Free-will and determinism

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  • Free-will and Determinism
    • Free-will is the idea that we have choices in how we act.  
      • We are ‘self-determining’ and free from influences from the past.
      • There are three main definitions of free-will
        • Voluntary behaviour - behaviour of which we have control
        • Behaviour is unconstrained - behaviour is often predictable, so we can’t say behaviour is random.
        • Choice - people have free will if they have a choice of behaviour.
    • Determinism is the belief that all behaviour is determined + predictable. 
      • Biological - all behaviour is caused genetic influences
      • Environmental  - behaviour is caused by previous experiences via conditioning
      • Scientific - all events have a cause. IV manipulated to observe causal effects on DV
      • Psychic - behaviour is determined by innate drives and early experiences
      • Soft determinism - Behaviour is determined by the environment to an extent, but without compulsion people have choice 
      • Hard determinism - all behaviour can be predicted and there is no free will.
    • Approaches
      • Psychodynamic - mainly deterministic, there is a part for free will. personality is determined by childhood experience.
      • Behaviourist -  behaviour is a consequence of reward and punishment + reinforcement. we can predict human behaviour
      • Cognitive - Soft determinism free will of  thoughts is limited mental capacity
      • Biological -  determined by genes and internal systems. predict  behaviour by brain structure and functions
    • Evaluation
      • Determinism
        • Genetic - It is doubtful that 100% genetic determination will be found for any behaviour
        • Environment - Concordance rates show that environment cannot be the sole factor
        • Scientific - Chaos theory proposes that very small changes can result in major changes
        • Does it matter -  determinism may allow people to excuse their behaviour e.g. crime
      • Free-Will
        • illusion - A person may choose to buy something but this may be influence by previous experience
        • Culturally relative - Appropriate for individualist cultures only
        • Research - Activity in the pre-frontal cortex up to 10 sec before a person consciously acted

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