Determinism

Question 1

Determinism

Answer 1

• Free will has no place in explaining behaviour although there are hard and soft positions of determinism

Question 2

Hard determinism

Answer 2

• Holds that human beings, like all other things constrained by physical laws have no free will.
• Once science has understood all the possible causes that influence thoughts and actions it should be possible to predict any behaviour in any given situatuion.
• No such thing as free will

Question 3

Soft Determinism

Answer 3

• Takes the line that although we cannot deny there are internal and external forces affecting our thoughts and actions, we are still capable of exercising free will in some circumstances.
• Biology and learning are impossible to ignore but soft determinism recognises the subjective feeling of control that we experience as humans and accepts that this is a form of free wil

Question 4

Biological determinism

Answer 4

• Behaviour is controlled by our genes, brain physiology and biochemistry
• Role of genes and their effects on behaviour are still being discovered but it seems that it is hard to deny that much of our behaviour is not under conscious control.

Question 5

Example of biological determinism

Answer 5

• Fight or flight response is controlled by the ANS not conscious choice
  Genes and NTs such as dopamine are known to be significant factors in schizophrenia
• Raine found differences in the brain structure of murderers compared to non murderers

Question 6

Environmental Determinism

Answer 6

• Behaviourists deny free will believing that all behaviours are determined by external forces in the environment

Question 7

Example of environmental determinism

Answer 7

• Classical and operant conditioning show how associations and consequences of actions can shape our behaviour so that it becomes predictable in the future.
• Skinner believed that free will is an illusion and what we believe to be choice is the sum total of our reinforcement history
• The fact we are unaware of this reinforcement history makes us believe we are making choices

Question 8

Psychic Determinism

Answer 8

• Freud psychodynamic approach emphasises the role of the unconscious in determining behaviour and denies the role of free will
• Unconscious drives direct sexual and aggressive behaviour

Question 9

Example of Psychic Determinism

Answer 9

• Freudian slips are common when people accidentally use vulgar or sexual words.
• Freud argue that these are intentionally caused by the id revealing desires that we have no control over
• Our personality is formed as a result of innate drives and early experiences neither of which we can control and fixation during psychosexual development causes our personalty to be permanently fixed for life

Question 10

Evaluation of Determinism - The drugs work

Answer 10

• Fact that many psychotheraputic drug treatments work so successfully adds weight to biological determinism
• The drugs work by altering abnormal levels of neurochemicals. Abnormal levels of neurochemicals are assumed to be biologically predetermined.
• Strength - suggests some illnesses are determined by biology

Question 11

However - the drugs work

Answer 11

• Only one third of people with depression benefit from their prescribed antidepressant. No way to predict whether or not a specific treatment will work for a person.
• Most effective treatment is currently identified through a process of trial and error until the right fit is found

Question 12

Evaluation of Determinism - Soft Determinism

Answer 12

• May provide us with the best compromise in the debate
• Bandura SLT has a cognitive element and adopts a soft determinism approach
• Argued that although environmental factors in learning are key we are free to choose who or what to pay attention to and when to perform certain behaviours.
• Strength - interactionist approach allows for a certain amount of freedom of choice in behaviour. takes into account free will

Question 13

However - soft determinism

Answer 13

• If psychology moves away from deterministic position and takes view that behaviour is the result of free will then psychology as a science is pointless.
• If humans have free will it ensures that prediction becomes impossible if we accept that humans are somehow unique in an otherwise deterministic universe
• Support for determinism as without it psychology as a scientific discipline will no longer exist.

Question 14

Scientific Emphasis on causal explanations

Answer 14

• Psychology is a science as it uses scientific methods to find causal explanations for thoughts and behaviour
• Psychologists aim to explain and predict behaviour and use experiments to show causes of behaviour
• Human beings are physical things in the universe so they must be equally subject to cause and effect explanations as the rules of physics apply to all things.
• Researchers control an IV to see its effect on the DV and conclude that one caused the other.
• Scientific assumption is that all behaviour is caused or determined by something

Question 15

Example of causal explanations

Answer 15

• Loftus and Palmer research manipulated the verb used in the critical question to measure the effect on the participants estimate of speed
• In bandura bobo doll experiment he changed the condition in which the children were exposed to examine the effect on the behaviour of the children