free will + determinism

• Determinism

  Belief that behaviour is determined by external or internal forces acting upon an individual that is out of their control
• Types of determinism

  • Biological - behaviour is innate and determined by genes

  Environmental - behaviour is determined by factors outside the individual

  Psychic - behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives
• Free will


  The ability to act at one's own discretion, to choose to behave without being influenced by external forces
• Approaches taking the side of nurture in the nature-nurture debate

  • Behaviourist

  Humanistic

  Social Learning Theory

  Psychodynamic (compromise between nature and nurture)
• Free will


  The idea that we are self-determining - free to choose our thoughts and actions, even if there are biological and environmental influences
• Hard determinism

  All human action has a cause - it should be possible to identify these causes
• Soft determinism

  All human action has a cause but people have conscious mental control over behaviour
• Types of determinism

  • Biological determinism
  • Environmental determinism
  • Psychic determinism
• A basic principle of science is that every event has a cause and can be explained by general laws, which is inline with determinism
• The notion that human behaviour is orderly and obeys laws places psychology on equal footing with other more established sciences, increasing credibility
• Prediction and control of human behaviour has led to development of treatment and therapies (e.g. drug treatments to manage schizophrenia)
• The experience of schizophrenia (loss of control over thoughts and behaviour) suggests some behaviours are determined (i.e. no one 'chooses' to have schizophrenia)
• Determinism as an approach is not falsifiable - based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist even though they may not yet have been found