Free Will and Determinism Flashcards
What is the debate
Is our behaviour a matter of free will or are we the product of internal and/or external influences
Most approaches in Psychology are deterministic but disagree on the cause of human behaviour
Key concepts of the debate
- Free will
- Determinism
- Types of determinism
- Science and causes/explanations
Types of determinism
Biological determinism: The biological approach describes many causes of behaviour ie the influence of the autonomic nervous system on stress or the influence on mental health
Environmental determinism: Skinner described free will as an ‘illusion’ and all behaviour is the result of conditioning.
Psychic determinism: Freud emphasised the influence of biological drives and unconscious conflicts as repressed in childhood.
Science and determinism
Science seeks to find casual explanations where one thing is determined by another
Lab experiments allowed researchers to simulate the conditions of the test and remove all over extraneous variable to demonstrate a causal event
The concepts of free will and determinism
The notion of free will suggests human are free to make choices
There are biological and environmental influences on the behaviour - but free will implies we can reject them. This is the view of the humanistic approach.
Determinism: Hard determinism (fatalism) suggests that all human action has a cause, and it should be possible to identify these casues
Soft determinism: suggests that all human action has a cause but people have freedom to make choices within a restricted range of opinions
Evaluation points for the topic
Strength: free will has practical value
Limitations: evidence does not support free will
Determinism is the role of responsibility in law
Extra: Do we want determinism?
Tell me about the evaluation point on free will having practical value
Roberts et al (2000) looked at adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism that their lives were ‘decided; by events outside of their control
They were at greater risk of developing depression. People who exhibit an internal, rather than external locus of control, are more likely to be optimisitc
This suggests that even if we do not have free will, the fact that we believe we do may have a positive impact on our behaviour
Tell me about the limitation that evidence does not support free will
Libet et al (1983) asked participants to randomly flick their wrist and say when they felt the will to move. Brain activity was also measured.
The unconscious brain activity leading to the conscious decision to move came half a second before the participants conscious decision to move
This may be interpreted as meaning that even our most basic experience of free will are actually determined by our brain before we are aware of them
Counterpoint: the fact people made the decision milliseconds before still means they have made the decision to act. Conscious can sometimes be a read out of our unconscious. This suggests this evidence is not appropriate a a challenge to free will.
Tell me about the limitation of determinism and the law
The hard determinist stance is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates. In court, offenders are held responsible for their actions.
The main principles of our legal system us that the defendant exercises their free will in committing the crime.
This suggests that in the real work, determinist arguments do not work.
Tell me about the evaluation point on do we want determinism?
Determinism places psychology on equal footing with other more established sciences and had led to valuable real-world implications such as therapies.
However, free will has intuitive appeal. Most of us see ourselves as making our own choices rather than being pushed by forces that we cannot control. Some people (ie the child of criminal) prefer to think they they are free to self determine.
