issues and debates

• free will 


  Views humans are essentially self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and actions

  Views humans are essentially self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and actions

  A belief in free will does not deny that there may be biological and environment forces that exerts some influence on behaviour, but nevertheless implies that we are able to reject these forces if we wish because we are in control of our thoughts/ behaviour

  Free will is a view of behaviour that is advocated by the humanistic approach
• determinism

  The idea that there is no control or choice on our course of action

  Determinants of our behaviour come from a combination of sources such as biology, learning and unconscious thought

  Due to years of debate and also in part due to the progression of psychological research, determinism has altered from an extreme stance to varying degrees of determinism hard and soft
• hard determinism 


  This is sometimes referred to as fatalism and suggests that all human behaviour has a cause and in principle it should be possible to identify and describe these causes

  Such a position always assumes that everything we think and do is dictated by internal or external forces that we cannot control

  Methods- laboratory experiments, high controls, quantitative methods
• soft determinism 


  The philosopher William James (1890)put forward a position became an important feature of the cognitive approach

  thought that whilst it may be the job of scientists to explain what determines our behaviour not detract from the freedom we have to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations

  Acknowledges that all humans action has a cause it also suggests some room for conscious control over the way they behave

  Methods- content analysis, interviews, qualitative methods, observations
• biological determinism 


  the biological approach emphasises the role of biological determinism in behaviour

  many of your physiological and neurological processes are not under our conscious control- such as the influence of the autonomic nervous system during periods of stress and anxiety

  lots of behaviours and characteristics such as mental disorders are thought to have a genetic bases and research has demonstrated the effect of hormones- such as the role of testosterone in aggressive behaviour

  genetic, brain physiology, biochemistry
• genetic determinism 


  evolution and genetics- no gene has been identified that means behaviour will definitely occur

  twin studies have not shown 100% concordance aggression and schizophrenia

  therefore a hard deterministic standpoint cannot be proven so soft determinism accepted
• brain physiology 


  areas of localisation suggest certain areas in the brain affect behaviour, therefore damage could effect behaviour

  a girl had a tumour in limbic system was becoming increasingly violent and once removed aggression subsided

  supports hard determinism
• biochemistry 


  the dopamine hypothesis in schizophrenia have shown a relationship between biochemistry and behaviour

  however determinism can be reduced through medication (choice to take)
• psychic determinism 


  Freud, agreed that free will is like an illusion but placed more emphasis on the influence of biological drives and instincts than behaviourists

  his particular brand of determinism sees human behaviour as determined and directed by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood

  there is no such thing as an accident, according to Freud and even something as seemingly random or slip of the tongue (parapaxes) can be explained by the underlying authority of the unconscious
• environmental determinism 


  BF Skinner described free will as an illusion and argued that all of beahviour is the result of conditioning

  our experience of choice is because of reinforcement that have acted upon us

  we might think we are acting independently but our behaviour has been shaped by environmental events as well as agents of socialisation- parents, teachers etc

  social psychology, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning theory
• social psychology 


  environment shapes obedience/ conformity
• classical conditioning 


  external trigger prompts behaviour had determinism
• operant conditioning 


  consequences make behaviour more or lass likely to occur soft determinism
• social learning theory 


  arguably soft determinism (reciprocal determinism)

  more likely to imitate the behaviour byt your cognition allows for choice it does not automatically occur
• biological determinism has had hugely useful applications


  Eg the development of treatments

  As we are able to predict and control human behaviour in a scientific manner, therapies for OCD such as anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs can be effective
• determinism also has some research support

  Libet et al (1983)

  Recorded EEG activity in motor areas of brain before the person had a conscious to move their finger

  Suggesting that the choice was only a read-out of a pre-determined action

  fMRI studies have since found activity in the prefrontal cortex can happen up to 10 seconds before the decision

  However, Trevena and Miller (2009) suggested that the brain activity is simply a readiness to act rather than an intention to move
• determinism is compatible with our notions of legal responsibility 


  Criminals are held to be personally and morally accountable for their actions

  few individuals would represent themselves in court by trying to appeal to a judge that their behaviour was biologically, environmentally or physically determined

  Only in extreme circumstances are juries instructed to act with greater leniency- eg when the Law of Diminished Responsibility is applied

  This comes into play when, for various reasons a defendant is assumed not acted of their own free will eg self-defence and psychological disorders
• thinking we have free will can improve our mental health

  Roberts et al (2000) looked at teens who had a strong belief in fatalism

  The study found that these teens were at significantly greater risk of developing depression

  It seems that people who exhibit and external, rather than internal, locus of control are less likely to be optimistic

  A positive relationship has also been found between perceived free will and job satisfaction (Feldman et al 2018)
• the humanistic approach and free will

  The concept of free will was central to Roger's client-centred therapy in that [people are seen as being free to change their lives by choosing to see their situation differently

  Having removed the psychological barriers that may be preventing personal growth, people are free to work towards their potential (self actualisation)
• cultural variations in perceived free will

  Whilst there are many similarities in the perception of free will across cultures, some key differences have been found in relation to autonomy

  Eg individualist cultures such as North America tend to assume greater free will and autonomy than more collectivist cultures like many Asian cultures (Gopnik and Kushnir 2014)

  believing in free will in cultures that value the concept of free will might give greater benefits if it does have a social purpose

  This was consistent across a number of different cultures