Issues & Debates: Free Will & Determinism

Question 1

What is Free Will?

Answer 1

Notion that human beings can make their own independent choices and behaviour/thoughts are not determined by external forces

humanistic approach

Question 2

What is Hard Determinism?

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

What is Soft Determinism?

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

🧬🌱🔮

What are the 3 types of Determinism?

Answer 4

1. Biological
2. Environmental
3. Psychic

Question 5

What is Biological Deteminism?

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

What is Environmental Determinism?

Answer 6

• 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 🙄