Free will and determinism

The free will-determinism debate

A question over whether our behaviour is a matter of free will, or if we are the product of internal/external influences. Most approaches in psychology are determinist, but disagree on the causes of human behaviour.

Free will

The notion of free will suggests that humans are free to make their own choices. There are biological and environmental influences, but free will implies that we can reject them. This is the view of the humanistic approach.

Determinism

The view that individuals behaviours are shaped by internal or external forces.

Hard determinisms suggests that all human behaviour has a cause, and we should be able to identify these causes.

Soft determinism suggests that all human actions have a cause but people have freedom to make choice within a restricted range of options.

Biological determinism

The biological approach describes many causes of behaviour, such as the influence of the autonomic nervous system on stress.

Environmental determinism

Skinner described free will as an illusion and all behaviour is as a result of conditioning. Our experience of choice is the sum of our total reinforcement history.

psychic determinism

Freud emphasised the influence of biological drives and unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood. Even something as seemingly random as a slip of the tongue can be explained by the unconscious.

Scientific emphasis on casual relationships.

A basic scientific principle is an example of hard determinism, as every event has a cause, which can be explained with general laws. Knowledge of these allows scientists to predict and control events. In psychology, the laboratory experiments allow researchers to stimulate the conditions of the test tube and remove all other extraneous variables to demonstrate a casual effect