determinism/free will

• Determinism is the belief that behaviour is determined by internal and external factors, whereby we are not in control of our own actions. There are three types of determinism; environmental, biological and psychic
• Psychic determination — 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 over which we have no control. For example, Freud’s psychosexual stages of development suggests that each stage is characterised by a conflict which, if unresolved, leads to fixation in adulthood e.g. anal expulsive personalities being the result of fixation at the anal stage.
• Environmental determinism — The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience through classical and operant conditioning. i.e. phobias are a result of conditioning, as

  demonstrated by Watson’s study on Little Albert and Skinner’s Box (operant conditioning determining the behaviour of lab rats). These are external forces, over which we have no control.
• Biological determinism — The view that behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, such as the influence of genes. genes which affect brain structure and neurotransmitter production (i.e. serotonin and dopamine) may also determine our behaviour e.g. the CDH-13 and MAOA gene being candidate genes for criminality.
• 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. 
• Soft determinism — A version of determinism that allows for some element of free will and suggests that all events, including human behaviour, has a cause. For example, the cognitive approach suggests that individuals can reason and make decisions within the limits of their cognitive system.
• Free will — Each individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour, without being determined by internal or external forces beyond their control. A common feature of the humanistic approach.
• The importance of scientific research — scientific research is based on the belief that all events have a cause. An independent variable is manipulated to have an effect on the dependent variable. Through repeating the research under controlled conditions (e.g. using a laboratory experiment) and performing statistical tests, a ‘cause and effect’ relationship can be established between two variables. This increases the scientific credibility of Psychology, through enabling the prediction and control of behaviour.
• A03

  + determinism - practical application. Biological determinism has allowed for the development of drugs for serious mental disorders. For example, in schizophrenia, the condition can be explained through having excess dopamine in the brain. To combat this, antipsychotics were developed to block dopamine receptors in the brain. This therefore can help treat large groups of patients with the condition which therefore helps improve their quality of life and ability to re-enter society and contribute to the economy.
• A03

  -However, while this is a benefit, it also can lead to an oversimplification for treating conditions. For example, other factors that affect mental disorders such as stress or trauma will not be correctly targeted through the use of drug therapy to help treat patients. Therefore, this reduces the validity of determinism as it causes individuals to neglect other forms of treatment such as cbt which may help target the condition 
• A03

  -unlikely that there will be an 100% rate of biological determinism. Research found that mz twins have an 80% CR regarding intelligence, and a 40% CR regarding depression. as these rates are not 100% it limits the deterministic approach as it suggests there is more than one factor causing behaviour. Thus, dz twins and siblings share 50% of genetics, however in dz twins they have higher concordance rates. This may be because they are more likely to share the same environment, thus weakening the approach - interactionist approach is needed
• A03

  -Furthermore, another limitation is that determinism allows for justification of behaviour. Determinism allows individuals to blame their behaviour on external/internal factors to which they have no control over. This does not comply with judicial practices whereby individuals should take moral reasoning for their actions. Therefore, it has low external validity as doesn’t fit into laws regarding being self-determining and responsible for our actions.
• The Humanistic Approach — Humanistic psychologists argue that self-determinism is a necessary part of human behaviour. Rogers (1959) claimed that as long as an individual remains controlled by other people or other things they cannot take responsibility for their own behaviour and therefore cannot change it. Only when an individual takes self responsibility is personal growth or ‘self-actualisation’ possible. By taking such a stance, humanism has been praised as a positive approach, essentially seeing people as good and free to ‘better themselves’.
• Moral responsibility — The basis is that an individual is in charge of their own actions. The law states that children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility but other than this, there is an assumption that normal adult behaviour is self determined. Therefore, humans are accountable for their behaviour regardless of innate factors or early experience.
• + Free will has high internal validity — Robert et al. found that adolescents with an internal locus of control (an individual’s idea of what controls events in their lives) are less likely to develop depression and are more likely to have better mental health, compared to those with an external locus of control. These differences in LOC and mental health states supports the idea that free will can be used to help us determine what controls our life events, and so we make such conscious decisions.
• — Illusion of free will — A person may choose to do something but these choices are determined by previous reinforcement contingencies, as suggested by the behaviourist approach. This is a hard deterministic stance.