Outline and Evaluate the free will and determinism debate

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  • Outline free will and determinism in psychology
    • free will
      • we have the power to consciously control and make choices about our thoughts and behaviour
      • it doesn't reject the idea that there are external influences on our behaviour (like genes) but instead suggests that we can reject these forces and be masters of our own identity
      • advocated by humanistic psychologists such as Rodgers and Maslow
    • determinism
      • we do not have the power to consciously control thoughts and behaviour. It is controlled by internal and external factors
      • there are different types: hard, soft, biological, psychic and environment
    • hard determinism
      • everything we do is dictated by internal or external forces that we cannot control
      • compatible with the aims of science, to uncover the causual explanations that govern behaviour
    • soft determinism
      • a version of determinism which allows for an element of free will
        • advocated by the cognitive approach
        • acknowledge that there is cause to human action but does not detract from the freedom to make conscious choices
    • biological determinism
      • belief that behaviour is governed by biological influences like genes and heredity
        • genes influence brain structure and neurons, e.g the dopamine hypothesis for sz
    • environmental determinism
      • behaviour is caused by features of the environment, such as reward systems that we cannot control
        • e.g stimulus-reponse actions have been used to develop the cause and treatment of phobias
    • psychic determinism
      • behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts in the brain. Freud argues that adult behaviour is shaped by a mix of innate drives and experiences
        • e.g if there is a frustration in a psycho-sexual stage then the child will be fixated, leading to specific problems
    • evaluation
      • has a number of practical applications. The beliief that sz can be caused by an over transmission of dopamine led to the development of antipsychotic drugs
        • emphasis on cause and effect has been enabled, can predict and control events
        • reduction of explanatory power, unlikely to explain all behaviour. e.g twin studies show there is not 100% concordance for OCD, so there must be an environment factor to it.
          • however, it does show that genes have a significant role in it
      • incompatible with the legal system, researc into the MOAO gene for aggression suggests behaviour is pre programmed
        • therefore have no free will over our aggressive behaviour
        • might be wrong for the legal system to punish people for something that was not under their conscious control
      • everyday experinece gives the impression that we are exercising free will and gives it face validity
        • research into locus of control suggests that people who feel more in control of their own behaviour are more likely to resist the pressure to conform
          • so even if we don't have free will it can have a positive impact on behaviour. An interactionist approach would argue that the best stance to take is soft det.

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