Free Will And Determinism Flashcards
What does the free will-determinism debate asks?
Whether behaviour is a matter of free will or if we are the product of a set of internal/external influences that determine who we are and what we do.
What are most approaches in psychology?
Determinist to some extent however different approaches disagree on what the precise causes of human behaviour is. E.g. the biological approach suggests the causes are internal whereas the behaviourist approach suggests they are external.
What does the humanistic approach embrace?
Free will.
What does free will suggest?
Humans are self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and actions.
What does a belief in free will imply?
That we are able to reject biological forces if we wish too because we are in control of our thoughts/ behaviour.
What approach advocates free will?
The humanistic approach.
What does determinism propose?
Free will has no place in explaining behaviour though there are hard and soft versions.
What is hard determinism referred to as and what does this suggest?
Fatalism which suggests all human behaviour has a cause and it should be possible to identify and describe these causes.
What does hard determinism assume?
That everything we think and do is dictated by internal/ external forces that we cant control.
What did William James put forward?
Soft determinism - which later became important in the cognitive approach.
What did James think?
That it may be scientists job to explain what determines behaviour which doesn’t detract from the freedom we have to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations.
what does the biological approach emphasise?
The role of biological determinism in behaviour e.g. the influence of the autonomic nervous system on the stress response or the influence of genes on mental health.
What would modern biological psychologists recognise?
Mediating influence of environment on our biological structures.
How does Skinner describe free will?
As an illusion and argued all behaviour is the result of conditioning.
What did Freud believe free will was?
An illusion but emphasised the influence of biological drives and instincts.
How did Freud see human behaviour?
Determined by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood.
What is one basic principle in science?
Every event in the universe has a cause and that causes can be explained using general laws.
Why is knowledge of causes and the formulation of laws important?
They allow scientists to predict and control events in the future.
What is the lab experiment in psychology?
The ideal of science as it enables researchers to demonstrate casual relationships - it is like the test tube used in other sciences where all variables can be controlled.
Evaluation: practical value
Roberts et al looked at adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism and found these adolescents were significantly at greater risk of developing depression. It appears people who exhibit an external rather than internal locus of control are less likely to be optimistic. This suggests that even if we do not have free will the fact we believe we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour.
Evaluation: brain scan evidence doesn’t support it but does support determinism
Libet et al instructed participants to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured brain activity in their brain. Ppts had to say when they felt conscious will to move. Libet found that the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision to move came around half a second before the participant consciously felt they had to decide to move. This could be interpreted to mean that even basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain before we aware of them.
Evaluation: the position of the legal system on the responsibility
The hard determinist stance is individual choice isn’t the cause of behaviour. This isn’t consistent with the way in which our legal system operates. In a court offenders are held responsible for their actions. The main principle of our legal system is that a defendant exercised their free will in committing the crime. This suggests that in the real world determinist arguments don’t work.
Evaluation: Research shows the brain is involved in decision making
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 isn’t appropriate to challenge free will
