FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM Flashcards
What is free will?
Belief that our behavior is governed by our choices, and that those choices are minimally determined by other forces.
What is determinism?
What happens has to happen and could not have occurred in any way other than the way it did.
What is causal explanation?
The ability to explain a phenomenon in terms of the causes that made it happen. This allows us to make scientific predictions of what will happen if certain conditions prevail.
What is hard determinism?
The determinist principle to the letter of the law with no room for the concept of free will.
What is soft determinism?
Only some elements of our behavior are determined and the rest is open to free will. AKA compatibilist viewpoint
What is biologically determined?
Determinism happens the level of biology
What is genetic determinism?
Determinism that happens at the genetic level
What is environmental determinism?
Determinism that happens as a direct result of the influence that our environment has on us.
Biological determinism of personality - EYSENCKS theory
Believed that our biology was the root of our personality.
Eysenck characterized each personality as having three main traits,. Each trait being a dimension along which we all sit somewhere.
Eysenck believed this theory to be deterministic as each of these traits supposedly had an underlying biological cause.
EXTRAVERSION: between extravert and introvert
CAUSE: Cortical arousal.
Under aroused = extrovert
Over aroused = introvert
NEUROTICISM: between totally neurotic and emotionally stable
CAUSE: the threshold of the activation of the sympathetic nervous system/ flight or fight response.
low threshold = neurotic
high threshold = stable
PSYCHOTISIM: the degree to which a person shows psychotic tendencies which are being aggressive and generally hostile to others.
CAUSE: level of the hormone testosterone
too much testosterone = aggressive character
Studies supporting Free will
For humanistic psychologists such as Maslow (1943) and Rogers (1951) freedom is not only possible but also necessary if we are to become fully functional human beings. Both see self-actualization as a unique human need and form of motivation setting us apart from all other species. There is thus a line to be drawn between the natural and the social sciences.
