free will and determinism Flashcards
what is free will
we are able to have some choice in how we act and assumes that we are free to choose our behaviour
what research has suggested that someone has free will
valentine address that there are 3 ways someone can exhibit free will
1) person could have behaved differently in the same circumstances, the person had a real choice
2) no force ore coercion and a persons actions aren’t constrained by external events
3) voluntarily undertaken
evidence for the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behaviour
Penfield’s
aim: stimulate the motor cortex (part of somatic nervous system- controls the voluntary contraction of our muscles leads to movement) patients about to undergo brain surgery
method/findings : we voluntarily move our limbs and feeling that their arm leg moved passively/different than initiating the movement themselves
concl: suggests voluntary movement of one’s limbs cannot be reduced to the stimulation of the approp brain region
what is determinism
the view that free will is an illusion, and that our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control over
types of determinism: environmental determinism (behaviourist approach)
is the view that behaviour is determined or caused by forces outside the individual
types of determinism: physic determinism (psychodynamic approach )
claims that human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives
types of determinism: biological determinism (biological approach)
refers to the idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by genes
‘will’ is reactance
mostly common in situations where pressures to conform or obey lead in fact to independent behaviour “don’t tell me what to do”
but this might be linked to personality traits that may be inherited so these behaviours could be biologically determined instead not free will
what do we mean if something is determined
-when its involuntary and not initiated or controlled by your conscious mind
-when there are constraints
- no other viable option given the cicumstance (then behaviour is not from choice)
what is hard determinism (spectrum of determinism)
- when in a given situation, a behaviour will arise that is driven by our biology, conditioning and unconscious
( behaviourist, psychodynamic, biological approach) - suggest all events and behaviour can be completely described and predicted with no role for personal decision making (Free will
what is soft determinism (spectrum of determinism)
Soft determinists suggest there is still some role for conscious
decision making as an expression of free will but behaviour is largely shaped by deterministic factors.
what’s a good technique for studying brain activity
ERP (event related potential) the participants repeat the same action many times while they record from specific parts of the brain. then distilled into a clear pattern of brain activity that occurs when this ‘event’ happens
example of the environmental approach (behaviourist)
operant conditioning= +ve and -ve punishment/reinforcement
classical conditioning (NS and UCS)
2 process model
example of physic determinism
Freuds psychosexual stages parents are responsible
defence mechanism: repression, denial, displacement
born with and id
Psychosexual developmental stages
libido and Thanatos-drives
hard determinism no input and not voluntarily undertaken
physic determinism
our experience at the phallic stage of development helps us to determine our gender through associating with the same sex role model
