Issues And Debates

Question 1

Free will vs determinism

Answer 1

The free will vs determinism debate revolves around how our behavior results from forces over which we have no control or whether people can decide to act or behave in a certain way

Question 2

Free will

Answer 2

THE NOTION THAT HUMANS CAN MAKE CHOICES AND THEIR BEHAVIOUR/THOUGHTS ARE NOT DETERMINED BY BIOLOGICAL OR EXTERNAL FORCES.

Free will does not deny that there may be biological and environmental factors that exert some influence on behaviour, but nevertheless implies that we are able to reject these forces if we wish because we are in control of our thoughts and behaviour.

Humans have an active role in controlling their behaviour and thoughts.

Question 3

Free will is a view of human behaviour that is advocated by the…

Answer 3

Humanistic approach- Rogers and Maslow

Question 4

Determinism

Answer 4

In contrast, determinism proposes that free will has no place in explaining behaviour.
Explanations in psychology proposes that behaviour is cause by factors not under the person’s control. This means behaviour should be predictable though there are hard and soft versions

Question 5

HARD DETERMINISM

Answer 5

this is sometimes referred as fatalism (predetermined) , and suggests that all human behaviour has a cause, and, in principle, it should be possible to identify and describe these causes. Such a position always assumes that everything we think and do is dictated by internal and external forces that we cannot control. For some, this is too extreme a position.

Question 6

SOFT DETERMINISM

Answer 6

Suggests there is some room for manoeuvre in that people have conscious mental control over the way they behave. Although science can explain determinism forces which act upon us, we still, have freedom to make rational choices everyday situations.
(still have control, have freedom)

Question 7

There are three types of determinism, what are they?

Answer 7

Biological determinism, environment determinism, psychic determinism

Question 8

Biological determinism

Answer 8

refers to the idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by genetics such as the influence of autonomic nervous system on the stress response or influence of genes on mental health. Modern psychologist would recognise the deal of environment on our biological structure.

Question 9

ENVIRONMENT DETERMINISM

Answer 9

the view that behaviour is determined or causes by forces outside the individual. Environmental determinism positions that our behaviour is caused by pervious learned classical and operant conditioning. For example, bandura (1961) found that children with violent parents are more likely to become parents themselves, as a result of observational learning.

Question 10

PSYCHIC PSYCHOLOGY

Answer 10

claims that human behaviour is the result of childhood experience and innate drives (ID, EGO, SUPEREGO), as in freud’s model of psychological model.

Question 11

The scientific emphasis on casual explanations. ( free will vs determinism)

Answer 11

The one of the basic principles is that every event in the universe has a cause and that causes can be explanation using general laws (hard determinism). Knowledge of causes and the formulation of laws are important as they allow scientists to predict and control events in the future.
In psychology, the lab experiment is the ideal of science as it enabled researchers to demonstrate casual relationships- it is like the test tube in other sciences where all variables can be controlled.

Question 12

Evaluation for determinism vs free will

Question 13

HOLISM AND REDUCTIONISM

Answer 13

The holism- reductionism debate is the question whether holism or reductionism is the better approach to use in order to understand human behaviour.
The holism approach is about studying the ‘the whole ‘. As soon as you start to break down a holistic approach, it isn’t really holism anymore. Therefore, unlike the other debates you study, there is no continuum between holism and reductionism.
This debate is more about preference for either holism or reductionism and the different approaches in psychology takes sides. For example, humanistic psychologists take a holism approach whereas behaviourists approach are reductionist.
Within the reductionist approach there is a continuum- the levels of explanation.

Question 14

HOLISM

Answer 14

The holism approach looks at a system as a whole and see’s any attempt to subdivide behaviour or experience into smaller unit as inappropriate.

Question 15

What is the view of gestalt psychologist?- Holism

Answer 15

This was the view of gestalt psychologists who argued that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore, knowing about how the parts (such as the characteristic a person may have) does not help us understand the essence of that person.

Gestalt psychologis looks at human mind and behaviour as a whole.

Question 16

What does humanistic psychology focus on?

Answer 16

Humanistic psychology focuses on the individual’s experience, which is not something that can be reduced to, for example, biological units. Humanistic psychologists use QUALITATIVE DATA(non-numeric information) to investigate the self whereby themes are analysed rather than breaking the component behaviours.

Question 17

Reductionism

Answer 17

Reductionism seeks to analyse behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. It is based on the scientific principle of parsimony- that all phenomena (occurrence) should be explained using the simplest (lowest level) principles.

Question 18

Parsimony (reductionism)

Answer 18

Parsimony- focus on finding the simplest accurate explanation for cognitive processes and behaviours.

Question 19

Levels of explanation in psychology (reductionism)

Answer 19

Levels of explanation in psychology There are different ways to explain behaviour- some more reductionist than others. For instance, obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) may be understood at a:

• Socio- cultural level e.g OCD disrupts social relationships.
• Psychological level e.g the person’s experience with anxiety
• Physical level- movements e.g washing one’s hands.
• Environmental/behavioural level- learning experiences
• Physiological level e.g abnormal functioning in the frontal lobes
• Neurochemical level e.g underproduction serotonin.

Which of these provides the ‘best’ explanation of OCD is a matter of debate, but each level is reductionism would see psychology as ultimately being replaced by explanations derived from those sciences lower down in the hierarchy.

Question 20

A Hierarchy of sciences ( most reductionist is at the bottom)

Answer 20

Sociology
Psychology
Biology
Chemistry
Physics

Question 21

Biological reductionism

Answer 21

Biological reductionism includes the neurochemical and physiological and also evolution and genetic influences. It is based on the premise that we are biological organisms. This, all behaviour is at some level of biology.

Biologically reductionism arguments often work backwards. For example, drugs that increase serotonin have been found to be effective in treating OCD. Therefore, working backwards, low serotonin may be a cause of OCD. We have reduced OCD to the level of neurotransmitters activity.

Question 22

Environmental reductionism

Answer 22

Attempts to explain behaviour in terms of stimulus- response links that have learned through experience.

The behaviourist approach is built on environmental reductionism, proposing that all behaviour is learned and acquired through interactions with the environment. Behaviourists explain behaviour in terms of conditioning which is focused on simple-stimulus response links, reducing behaviour to these basic elements.

For example, the learning theory of attachment reduces the idea of love (between the baby and person who does the feeding) to a learned association between the person doing the feeding (neutral stimulus) and food (unconditioned stimulus- innate unlearnt response) resulting in pleasure (conditioned response- learnt physical reflex).