Free will & determinism

• What is free will ?

  each individual has the power to to make choices about their behaviour

  • voluntary actions and freedom of choice
  • doesn’t ignore biological or environmental factors just states that we have choice to reject them
  • behaviour has no cause and is unpredictable
  • cannot be tested scientifically
• Which approach demonstrates free will ?

  Humanistic-

  control the heirs by of needs

  • whether you reach self actualisation is in your control
• What did Roger’s find - free will ?


  Person centered therapy ?

  • people are free to change their lives by choosing to see the situation differently
  • aims to empower clients to discover their own solutions before making their own choices on how to grow and develop
  • achieve congruence + self actualisation
• What is determinism ?

  no control or choice over our actions

  • behaviojr is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual
  • behaviour is predetermined
  • all behaviour has a cause and is predictable
• What are the 3 types of determinism ?

  1. Biological
  2. enbironmental
  3. psychological
• What is biological determinism ?

  • biology determines our behaviour
  • internal force we can’t control
  • neurological processes not consciously controlled
  • genetic basis /hormones
• Environmental determinism ?

  • behaviour is determined by the environment
  • external force we can’t control
  • reault of reinforcement and behaviour shaped by environmental event
  • classical conditioning
• Psychic determinism ?


  Determined by our unconscious and childhood experiences

  • internal or external forces
  • determined my unconscious conflicts
  • parapraxes of the tongue
  • psychosexual stages
  • innate drives and early experiences
• What are the two types of determinism ?

  1. soft
  2. hard
• What is soft determinism ?

  Humans have free will over their behaviour but some behaviours and predictable and do have A cause/an element of free will e.g aggression
• What is hard determinism ?

  Human behaviour is the result of external or internal dives and actions that are out of our control

  • all behaviour has a cause which should be able to be identified + no free will all is predictable
• What are causal explanations ?

  Scientific research is based on all events having a cause

  • we change the independent variable to see which factors influence behaviour (free will or determinism)
  • to be deterministic must be able to prove behaviour cannot be changed by something within our control
• To explain human behaviour what must happen ?

  • generate a theory and hypothesis
  • use empirical methods
  • applt statistical analysis to see if their prediction is statistically significant or not
• Strengths of free will ?

  • makes cognitive sense as research suggests we have an internal locus of control
  • culturally relative concept only appropriate for individualist societies
• Strengths of determinism ?

  • consistent with the aims of science - predict human behaviour + develop treatments
• Weaknesses of free will ?

  • soon et al - brain activity can be seen up to 10 seconds before a pp declares conscious movements
  • self determinism may be a culturally relative idea
• Weaknesses of determinism ?

  • Hard is not consistent with the way in which our legal system works - offenders held morally accountable
  • my twins aren’t 100% concordance rate
• Which approaches support free will ?

  Humanistic
• Which approaches support soft determinism ?

  • cognitive
  • social learning theory
• Which approaches support hard determinism ?

  • psychodynamic
  • behaviourism
  • biological
• What does doubly determined mean ?

  2 factors control behaviour