L4 - Free Will Vs Determinism In Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
What is biological determinism?
A
Biological determinism refers to the idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by genes.
2
Q
What is Casual explanations?
A
Science is heavily deterministic in its search for causal relationships as it seeks to discover whether X causes Y, or whether the independent variable causes changes in the dependent variable.
3
Q
What is Determinism?
A
Determinism is the general idea that traits and behaviours are outside our control, due to factors either internal or external over which we have no control.
4
Q
What is environmental determinism?
A
Environmental determinism is the view that behaviour is determined or caused by forces outside the individual.
Environmental determinism posits that our behaviour is caused by previous experience learned through classical and operant conditioning.
5
Q
What is free will?
A
- Free will is the idea that we can play an active role and have choice in how we behave.
- the assumption is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour & are self-determined
6
Q
What is hard determinism?
A
- Hard determinism, also known as ‘fatalism’, is the view that internal and external forces outside of our control shape our behaviour. (E.g. biology or past experiences)
- Hard determinism is seen as incompatible with free will.
7
Q
What is psychic determinism?
A
Psychic determinism is the idea that traits and behaviours are governed by unconscious instincts and drives, rooted in childhood experiences.
8
Q
What is soft determinism?
A
- Soft determinism is an alternative position that suggests behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological make-up, but only to a certain extent.
- therefore there is an element of choice (free will)
9
Q
Free will
A
- belief in free will does not deny that there may be biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on our behaviour
- free will is when we choose our own actions and behaviours and thoughts.
- advocated for by the humanistic approach
10
Q
Example of free will
A
- basis of moral responsibility - this is when an individual is in charge of their own actions, i.e. can exercise free will.
- law states that children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility, but
otherwise there is the assumption, in our society, that ‘normal’ adult behaviour is self-determined. - humans are accountable for their actions, regardless of innate factors of the influences of early experience
11
Q
2 main types of determinism
A
Hard & soft determinism
12
Q
3 types of hard determinism
A
Psychic, biological & environmental
13
Q
Hard determinism
A
- can be referred to as fatalism
- suggests that all human behaviour has a cause, and, in principle, it should be possible to identify and describe these causes
- compatible with aims of science - to uncover casual laws that govern thought & action
- always assumes that everything we think and so is dictated by internal or external forces that we cannot control
14
Q
Biological determinism
A
- no doubt that many of our physiological and neurological processes are not under our conscious control – such as the influence of the autonomic nervous system during periods of stress and anxiety
- many mental disorders are thought to have a genetic basis
- hormones can have an effect e.g. testosterone in aggressive behaviour
- Modern bio-psychologists would also recognise
the mediating influence of the environment on our biological structure (nature-nurture debate) but this simply means that we are doubly determined in ways that we cannot control.
15
Q
Environmental determinism
A
- BF Skinner famously described free will as an ‘illusion’ and argued that all behaviour is the result of conditioning.
- Our experience of ‘choice’ is merely the sum total of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives.
- Although we might think we are acting independently, our behaviour has been shaped by environmental events, as well as agents of socialisation – parents, teachers, institutions, etc.
16
Q
Psychic determinism
A
- Sigmund Freud, like Skinner, agreed that free will is an ‘illusion’ but placed much more emphasis on the influence of biological drives and instincts than
the Behaviourists. - His particular brand of determinism sees human behaviour as determined and directed by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood.
- There is no such thing as an accident, according to Freud, and even something as seemingly random
and harmless as a ‘slip of the tongue’ can be explained by the underlying authority of
the unconscious
17
Q
Soft determinism
A
- came up with by William James (1890)
- the idea 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
- later an important feature of cognitive approach
- acknowledging that all human action has a cause, soft determinists also suggest that people have conscious mental control over the way they behave.
- James thought that whilst it may be the job of scientists to explain the many determining forces that act upon us, we have the freedom to make rational conscious choices every day
18
Q
scientific emphasis on causal explanations
A
- principle of science is that every event in the universe has a cause and that causes can be explained using general laws
- Knowledge of causes and the formulation of laws are important as they allow scientists to predict and control events in the future
- lab experiment enables researchers to study the effects of the independent variable (IV) ‘the cause’ on the dependent variable (DV) ‘the effect’ and remove all other extraneous variables in an attempt to precisely predict and control human behaviour
19
Q
Evaluation of free will
A
strengths
- face validity
- legal system
- locus of control
weaknesses
- neurological studies
20
Q
Face validity
A
- One strength of free will is the idea that everyday experiences ‘ give the impression’ that we are constantly exercising free will through the choices we make – this gives face validity to the concept of free will.
E.g. it makes sense when we say ‘I woke up this morning and chose to eat Weetabix for breakfast’
21
Q
Locus of control
A
- research suggests that people who have an internal locus of control, believing that they have a high degree of influence over their own behaviour, tend to be more mentally healthy – this suggests that the concept of locus of control exercises
free will. - According to psychologist Julian Rotter, those individuals who possess an internal locus of control believe that they can change their behaviour – this was found in social influence research where those individuals who had a high internal locus of
control score, were more likely to resist social influence suggesting they used their own
free will as they did not follow the crowd and show conformity or obedience but rather resisted it
22
Q
Legal system
A
- Another strength of free will is its application to the legal system – legally all citizens are responsible for their actions at the age of 10 onwards.
- suggests that we all have free will and are responsible and chose to be criminals which makes sense as if this was not the case then criminals would roam around free in society as they have no control or choice over their behaviour.
- Thankfully this is not the case as the concept of free will comes into play for criminals.
23
Q
Neurological studies
A
- neurological studies of decision making have revealed evidence against free will – and slightly disturbing evidence of that
- Studies by Chun Siong Soon et al (2008), have demonstrated that the brain activity that outcomes the outcome of simple choices may occur earlier than our knowledge of actually making that choice.
- In their study, the researchers found that the activity related to whether to press a button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain up to 10 seconds before participants report being consciously aware of making such a decision.
- This suggests that our decisions are determined before we even make them supporting a strong argument against free will.
24
Q
Evaluation of determinism
A
strengths
- consistent with aims of science
- value of schizophrenic research
weaknesses
- not consistent with legal system
- not falsifiable
25
Q
Consistent with aims of science
A
- determinism is that it is consistent with the aims of science.
- notion that human behaviour is orderly and obeys laws makes psychology more respected and scientific as a discipline.
E.g. biological determinism means that our behaviour is determined by our biology and this is consistent with the biological approach which argues this. - Moreover, most biological abnormalities can be proven through brain & body scans
- environmental determinism can be seen through
the behavioural approach which suggests that our environment controls out behaviour as seen in classical and operant conditioning through Pavlov’s and Skinners research.
26
Q
Value of schizophrenic research
A
E.g. it has led to drug treatment helping to control and manage schizophrenic symptoms.
- Since schizophrenic patients show loss of control over their thoughts, surely they cannot be exercising any free will
- the fact that their symptom such as hallucinations and delusions can be controlled by anti-pychotic drugs suggests that biological determinism is at work her
27
Q
Not consistent with our legal system
A
- limitation of the hard determinism stance – that all our behaviour is caused by internal or external forces and thus we have no control – is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates.
- In a court of law, offenders are held morally accountable for their actions.
- This is a weakness of determinism since this argument suggests that we have no choice or control over our behaviour so how can we choose to be criminals?
- However, we also must bear in mind that evidence has suggested that there may be a genetic link to aggression in men – the MAOA gene which suggests that males who possess this gene are more likely to be aggressive and more likely to engage in criminal behaviour
- this suggests that we should be cautious in the
argument of free will since the MAOA gene is an example of determinism as we don’t choose our
genetic makeup!
28
Q
Not falsifiable
A
- limitation of determinism is that this approach is not always falsifiable – it is based on the idea that causes of behaviour exist, even though they have not yet been found.
- Yet it is difficult to prove wrong as a principle – suggesting that the deterministic approach may not be as scientific as it seems.
E.g. it has been suggested that the causes of OCD may be due to the SERT and COMT gene, however, individuals who don’t possess these genes may still have OCD therefore we can argue that the cause of OCD is not always genes and could be factors
that we are not yet aware of
