Free will and determinism Flashcards

1
Q

Free will

A
  • Humans respond freely, voluntarily and actively to events around them
  • Free will depends on having a mind but having a mind does not imply free will
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2
Q

Importance

A
  • Understanding the causes of behaviour
  • To investigate the influence of mental events on behaviour
  • To diagnose mental disorders
  • Understanding the behavioural effects of belief in free will
  • To discuss moral accountability
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3
Q

Mental disorders

A

-Partial or complete breakdown of control a person normally has over behaviour, emotions and thinking

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4
Q

Moral accountability

A

Forensic psychologists consider whether a criminal us fit to plead, has diminished responsibility and their mental state

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5
Q

Nichols and Knobe (2007)

A
  • Asked participants to imagine a universe in which everything that happens is completely caused by whatever happened before it
  • Participants were split into two groups
  • Abstract thinking: The first was asked ‘is it possible for people to be fully morally responsible for their actions?’ - 86% said No
  • Affective response: The second group was told of a man who plotted to kill his wife and three children and were asked ‘Is Bill fully morally responsible for killing his wife and children?’ - 76% said Yes
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6
Q

Factors affecting free will

A
  • choice
  • Coercion and constraints
  • voluntary
  • deliberate control
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7
Q

Voluntary behaviour and phenomenology

A
  • During brain surgery the motor cortex was stimulated while patients were awake
  • Patients reported their limbs moving passively
  • Subjective experience of free will - cannot be reduced to brain stimulation
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8
Q

Subjective experience

A
  • Demonstration of free will as a psychological reluctance

- Common response to feeling that freedom is being threatened ‘Don’t tell me what to do’

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9
Q

Three levels of functioning

A
  • Funny automatic processing (little conscious awareness of processes involved)
  • Partially automatic processing (conscious awareness, resolving conflicts)
  • Deliberate control (decision making, flexible response to novel situations)
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10
Q

Humanistic view

A
  • Focus on human behaviour and the importance of personal experience
  • we all have the capacity to act on evil/bad thoughts
  • evil behavior depends on social conditioning and voluntary choice
  • therapy and life are about free human beings struggling to become more free
  • most human behavior is based on striving for self actualization
  • sometimes we fail to acknowledge behaviors/feelings when faced with in-congruence
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11
Q

Libet

A
  • Flex finger/wrist 40 times at own choosing - Who/what made the decision and initiates movement? - inner self or brain processes
  • Time at which action occurred (M) using EMG
  • Brain activity in motor-cortex using EEG - measuring ‘readiness potential, RP
  • Time consciously decided to act (W) - moment of Willing
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12
Q

evaluation of libet

A
  • methodological issues (replications find the same results)
  • can movement be considered free will if the action has no consequences
  • what exactly are participants reporting on when they decide to move? - they can choose when to act
  • -instrictions were not strict - diverse lnguage used to describe willing, urge, desire etc. framed as passive registration
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13
Q

Conscious VETO

A
  • Libet argued that we have the ability/will to veto an action after the neurological information has started - free won’t (Gregory, 2008)
  • Choices of action need to be made faster than consciousness
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14
Q

belief in free will

A
  • Believing (or not) in whether humans have free-will changes behaviour
  • Vohs & Schooler (2008): belief in no free will = more likely to cheat
  • Baumeister (2009): belief in no free will = less altruistic
  • Questions moral responsibility of psychologists if messages of determinism affects behaviour this way
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15
Q

Science

A

-Look for causes of thoughts and behaviour

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16
Q

Determinism

A

-Thoughts/behaviours determined by internal/external factors or forces

17
Q

Radical determinism

A
  • Skinner (1971) beyond freedom and dignity
  • Human freedom is an illusion and a superstition and prevents proper science
  • ALL behaviour controlled by reinforcement contingencies (environmental causes)
18
Q

Skinner rules of life

A
  • Avoid bad things (punishment)
  • Increase good things (+ve reinforcement)
  • End bad things that happen (-ve reinforcement)
19
Q

Illusion of free will

A
  • Occurs when we are free of punishment or threat of punishment
  • Belief in free will = unaware of their reward contingencies
  • Realizing we are not free allows us to seek ways to encourage positive behaviour
20
Q

Radical determinism problems

A
  • Free will is an integral part of human subjective experience
  • Not falsifiable as all behaviour is the effect of reinforcement even if we don’t know why it is reinforcing
  • We are conscious agents not passive receivers, often aware of stimuli and responses
  • Spontaneity and creativity
21
Q

psychic determinism

A
  • Based on psychodynamic approach
  • Freedom is an illusion
  • Determinants of behaviour on the unconscious e.g. influences of id, ego and super ego and past experiences
  • Believe we are free as we are unaware of the conscious influences
  • No such thing as accidents e.g. Freudian slips and parapraxes
22
Q

Biological determinism

A
  • Sociobiological approach Is extreme determinism
  • Human behaviour is coded in genes and by natural selection e.g. attractiveness and fight or flight
  • Genes that make up the basis of human society is naturally selected
  • Does this mean there is no moral responsibility?
23
Q

Soft determinism

A
  • Accepts there is some level of free will
  • While trying to explain behaviour in context of scientific psychology
  • Distinction between causation and coercion or compulsion (thoughts and actions can be caused and free)
  • Adopts cognitive approach
24
Q

Reciprocal determinism

A
  • Bandura (1989) - form of soft determinism
  • Importance of reinforcement but also internal cognitive processes impact on environments
  • Explains spontaneity and creativity