Free will vs Determinism debate Flashcards
What is Free will
Humans have the ability to exert influence on their behaviour
May still be biological/external influence but these forces can be rejected
E.g. humanistic approach - people are free to take responsibility and improve themselves - self actualisation
What is determinism
Humans have no control over behaviour
Behaviour is determined by internal or external forces
What is the free will vs determinism debate
Debate between whether behaviour is controlled by internal/external factors or if humans influence their own actions freely
What are the 3 types of determinism
Psychic determinism - Biological drives/unconscious urges/childhood affects behaviour - Freud psychosexual stages shows each stages characteristics in childhood development/fixation problems e.g. fixation at anal stage causing anal personality
Environmental determinism - Environment e.g. conditioning affects behaviour - Watson and Reyner - Little albert study - conditioned fear of rat using bell
Biological determinism - Human biology e.g. Genes, neurotransmitters, brain structures - SERT gene causes low serotonin - COMT gene causes high dopamine
What is hard and soft determinism
Hard determinism - Behaviour is always dictated by internal /external forces
Soft determinism - Human behaviour has a cause but humans have room to control their own actions
Give an example of Free Will research
Humanistic approach - Self actualisation supports free will
Humans can strive to achieve this through personal growth
Roger’s therapy helps achieve this by removing psychological barriers and achieving congruence
Give examples of scientific emphasis on causal explanations
Every event in the universe has a cause and can be explained through general laws
IV is manipulated to effect DV in controlled conditions which creates a cause and effect
Loftus and Palmer - Manipulated verb to see how leading questions affect EWT
Bandura - Manipulated conditions for children to see if aggression can be learnt through SLT
Both are heavily deterministic/one variable affects or causes another - this is used to predict human behaviour
Evaluate the Free will vs determinism debate
Biological determinism may remove responsibility for crimes - criminal gene
Twin studies refute determinism as a whole - 80% concordance intelligence/40% depression - similarity can be due to same environment
Biological determinism has led to medical treatment for disorders e.g. OCD - through biological determinism - SSRI’s can be used to treat OCD and minimise symptoms - counter - CBT may be better
Free Will has good face validity
