Free will and Determinism

What is free will?

• The idea that humans are active agents and have personal control and choice over their thoughts and behaviour

• Suggests that behaviour is a result of conscious-decision making rather than internal or external forces

• Aligns with the Behaviourist and humanistic approach as well as softly the cognitive approach

What is determinism?

• The view that all behaviour has a cause and is determined by internal or external factors meaning we have no real control over our actions

• It implies that behaviour is predictable as it follows lawful cause-and-effect principles

• This aligns with the psychodynamic and biological approach strongly and softly the cognitive approach

What is soft determnism?

• The belief that traits and behaviours, are to an extent dictated by internal and external forces

• However we do have some level of control over our behaviour via conscious thought processes

What is environmental determinisim?

• The argument that our experiences in the world shape our behviour

• Behaviourists are usually considered hard environmental determinists as they do not include conscious though processes in their theories

• Instead they suggest behaviour can e fully explained as a series of stimulus-response links

• Social learning theorists are also environmental determinists as they accept many of the principles of behaviourism eg: learning vicariously is learning from experience (the environment)

• However, the addition of cognitive internal mental processes that mediate between stimulus and response means SLTs are soft determinists

• Cognitive psychology is soft determinism- accepts the influence of biological factors like genetics however they also believe in choice and decision making as an important role for cognitive processes

What is biological determinism?

• The argument that our behaviour is se by our genetics (including the role of evolution) and biological processes such as hormone levels in the body or neurotransmitter levels in the brain

• Biological psychologists use drug treatments that directly influence the functioning of biological processes in their treatment of mental health disorders

What is psychic determinism?

• The perspective of psychodynamics

• Freud believed that innate drives shaped by childhood experiences result in unconscious forces hat determine behaviour

• Eg: conflicts in the id, ego and superego

• Is thought to be soft determinists Cognitive psychology due to the fact that through psychoanalytical therapy, individual can become aware of their unconscious motivations and gain conscious control over their behaviour

Evaluation

• Free will perspective has face validity- people have the conscious experience of agency, however determinists would argue that this feeling is an illusion

• By assuming that cause and effect applies to human behaviour, psychologists have successfully predicted and influenced behaviour- this is valuable as can be seen in biological determinism where symptoms of mental illness have been inked to neurotransmitter imbalances

• Has led to treatments that therefore has positive economic implications

• Society assumes free will is correct- a fully deterministic view could have implications- if some are genetically determined to have higher intelligence, this may affect access to education and employment

• Arguing that behaviour is due to a single determining factor is likely to an oversimplification- more likely interactionist