Free will and determinism

Free will

• The notion of free will suggests that as human beings we are essentially self-determining and free to choose our thoughts and actions
• A belief in free will does not deny that there may be biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on our beh
• But it implies that we are able to reject these forces

Determinism

• Proposes that free will has no place in explaining beh, though there are hard and soft versions
• Hard determinism:
  • Sometimes referred to as fatalism
  • Suggests that all human beh has a cause and it should be possible to identify and describe these causes
  • Such a position is compatible with the aims of science- to uncover the casual laws that govern thought and action
  • Assumes that everthing we think and do is dictated by internal/external forces that we cannot control
• Soft determinism:
  • Whilst acknowledging that all human action has a cause, soft determinists also suggest soom rrom for manoeuvre in that people have conscious mental control over the way they behave
  • Whilst it may be the job of scientists to explain the many dterminig forces that act upon us, this does not detract from the freedom we have to make rational conscious choices 

Biological, environmental and pschic determinism

• Biological determinism:
  • Emphasises the role of biological determinism in beh
  • Lots of beh and characteristics such as mental disorders, are thought to have a genetic basis and research has demonstrated the roles and effects of hormones, such as rold of testosterone in aggressive beh
  • Modern psychs would recognise the mediating influence of the environment on our bio structures
• Environmental determinism
  • Our experience of 'choice' is merely the sum total of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives
  • Although we might think we are acting independently, our beh has been shaped by environmental events, as well as agents of socialisation
• Psychic determinism
  • Freud agreed that free will was an 'illusion' but placed much more emphasis on the influence of biological drives and instincts 
  • This sees…