free will and determinism Flashcards
the free will-determinism debate
- is our behaviour a matter of free will or are we the product of a set of internal / external influences that determine who we are and what we do?
- most approaches determinist to some extent, however they disagree on what the precise causes of human behaviour are
free will
- all human beings are essentially self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and actions
- belief in free will does not deny that there may be biological and envrionmental forces, but still implies that we are able to reject these forces if we wish
- advocated by humanistic approach
determinism
- proposes that free will has no place in explaining behaviour
hard determinism - all human behaviour has a cause, should be possible to identify and describe these causes, everything we think and do is dictated by internal and external forces that we cannot control
soft determinism - William James was first to put this forward, important feature of cognitive approach, it may be job of scientists to explain what determines our behaviour but this does not detract from the freedom we have to make rational conscious choices
types of determinism
biological determinism - biological approach emphasises this, such as influence of ANS on stress response or influence of genes on mental health
environmental determinism - Skinner described free will as an illusion, argued that all behaviour is result of conditioning, our experience of choice is just the sum total of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us
psychic determinism - Freud also believed free will is an illusion, emphasised influence of biological drives and instincts, behaviour determined by conflicts repressed in childhood, everything influenced by unconscious
the scientific emphasis on casual explanations
- one basic principle of science is that every event has a cause which can be explained using general laws (hard determinism)
- knowledge of causes and formulation of laws allow scientists to predict and control future events
- lab experiment is ideal of science, enables researchers to demonstrate causal relationships
evaluation strength of free will - practical value and why we need free will
- common-sense view is that we exercise free choice in everyday life
- if this is not the case, thinking that we do exercise free choice can improve mental health
- Roberts looked at adolescents who believed in hard determinism, had higher risk of developing depression
- even just believing we have free will can have positive impact on mind and behaviour
- people need to feel that they are in control of their lives and can make their own choices (humanistic), needed in order to think positively about personal growth and the future (achieving self-actualisation)
- free will also needed to participate successfully in treatments such as CBT, need to take an active role and make decisions
evaluation limitation of free will - research evidence
- limitation is that brain scan evidence does not support free will, but does support determinism
- Libet had participants choose a random moment to flick their wrist, measured activity in brain
- participants had to say when they felt the conscious will to move
- unconscious brain activity leading up to decision came around half a second before the participant felt they had decided to move
- even most basic experiences of free will are determined by brain before we are aware of them
evaluation limitation of determinism - the law
- hard determinist stance is that indivudal choice is not cause of behaviour
- not consistent with the way our legal system operates, in a court offenders are held responsible for their actions
- main principle of legal system is that defendant exercised their free will in committing the crime
- in the real world, determinist arguments do not work
- behaviours are too complex to have a true measure of a deterministic cause, can’t fully falsify
- for some criminals, prison isn’t going to work (eg. if they have a mental health disorder), may benefit from something different such as therapy but we still have to protect the rest of society
- ethical-neuro dilemma
evaluation strength of determinism - benefits of acknowledging determinism
- can establish causal explanations, general laws, specific determined outcome
- can isolate causes and develop specific treatments
- for example, systematic desensitisation based on deterministic principle of classical conditioning
evaluation limitation of free will - link to ideal science
- if behaviour is caused by free will, multiple outcomes are possible so a causal explanation cannot exist
- free will is not consistent with science
- very subjective and it is impossible to isolate an IV and measure a DV
- the humanistic approach acknowledges free will, little research has been conducted from this because it is not consistent with the workings of science
