Issues and Debates: Free will and Determinism

Question 1

What’s free will?

Answer 1

Every individual has the power to control their own behaviour and it’s not determined by biological or external forces.
Favoured by the humanistic approach

Question 2

What’s determinism?

Answer 2

The idea that behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal (biological) or external (environmental) forces rather than an individual’s will to do something.

Question 3

What’s soft determinism?

Answer 3

Allows some influence of free will.
Behaviour is shaped/ controlled by the environment or biological makeup, but only to a certain extent.

Question 4

What’s hard determinism?

Answer 4

Implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal or external events beyond our control.

Question 5

What are the 4 types of determinism?

Answer 5

Psychic determinism
Scientific determinism
Biological determinism
Environmental determinism

Question 6

What’s psychic determinism?

Answer 6

Behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts, biological drives and instincts.

Psychodynamic approach

Question 7

What’s scientific determinism?

Answer 7

Based on the belief that all events have a cause.
IV is manipulated to observe the causal effect on a DV.

Question 8

What does scientific determinism do?

Answer 8

Emphasises causal relationships in creating general laws and rigorous tests to allow events to be controlled and predicted.

Question 9

What’s biological determinism?

Answer 9

The view that behaviours are determined by biological processes.
Behaviour is influenced by psychological and neurological processes that can’t be controlled —> biological approach.

Question 10

What’s environmental determinism?

Answer 10

Behaviour is shaped by environmental factors and agents of socialisation, such as teachers and parents.
SLT + Behaviourist approach

Question 11

What did Skinner describe free will as?

Answer 11

An illusion and argued behaviour is the result of conditioning.

Question 12

AO3 Free will vs Determinism

Answer 12

+ Supporting Free will
- Against Free will
+Supporting determinism
- Against Free will

Question 13

(+AO3) What supports free will?
Face validity

Answer 13

Free will has good face validity.
Everyday experiences give the impression that we are constantly exercising free will through our choices on any given day.

Question 14

(-AO3) What disproves free will?

Answer 14

Libet et al (1985) recorded activity in
motor areas of the brain before the person had a conscious awareness to move their finger.
Chun Soon et al (2008) found activity in the prefrontal cortex up to 10 seconds
before a person was aware of their decision to act.

This suggests that the motor activity preceding movement occurred before the conscious decision was made, and so implies that all behaviour is pre-determined by up to 10 seconds.

Question 15

(+AO3) What supports determinism?
District science

Answer 15

Places psychology with other more established sciences —> the prediction and control of behaviour has led to the development of treatments, therapies and behavioral interventions.

The experience of mental disorders like schizophrenia where sufferers experience a total loss of control over their thoughts and behaviour casts doubts over the notion of free will no one would choose to have schizophrenia. This suggests that at least in terms of mental illness, the behaviour would appear to be determined.

Question 16

(-AO3) What disproves determinism?
RLA

Answer 16

Especially in regards to hard determinism the idea that humans behaviour is predetermined isn’t consistent in real life situations.

E.g. The UK legal system considers perpetrators as morally responsible for their actions —> very few individuals would defend themselves with the reason of being biologically, environmentally or psychically determined.

This damages the idea of determinism as it doesn’t coincide with real life situations.

Question 17

(AO3) Compromise

Answer 17

An interactionist perspective may offer the best compromise in the free will vs determinism debate.

Approaches in psychology that have a cognitive element (like Social Learning Theory), tend to adopt an interactionist or soft determinism perspective.

For example, Bandura argues that environmental factors are key to learning behaviour, but that we are free to choose (or make decisions about) who or what to attend to and when to perform certain behaviours (think about the four requirements of social learning theory.