free will and determinism

• Free will

  The notion that humans can make choices and their behaviour/thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces
• Determinism

  The view that an individual's behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual's will to do something
• Hard determinism

  The view that all behaviour is caused by something (internal or external factors), so free will is an illusion
• Soft determinism

  The view that behaviour may be predictable (caused by internal/external factors) but there is also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities (restricted free will)
• Biological determinism

  The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control
• Environmental determinism

  The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and punishment) that we cannot control
• Psychic determinism

  The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we cannot control
• the free will-determinism debate

  • biological approach - internal
  • behaviourist approach - external
  • humanistic approach - embraces concept of free will
• AO3 free-will - strength

  P: free will has practical value

  E: Roberts - looked at adolescents who strongly believed in fatalism (lives decided outside their control). Adolescents were at signif. greater risk of developing depression

  E: people who exhibit external locus of control are less likely to be optimistic and decreases their mental health

  L: Even if we don't have free will the fact we believe it may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour
• AO3 free will - limitation

  P: brain scan evidence does not support it but does support determinism

  E: Libet - instructed ppts to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured activity in their brain

  ppts had to say when they felt the conscious will to move -> unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision to move came around half a second before the ppts decided to move

  L: most basic experiences of free will are actually determine by our brain before we are aware of them
• AO3 determinism - limitation

  p: is the position of the legal system of responsibility

  E: hard determinism = individual choice is not the cause of behaviour

  court of law - offenders are held responsible for their actions - exercised free will in committing the crime

  L: in real-world determinist arguments do not work
• key concepts free will

  • self-determining
  • free to choose thoughts and actions
  • does not deny there may be biological and environmental forces that exert influence but implies that we reject these forces
  • humanistic approach
• key concepts hard determinism

  • fatalism
  • all human behaviour has cause that we can identify and describe
  • dictated by internal or external forces that we cannot control
• key concepts soft determinism

  • cognitive approach
  • humans can make rational conscious choices
• key concepts biological determinism

  • biological approach
  • e.g autonomic nervous system on the stress response
• key concepts environmental determinism

  • e.g Skinner - free will is an illusion and argued all behaviour is the result of conditioning
  • reward and punishment influences behaviour
• key concepts psychic determinism

  • e.g freud - free will is an illusion and emphasises the influence of biological drives and instincts
  • human behaviour - unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood
  • no such things as an accident e.g slip of the tongue
• The scientific emphasis on causal explanations (free will v determinism)

  science = every event in the universe has a cause and that causes can be explained using general laws - allows scientists to predict and control events in the future

  psychology = lab experiment is the ideal of science as it enables researchers to demonstrate causal relationships