AO1- Free Will and Determinism

• Free will suggests that as human beings, we are free to choose our behaviours, thoughts and actions. Although there may be external (environmental) or internal (biological) forces that can impact this choice, free will believes we have the ability to reject these pressures and self-determine our own destiny

  • For example, the humanist approach believes we have free will because we choose to have congruence or choose to self actualise
• Determinism argues that all behaviour is controlled and caused by external and/or internal factors and individuals have no free will over their behaviour

  • For example, the biological explanation of schizophrenia suggests that an individual becomes vulnerable to schizophrenia due to the inheritance of the PCM-1 gene
• One type of determinism is hard determinism
• Hard determinism:

  • All behaviour is a result of external and/or internal causes that we cannot control as individuals
  • Free will does not play a role, so individuals do not have any choice in the behaviour they display
• An example of hard determinism is developing OCD

  • It is believed that an individual's vulnerability to developing OCD is caused by internal factors such as the inheritance of a mutated SERT gene which causes anxiety
• Another type of determinism is soft determinism
• Soft determinism:

  • All human behaviour is a result of external and/or internal causes, yet as individuals we also have the ability to make conscious decisions about what we want in life, which can also impact human behaviour
• An example of soft determinism is social learning theory

  • In SLT, we learn behaviour through observing a model and imitating them, however our thought processes must play a role as to whether or not we identify someone as a role model or not
• One type of hard determinism is biological determinism:

  • Human behaviour is controlled by biological factors such as genetics, hormones and evolution
  • For example, addiction to a substance/behaviour can be encouraged through lower levels of D2 receptors
• One type of hard determinism is environmental determinism:

  • Human behaviour is controlled by external factors within individuals' surroundings such as parents, society, schools and peers, e.g. reinforcements and punishments
  • For example, an infant learns to attach to their caregiver via stimulus, response and association with the food provided
• One type of hard determinism is psychic determinism:

  • Human behaviour is controlled by unconscious conflict within the mind, which have been repressed from early childhood
  • For example, an anxious personality could be caused by an overactive superego (morality principle)
• Why deterministic research is helpful for psychology as a science:

  • Can establish cause and effect as we are controlled by internal/external factors
  • Measure using controlled lab settings/brain scans, etc. - there is high control
  • High control means there is high control over extraneous variables, it is more certain that the IV has impacted the DV
  • Therefore we can create general laws about behaviour - these can treat people