely by external forces within the environmen that we can't control

  • includes conditioning, upbringing and family influences
  • skinner - free will is an illusion and the feeling of choice is a consequence of reinforcement
  • eg. behaviourism, and behaviourist explanations of phobias and learning theory of attachment
• psychic determinism


  hard determinism - behaviour is controlled by unconscious conflicts and processes from childhood that we have no control over

  • free will is an illusion and instincts and biological drives we have no control are the determiner of behaviour
  • there is no such thing as an accident due to parapraxes
  • eg. psychodynamic approach, and deficient superego and maternal deprivation as causes of criminality
• the scientific position

  a basic assumption of science is causality, which allows general laws to be established

  • in psychology lab experiments are used to control extraneous variables to establish relationships between variables
  • determinism assumes that behaviour has a cause whereas free will is much harder to measure, so it is favoured by science
• arguements for determinism


  • consistent with scientific aims and gives psychology a good reputation as a science
  • practical application - research shows that we can predict and control human behaviour and so create treatments eg. token economies and antipsychotics/ssris
  • experimental support - experience of mental disorders can support determinism eg. loss of control over thoughts in schizophrenia
  • no one chooses to have a mental illness
• arguements against determinism

  • not consistent with the legal system - offenders are held accountable for their behaviour regardless of biological or environmental factors
  • unfalsifiable - while being most aligned with science, it is impossible to disprove the idea of causes
• arguments for free will

  • face validity - fits with our everyday experiences that make us feel like we have choices
  • social influence research support - people with high external locuses of control are more likely to develop depression
  • even if we lack free will acting like we does has a positive impact on behaviour
• argument against free will

  soon - activity related to decision making occurs in the brain 10 seconds before participants are aware of it

  • free will may be an illusion
• interactionism

  soft determinism is likely the best compromise as it takes both external/biological factors and free will into account

  • external forces are key but we make everyday decisions like what to pay attention to
• reciprocal determinism

  **not on spec** soft determinism - we are influenced by external environment to a high degree but we also have an influence over the environment

  • eg. behaviour is determined by which behaviours are modelled for us, but we choose which behaviours to imitate through the mediational processes and we also model our behaviour for others
  • social learning theory