Free will and determinism

Determinism

- The view that an individual's behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual's will to do something.

Hard determinism

- Suggests all human behaviour has a cause, and, in principle, it should be possible to identify and describe these causes. Such a position always assumes that everything we think and do is dictated by internal and external forces that we cannot control

Soft determinism

- James (1980) thought that, whilst it may be the job of scientists to explain what determines our behaviour, this does not detract from the freedom we have to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations

Biological determinism

- This is a type of determinism. This is the belief that behaviour is caused by genetic, hormonal, and evolutionary influences that we cannot control. E.g. the influence of the automatic nervous system

Environmental determinism

- This is a type of determinism. This is the belief that behaviour is the result of conditioning. Although we might think we are acting independently, our experience of 'choice' is merely the sum total of reinforcement contingencies that we have acted upon us throughout our lives

Psychic determinism

- This is a type of determinism. This is the belief that behaviour is influenced by biological drives and instincts. Freud saw human behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood. Something as seemingly random as a 'slip of the tongue' can be explained by the influence of the unconscious.

Limitations of determinism

- The hard determinist stance is that individual choice is not the cause of the behaviour. This is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates. In a court of law, offenders are held responsible for their actions. The main principle of our legal system is that a defendant exercised their free will in committing the crime

- This suggests that, in the real world, determinist arguments do not work

Free-will

- Suggests that humans are essentially self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and actions. A belief in this does not deny that there may be biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on behaviour, but nevertheless implies that we are able to reject these forces if we wish because we are in total control. It is a view that is advocated by the humanistic approach

The free will-determinism debate

- Is our behaviour a matter of free will or are we the product of a set of internal and/or external influences that determine who we are and what we do?

- Most approaches in psychology are determinist to some extent. However, the different approaches disagree on what the precise causes of human behaviour are, e.g. the biological approach suggests they are internal whereas the behaviourist approach suggests they are external

Strengths of free-will

- It has practical value. It can be said that we exercise free choice in our everyday lives. However, even if this is not the case, thinking we do exercise free choice can improve our mental health. Roberts et al (2000) looked at adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism (their lives were 'decided' by events outside of their control). They found that these adolescents were at significantly greater risk of developing depression. It seems that people who exhibit an external, rather than internal, locus of control are less likely to be optimistic

- This suggests that, even if we do not have free will, the fact that we believe we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour

Weaknesses of free-will

- Brain scan evidence does not support it, it supports determinism. Libet et al (1983) instructed participants to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured the activity in their brain. Participants had to say when they felt the conscious will to move. They found that the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision to move came around half a second before the participant consciously felt they had decided to move

- This may be interpreted as meaning that even our most basic experiences of free will are determined by our brain before we are aware of them

The scientific emphasis on casual explanations

- Every event in the universe has a cause and causes can be explained using general laws (hard determinism). Knowledge of causes and the formulation of laws are important as they allow scientists to predict and control events in the future

- In psychology, the lab experiment is the ideal of science as it enables researchers to demonstrate casual relationships- all variables can be controlled

Strength of determinism

• The principles of determinism are in line with the features of science e.g.

  • that behaviour has a cause

  • that observable behaviours must be measured objectively using lab experiments

    • This makes methods linked to hard determinism high inreliability