Issues & Debates: Free Will & Determinism Flashcards
1
Q
What is Free Will?
A
Notion that human beings can make their own independent choices and behaviour/thoughts are not determined by external forces
humanistic approach
2
Q
What is Hard Determinism?
A
- fatalism
- suggests that all human behaviour has a cause + principle
- should be possible to identify and describe causes
- assumes everything we think determined by internal/external forces that we cannot control
- extreme position
3
Q
What is Soft Determinism?
A
- feature of cognitive approach
- William James (1890)
- that behaviour/actions/traits are to an extent governed/dictated by internal/external forces
• despite this, we still have some element of control over/some free will to control our
behaviour/actions/traits
4
Q
🧬🌱🔮
What are the 3 types of Determinism?
A
- Biological
- Environmental
- Psychic
5
Q
What is Biological Deteminism?
A
- biological approach
- emphasises on role of bd in behaviour eg role of autonimic nervous system on stress reponse or influence of genes on mental health
6
Q
What is Environmental Determinism?
A
- Skinner
- decribe free will as illusion and behaviour result of conditioning
- experience of choice is the sum of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives
- shaped by environmental events
- apparantly humans can’t think independently 🙄
