free will and determinism

The free will-determinism debate

The free will-determinism debate asks a simple question - is our behaviour a matter of free will or are we the product of a set of internal/external influences that determine who we are and what we do.

Most approaches in psychology are determinant to some extent but the humanistic approach embraces the concept of free will

Free will

The notion of a free will suggests that human beings are self-Determining and are free to make their own decisions and choose their own actions. Will suggest that our behaviour/thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces.

In the humanistic approach, Rogers claims that we can only reach self actualisation if we have free will and take responsibility for our own behaviour

Determinism

Determinism is the view that behaviour is controlled by internal or external factors that we have no control over. There are two versions:

Hard determinism - This is sometimes referred to as ‘fatalism’. It suggests that behaviour is controlled by internal and/all external factors and therefore free will is the illusion. It’s the view that behaviour can be predicted

Soft determinism - This is the view that behaviour may be predictable and caused by internal/external factors but there is still some elements of free well

Types of determinism

Biological determinism - This is the belief that our behaviour is caused by internal biological forces that are beyond our control. These forces could be genetic, Hormonal, Evolutionary…

Environmental determinism - This is the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control. These features could be through classical and operant conditioning

Psychic determinism - This is the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that were Repressed in childhood and is out of our control

Limitations

• One limitation of free will is that it is not supported by braid scan evidence - Benjamin Libet (1983) instructed participants to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured their brain activity. He found that he was able to predict the participants movements nearly half a second before the participant was even aware of what they were going to do. This suggests that the decision was biologically determined which adds to the argument that free will is just an illusion

• One limitation of determinism is the position of the legal system- the hard the determinism stance is not consistent with the way in which the legal system operates. In a court of law, offenders are held responsible for their actions which means that the main principle of the legal system is that the offender exercised their free will in committing the crime. This suggests that determinist arguments don’t always work

Strengths

• one strength of free will is that it has high internal validity - Robert et found that adolescents with an internal locus of control are less likely to develop depression and are more likely to have better mental health compared to those with external locus of control