free will vs Determinism Flashcards
Free will
humans can make choices and are not determined by biological and external forces.
Approach that agrees with Free will
Humanistic approach
Determinism
View that an individual’s behaviour is controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something
Hard determinism
sometimes referred to as fatalism. Implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal and external events beyond our control
Soft determinism
James proposed soft determinism and suggested that there is some room for manoeuvre in that people have conscious control over the way they behave.
Biological determinism
belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences that we cannot control.
Use biological approach to explain biological determinism
Biological approach emphasises the role of biological determinism in behaviour. Many of our physiological and neurological processes are not under our conscious control(autonomic nervous system).
Also lots of behaviours and characteristics such as mental disorders are thought to have genetic basis we cannot control
Research has demonstrated the effect of hormones such as role of testosterone in aggressive behaviour.
Environmental determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control
Use behaviourist approach to explain what environmental determinism is
Skinner described free will as an illusion and argued that all behaviour is the result of conditioning . Our behaviour has been shaped by environmental events as well as agents of socialisation (parents, teachers)
Psychic determinism
Belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control
Use the psychodynamic approach to explain psychic determinism
Freud also argues that free will is an illusion and placed emphasis on biological drives and instincts. According to Freud there is no such thing as accident and even something random such as slip of the tongue is governed by the unconscious
Scientific emphasis on causal explanations
Basic principle of science is that every event in the universe has a cause and that causes can be explained using general laws . These allow scientists to predict and control events in the future. Hence in lab exp researchers will eliminate all extraneous variables in attempt to precisely control and predict human behaviour.
