A01

• determinism

  • belief behaviour is controlled by internal or external factors, beyond an individual’s control.
• hard v soft


  • hard determinism= The view that all behaviour can be predicted, according to the action of internal and external forces beyond our control, and so there can be no free will. eg biological(genes) behaviourist(classical and operant conditioning)
  • soft determinism= allows for some element of free will eg the cognitive approach suggests individual can reason and make desicions within the limits of their cognitive system
• biological determinism

  •  behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control
  •  for example, schizophrenia being caused by excess dopamine in the brain synapses

  OR genes which affect brain structure and neurotransmitter production eg SERT and COMT(depression)
• environmental determinism

  • The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience through classical and operant conditioning. 
  •  i.e., phobias are a result of operant conditioning (little albert)
• psychic determinism

  •  Freud’s theory of personality suggests that adult behaviour is determined by a mix of innate drives and early experience. These result in unconscious conflicts
  • eg freuds psychosexual stages, conflict must be resolved or fixation in adulthood eg anal expulsive