Free will and determinism

• Hard determinism


  Sometimes referred to as fatalism - suggests all humans behaviour has cause and should be possible to identify and describe these causes

  Assumes everything we do is dictated by internal or external forces that we cannot control
• Soft determinism 


  William James first put forward soft determinism - position later became imprtant feautre of the cognitive approach

  Said while may be job of scientists to determine our behaviour this does not detract from freedom we have to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations
• Biological determinism 


  Biological approach

  eg autonomic nervous system on the stress response or influence of genes on mental health
• Environmental determinism 


  Skinner - free will is an illusion and argued all behaviour is result of conditioning, although we might think we are acting independently our experience of choice is merely sum total of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives
• Psychic determinism 


  Freud also believed free will is an illusion but emphasised influence of biological drives and instincts - saw human behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood

  no such thing as an accident - even slip of the tongue can be explained by influence of the unconcious
• Scientific emphasis on causal explanations


  One of the basic principles of science is that every event in the universe has cause and that causes can be explained using general laws (hard determinism)

  Knowledge of causes and formulation of laws important as they allow scientics to predict and control events in the future

  In psychology lab experiment is ideal of science as it enables researchers to demonstrate causal relationships
• Free will 


  Humanistic is the only approach that thinks we have full free will
• S: Practical value 


  Common sense view is that we excercise free choice in daily lives on daily basis.

  Even if this not true thinking we excercise free choice can improve our mental health

  Roberts et al looked at adolescents who had strong belief in fatalism - study found they were at greater risk of developing depression - people who exhibit an external locus of control are less likley to be optimistic

  --> suggests even if we do not have free will, fact we believe we do may have positive impact on mind and behaviour
• Research evidence 


  Libet instructed participants to choose random moment to flick their wrist while he measured activity in their brain

  Participants had to say when they felt the conscious will to move - libet found that unconscious brain activity leading up to conscious decision to move came around half a second before the participant consciously felt they had decided to move.

  May be interpreted as meaning even our most basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain before we are aware of them
• W: The law 


  Hard determinist stance is that individual choice is not the cause of behaviour - this is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates

  In court of law offenders held responsible for their actions

  --> In real world determinist arguments do not work