free will and determinism Flashcards
what is free will?
- the notion that humans can make choices and their behaviour and thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces
- human beings are essentially self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and actions
what does a belief in free will mean about biological and environmental forces?
what does a belief in free will mean about biological and environmental forces?
what is determinism?
the view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something
what is hard determinism?
- sometimes referred to as fatalism
- suggests that all human behaviour has a cause and it should be possible to identify and describe these causes
- assumes that everything we think and do is dicated by internal or external forces that we cannot control
what is soft determinism? (james 1890)
- view that behaviour may be predictable (caused by internal / external factors) but there is also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities (restricted free will)
- scientists can explain what determines our behaviour, but this does not detract from the freedom we have to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations
what is biological determinism?
- the belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control
- biological approach emphasises the role of this in behaviour, such as the infuence of the ANS on stress response or the influence of genes in mental health
- modern biological psychologists would recognise the mediating influence of the environment on our biological structures
what is environmental determinism?
the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (eg. system of reward and punishment) that we cannot control
what did skinner think about free will?
- he described it as an ‘illusion’
- argued that all behaviour is the result of conditioning
- although we might think we are acting independently, but our experience of ‘choice’ is merely the sum total of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives
what is psychic determinism?
the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we cannot control
what did freud think about free will?
- also believed it was an ‘illusion’
- he emphasised the influence of biological drives and instincts
- saw human behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts, repressed in children
- there is no such thing as an accident, even things as seemingly random as a ‘slip of the tongue’ can be explained by the influence of the unconscious
describe the scientific emphasis on causal explanations
- one of the basic principles of science is that every event in the universe has a cause and that cause can be explained using general laws (hard determinism)
- knowledge of causes and the formulation of laws are important as they allow scientists to predict and control events in the future
- in psychology, the lab experiment is the ideal of science as it enables researchers to demonstrate causal relationships
evaluation: free will has practical value, unlike determinism
- even if we don’t exercise free choice in our everyday lives on a daily basis, thinking we do can improve our mental health
- it seems that people who exhibit an external, rather than internal, LOC are less likely to be optimistic
- this suggests that, even if we do not have free will, the fact that we believe we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour
evaluation: real-world application (roberts et al. 2000)
adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism were at a significantly greater risk of developing depression
evaluation: brain scan evidence supports determinism (libet et al. 1983)
- instructed pts to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured activity in their brain
- pts had to say when they felt the conscious will to move
- libet found that the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision to move came around 0.5s before the pt consciously felt they had decided to move
- this may be interpreted as meaning that even our most basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain before we are aware of them
evaluation: libet’s findings are unsurprising
- they only know that the brain is involved in decision making, which is just as we would expect
- just because the action comes before the conscious awareness of the decision to act, doesn’t mean there was no decision to act, just that the decision to act took time to reach consciousness
- this suggests this evidence is not appropriate as a challenge to free will
evaluation: limitation of determinism is the position of the legal system on responsibility
- the hard determinist stance, that individual choice is not the cause of behaviour, is not consistent with the way our legal system operates
- in a court of law, offenders are held responsible for their actions
- the main principle of our legal system is that a defendant exercised their free will in committin the crime
- this suggests that, in the real world, determinist arguments do not work
evaluation: free will has an intuitive appeal
- most of us see ourselves as making our own choices rather than being pushed by forces we cannot control
- free will may also be liberating as people who not have to ‘accept their fate’
> eg. if they come from a criminal background or there is mental disorder in their family
