Free will vs determinism

• Free will: The notion that humans can make choices and their behavior/thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces.
• Determinism: The view that an individual's behavior is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual's will to do something.
• Hard determinism: The view that all behavior is caused by something (internal or external factors), free will is an illusion.
• Soft determinism: The view that behavior may be predictable but there is also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities (restricted free will).
• Biological determinism: The belief that behavior is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we can't control.
• Environmental determinism: The belief that behavior is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and punishment) that we cannot control.
• Psychic determinism: The belief that behavior is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we cannot control.
• Free will implies that humans are able to reject forces which may compel us to make a different choice. This is advocated for by the humanistic approach.
• Two types of determinism: Hard and soft
• Soft determinism is an important feature of the cognitive approach. Even though it helps to understand what determines our behavior it doesn't deny the freedom we have to make choices in day to day life.
• Further types of determinism: Biological, environmental and psychic.
• Biological determinism emphasizes the role of our biology in behavior such as the influence of the autonomic nervous system on stress responses.
• B.F Skinner described free will as an illusion and argued all behavior is due to conditioning (environmental factors). Choice is merely a thing of reinforcement that has happened during our lives.
• Freud believed free will is also an illusion as he saw human choices to be governed by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood. He beloved there is no such thing as an accident and even a 'slip of the tongue' is due to the unconscious.