Free will and Determinism Flashcards
What is the free will and determinist debate?
This debate centres around the question of to what extent humans possess free-will and behave and think as they choose to, and to what extent behaviour is determined for us by either:
- Internal, innate biological genetic causes (Biological determinism)
- External, learnt, social and environmental causes (Environmental determinism)
-A mixture of innate drives and early experiences.
(Psychic determinism)
Why can nearly all psychological approaches can be considered determinist?
All sciences, including Psychological are concerned with making predictive statements about cause-effect relationships between variables and are, therefore, in the business of exploring what determines certain behaviours to occur.
What does strict behaviourism argue?
That all behaviours are determined and free-will is an illusion.
What does the humanistic approach allow for a degree of?
Free-will
What is the biological approach?
Argues that behaviour and mental processes are determined by innate, internal structures and processes - the brain, biochemistry and genetics.
Thus, personality - for example, schizophrenia is caused by a genetic predisposition which causes changes in the structure of the brain and levels of neurotransmitters.
What is the behaviourist approach?
Propose that all behaviour is determined by previous learning experiences and interaction with our social environment, and thus human behaviour is entirely a product of its environment.
For example, a phobic learns their phobias from associating a stimulus with fear.
What is the psychodynamic approach?
Aruges that innate structures the (Id, the unconscious mind) combine with external factors (early childhood experiences) to determine behaviour.
For example, personality type os influenced by the conflicting demands of theId (innate) and Super-ego (learnt).
What is the humanistic approach?
Argued that humans had the potential for free-will to plan their own actions and shape their own destiny
How is the free will vs determinism debate of a particular importance in relation to behaviours which harm others or are criminal.
It is important when looking at punishing people whom have committed a crime.
Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 prostitutes from 1976-1980, claimed to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and thus had no control over his behaviours. The judge ruled against this claim, implying that Sutcliffe should take full moral responsibility for his actions (e.g. he acted from free-will).
At a less dramatic level children suffering from ADHD May have criminal behaviour ‘excused’ by their biological condition.
What was the study on Biological or Environmental determinism?
Hutchings 75
Hutchings 75 procedure
Studied over 14,000 adoptions in Denmark. Where neither biological nor adoptive father had a criminal record, the son received a criminal record 10% of the time. This rose to 11% where the adoptive father had a criminal record, 21% where the biological father had one, and 36% where both adoptive and biological father had a criminal record.
What does Hutchings 75 study biological or environmental determinism study suggest?
This study suggests that criminality can be predisposed by both biological and environmental factors, however most of the children did not go onto commit a crime.
It could be argued that although some of the children were biologically and or environmentally predisposed to criminality they exercised their free-will not to commit a crime.
What was the behaviourist that argued free-will was an illusion?, and what what was his point?
(Hard Determinism)
Skinner argued that free-will was an illusion, we may want to believe we posses free-will to choose how we behave but in fact behaviours are determined for us.
Such a hard-determinist viewpoint has few supporters today.
What is the view of Soft-determinism?
Although animals behave in fairly mechanistic, determined ways, human-self consciousness, self-awareness and higher mental processes enable people to make and which often go against what their biology or environment has pre-disposed them to.
Many would argue, therefore, that although our biology and environment predispose us to behave in certain ways we do have a degree of free-will.
