determinism Flashcards
A01
define determinsim
Determinism — The belief that behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual and beyond their control.
There are 3 types of determinism:
biological, environmental and psychic.
A01
Define biological determinism
Biological determinism — The view that behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, e.g influence of genes.
the CDH-13 and MAOA gene being candidate genes for criminality.
Enviromental determinism
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.
Psychic determinsim
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
A01
Hard determinism
Hard determinism — The view that all behaviour can be predicted, according to the action of internal & external forces beyond our control, and so there can be no free will.
For example, behaviourism suggests that all behaviour is the product of classical and operant conditioning, the biological approach sees behaviour as the product of genes and neurochemistry, whilst social learning theory suggests that behaviour is the product of vicarious reinforcement and mediational processes.
Soft determinism
example cognitive approach
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
outline The importance of scientific research
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 is unfalsifiable
Limitation
Limitation of determinism is the fact that it is unfalsifiable.
Unfalsifiable means that it cannot be proved wrong, which is a benchmark of science.
Determinism makes the assumption that behaviours are based on past events or causes, which may or may not be discovered.
A03
strength of determinism is that it is consistent with the aims of science
searching for casual explanations has allowed for therapies, treatments & behavioural interventions to be introduced. e.g use of clozapine as a drug treatment for SZ patients
A03
A determinist position may be used for people to try and justify behaviours if they have
committed a crime.
This would be undesirable as it excuses their behaviour. Therefore,
a hard deterministic stance is not in line with the principles of the judicial system, which sees individuals as taking moral responsibility for their actions. Determinism has also led to treatment methods for mental disorders, such as depression through the control of serotonin by using SSRIs and SNRIs. However, this biological deterministic approach does not allow the use of other treatments which are not based on biological mechanisms, such
as CBT
