Free will and determinism

Question 1

What is free will?

Answer 1

Assumes that humans are free to choose their behaviour, and that influences can be rejected at will.

Question 2

What is determinism?

Answer 2

The view that an individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individuals will to do something.

Question 3

What is hard determinism?

Answer 3

Behaviour is caused by events outside an individuals control and that free will is an illusion.

Question 4

What is soft determinism?

Answer 4

All behaviour has a cause but there is room for manoeuvre in that people have conscious mental control over their behaviour.

Question 5

What is biological determinism?

Answer 5

Behaviour is caused by internal, biological factors, e.g. genes or hormones.

Question 6

What is environmental determinism?

Answer 6

Behaviour is caused by past experience and controlled by external factors in the environment, e.g. reinforcement, punishment.

Question 7

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 7

Unconscious forces and innate drives control behaviour.

Question 8

State support for determinism.

Answer 8

• Consistent with the aims of science.
• The notion that human behaviour is orderly and obey s laws places psychology on an equal footing with other more established sciences.
• Value of such research led to the development of treatment, therapies and behavioural interventions.

Question 9

State a criticism of determinism.

Answer 9

• Hard: that individual choice is not the cause of behaviour but this is not consistent with the legal system which places individuals with moral accountability for their actions.
• Determinism = unfalsifiable.
• Determinism is based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist, even though they may not have been found yet so impossible to prove wrong.

Question 10

State a support for free will.

Answer 10

• Research has suggested that people with an internal LOC tend to be more mentally healthy.
• Roberts study: demonstrated that adolescents with a strong belied that their lives were ‘decided’ by events outside their control were at significantly greater risk o developing depression.
• Suggests that even if we do not have free will, the fact that we think we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour.

Question 11

State a criticism of free will.

Answer 11

• Neurological studies as a counter-argument.
• Libert and Soon found that the activity related to whether to press a button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain up to 10 seconds before participants reported being consciously aware of making the decision.