free will and determinism - issues and debates

Free will and determinism (hard and soft) what is it

• free will = full choice over actions, no influence or manipulation from internal or external influences

• Determinism = behaviours caused by something, little actual control and determinants are variables that cause our behaviour

• Hard determinism - human behaviour completely determined by factors outside their control , no free will

• Soft determinism - human behaviour is generally pre determined by factors outside their control but have the option to exercise free will in some situations - accepts humans have a perception of control. Deterministic TO AN EXTENT, free will available TO AN EXTENT

3 types of determinism

• biological determinism - behaviour is the result of internal processes within the body

• 3 biological causes: genetics, brain physiology / structure, and biochemistry

• Genetics are influential , although they definitely don’t cause behaviour, they can increase likelihood of behaviours occurring

• Environmental - behaviour a result of physical environment like social influence

• Milgram and zimbardo - their participants acted out from the pressures from environments - could be argued they wouldn’t have normally acted like that but the environment determined their behaviour

• Psychic - closely linked to the psychodynamic approach where behaviours caused by our unconscious mind

• Freud: every behaviour has an initial cause and that behaviour was initiated in a part of our minds we can’t access

• Argues that this is why some individuals don’t know why they take a certain course of action

• Practical apps: can be an explanation for criminality

Ao3 for determinism

• allows for a scientific approach

• Key goals of science is the establishment of general laws that allows scientists to make predictions - taking a deterministic approach helps as it seeks to identify exact causes of behaviour = identifying exact causes of behaviour naturally leads to being able to predict future

• E.g identifying OCD as being caused in part by faulty genetics can help establish a general law , therefore taking this approach can help those vulnerable = as causes been identified

• Scientific approach = useful, societal benefits

Ao3 of free will

• evidence in field of neuropsych that suggests free will is a fallacy

• Chun siong soon et al: found brain activity relating to whether to press a button w left or right hand occurs in brain up to 10 secs before pts report being consciously aware of making such a decision

• Suggests neurological processes do occur in the background that cause the decision we make = free will choices could be the result of bio factors

Ao3 of free will

• free will needed even if illusion - research suggests it’s desirable for humans to believe we have some control over our lives and decisions

• E.g research found individuals with a high internal locus of control - believes in some free will - tend to be mentally healthier. Robert’s et al - found adolescents with strong belief in fatalism - determined by factors outside control - significantly greater risk of depression

• Belief in free will = essential for good quality of life

Interactionist approach / perspective

• offers the best compromise in free will v deterministic debate

• Cognitive explanation of phobias suggests they’re due to faulty thinking - deterministic - but cognitive therapies encourage individuals to use their own free will to change behaviour

• Approaches in psych with a cognitive element like SLT tend to adopt an interactionist / deterministic perspective e.g Bandura argues that environmental factors are key to learning behaviour but we are free to choose who or what to attend to and when to perform certaian behaviours - four mediational factors in SLT

• This view offers most complete explanation