free will and determinism Flashcards
What is free will?
Humans can make choices
Not determined by external forces
Reject these forces
What is determinism?
Behaviour is shaped by forces rather than will
What is hard determinism/fatalism?
All behaviour has a cause
Free will is not possible
Should be possible to identify these causes
What is soft determinism?
James - some room for manoeuvre
Conscious choices on absence of coercion
What are 5 types of determinism?
Hard Soft Biological Environmental Psychic
What is biological determinism?
Behaviour caused by biological influences
Fight or flight response
Hormones and genes
Meditating influence of environment on biology - doubly-determined
What is environmental determinism?
Caused by features of environment
Conditioning, reinforcement
Shaped by agents of socialisation - parents and teachers etc
What is psychic determinism?
Determined by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood
No accidents
What is the relationship of science with causal explanations?
Principle of science - everything has a cause
Knowledge of causes allow scientists to predict future events
Lab experiment enables removal of extraneous variables to predict behaviour
Evaluation - the case for determinism
Consistent with aims of science
Places psychology as real science
Control of behaviour = treatment eg schizophrenia drug treatment
Schizophrenia - people lose control over thought, casting doubt on free will
Mental illness is determined
Evaluation - case against determinism
Hard determinism means criminals would not be held accountable
Unfalsifiable - causes exist but have not been found
Not as scientific as it first appears
Evaluation - case for free will
Face validity - we appear to make our own choices
People with internal LOC are more mentally healthy
Roberts - adolescents with belief in fatalism had greater risk of depression
Evaluation - case against free will
Libet and Soon - brain activity predates knowledge of making choices
Press button with left or right hand - brain activity related to decision occurred 10 seconds before pps were aware of decision
Evaluation - compromise
SLT - soft determinism
Environmental factors in learning are key
Free to choose when to perform behaviour
Reciprocal determinism
