5. Free Will And Determinism AO1

Question 1

What is free-will?

Answer 1

The idea that we are self-determining

Question 2

What does free-will suggest?

Answer 2

Human beings are free to choose their thoughts and actions

Question 3

What does free-will state that there is

Answer 3

There are biological and environmental influences on our behaviour but free will implies we can reject them - humanistic approach

Question 4

What is hard determinism?

Answer 4

All human action has a cause - it should be possible to identify these causes.

Compatible to science suggesting what we do is dictated by internal or external forces we cannot control

Question 5

What is soft determinism?

Answer 5

All human action has a cause but people have conscious mental control over behaviour

Question 6

What is biological determinism

Answer 6

Control from physiological, genetic and hormonal processes

Question 7

What does the biological approach suggest (1)?

Answer 7

Physiological processes are not under conscious control

Question 8

What does the biological approach suggest (2)?

Answer 8

Genetic factors may determine many behaviours and characteristics (mental disorders)

Question 9

What does the biological approach suggest (3)?

Answer 9

Hormones determine behaviour (e.g. Testosterone in aggression)

Question 10

What is environmental determinism

Answer 10

We are determined by conditioning

Question 11

What popularised environmental determinism?

Answer 11

The behaviourist approach

Question 12

What did skinner suggest about free will?

Answer 12

It’s an illusion an argued all behaviour is a result of conditioning

Question 13

What is our experience of choice?

Answer 13

The sum of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives

Question 14

What is said to shape our behaviour

Answer 14

Environmental events and agents of socialisation (parents, teachers etc)

Question 15

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 15

We are directed by unconscious conflicts

Question 16

What did Freud suggest?

Answer 16

Like skinny, thought free will is an illusion but placed emphasis on biological drives and instincts - underpinning psychological responses rather than conditioning

Question 17

How does Freud’s psychic determinism see behaviour?

Answer 17

As determined and directed by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood (e.g. Slip of the tongue is intended by unconscious)

Question 18

What does science seek to find?

Answer 18

Causal explanations where one thing is determined by another

Question 19

What is a basic principle of science

Answer 19

Every event has a cause and these can be explained by general laws, knowledge of these allows scientists to predict and control events

Question 20

What does a lab experiment do in psychology?

Answer 20

Let’s researchers stimulate conditions of the test and remove all extraneous variables to demonstrate a casual effect