Determinism and Freewill

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What is the definition of Free will
The idea that human behavious is affected by the choice of the person concerned and that their actions are voluntary
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For a person acting on their own free will, they must not be what?
constrained or controlled by any internal(genetics) or external (environmental factors)
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The idea of free will assumes what?
actions are taken with intent
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For example?
You intended to commit a crime and that the action was voluntary and unprompted.
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What is the defintion of determinism?
The idea that human thought and behaviour is shaped and decided by either internal (genetic determinism) or external factors beyond one's will
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Acts are what?
involuntary, constrained and controlled by these factors
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In the view of hard determinists or fatalists humans are what?
merely the agents of thers and as a result are not responsible for their own
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For example?
variants of the NOS1 gene may cause higher levels of aggression, meaning that criminal behaviour is determined by genetics.
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The question of free will and determinism is what?
widely debated in psychology
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The answer hinges on the perspective of the psychologist as?
a scientist or as a philosopher.
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In addition what must one remember?
Most psychologists would agree that our behaviour is not entirely random
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What question arises?
what extent is human behaviour determined, and where does free will fit in with these beliefs?
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What does evidence suggest?
behaviour is determined comes from psychologists such as Libet
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What did he carry out research into?
brain activity, conscious awareness of a decision and action
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what did he find out?
pps brain activity took place before a conscious decision was made
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What was this decision?
move their own wrist or finger
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How many milliseconds?
300-500
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What does this suggest?
that conscious thought (free will) does not control behaviour, as this occurs after neurological preparation begins
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However, what did Trevana and Miller show?
that brain changes do not necessarily mean a decision is made, just that is ready to do so
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Conversely, what did Libet reject?
the idea that free will is an illusion
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What did he describe?
the veto response
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What is this?
where although we may not control brain function initially (as his findings suggest)
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What can our free will do?
stop the response from occuring
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What can we say about having no free will?
we have free 'dont'
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We can choose what?
abort our decision to move our wrist by just not doing it
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What is this ability to prevent?
behaviours and control our actions is exactly the kind of free will that our legal system works on
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What did Skinner argue?
all human behaviour occurred as a result of conditioning
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What did he suggest?
free will was an illusion
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What did he not believe in?
autonomy and was a hard determinist
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He suggested that positive reinforcement what?
increased the likelihood of behaviours occurring in the future – meaning behaviour could be controlled and predicted
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Punishment or the fear of it prevented?
behaviours such as comitting crime
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What did he admit?
some environmental causes were hard to see in the environment
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But wad adamant whatT?
that this did not mean they were not there
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However, can research on what?
rats and pigeons really be applied reliably to humans
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What did James resolve?
the conflict between scientific belief in determinism
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The common sense belief in free will, which what?
set him apart from his psychological peers
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What was his able to adopt?
He was able to adopt a pragmatic approach to distinguish between the two realms of psychology and proposed the idea of SOFT DETERMINISM
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What did this suggest?
the number of choices a person has are limited (so determined
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We do still have what?
some choice within these limitations (free will
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However, Would some psychologists suggest?
this is not free will at all, as ultimately our acts are still constrained?
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Freud would have disagreed with?
Skinner as to the reasoning behind how behaviour is determined also believed that free will was an illusion
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what was his explanation of behaviour show?
cause and effect that mean behaviours are INVOLUNTARY. In this case human behaviour is determined by both childhood experiences and unconscious desires
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A persons personality is rigidly shaped by
fixations in the psychosexual stages and by the balance found by the tripartite personality, factors we cannot wilfully control
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However, the butterfly effect and chaos theory suggests?
small change may lead to a series of other unpredictable changes and therefore behaviour is more probabilistic rather than deterministic.
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What did Rogers believe?
that experience of life was more important on the route to self actualisation
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Every experience we have is evaluated in?
relations to our own view of ourselves
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If behaviour fits?
with this view of ourselves we will do it
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suggesting what?
we have free will over which behaviours we will adopt
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He also noted what?
while personal experience is important, it does not constrain us
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howe we react to these experiences is somethinf?
voluntary
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for example?
we choose and decide what to do next
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However?
just because humans have a subjective sense of free will it does not mean the hidden causes of behaviour are not there.
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In conclusion, more recent developments in this contreversy are put forward by?
Dennet
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What did he suggest?
perhaps free will is a by-product of evolution – something that on the surface is purely deterministic
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humans have evolved so that our thoughts and feelings are what?
able to direct our actions
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If this is the case perhaps our ability to exert free will is what?
partially determined by evolution
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Our conscious mind is just not what?
irrelevant factor in a larger picture but it is, in fact, a crucial element of human design
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It is the conclusion to this controversy that ?
has the largest implication
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if we are able to believe that human behaviour is determined the what?
perhaps governments should be seeking to control people’s behaviours and should be held accountable, as people are merely agents of others
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if we are saying that an individual can exert free will then?
autonomy and personal responsibility come into play
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These assumptions on which?
governments, legal systems and clinical psychology all hinge and, as a result, it can be concluded that in the real world FREE WILL HAS TO EXIST for our society to function.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

For a person acting on their own free will, they must not be what?

Back

constrained or controlled by any internal(genetics) or external (environmental factors)

Card 3

Front

The idea of free will assumes what?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

For example?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is the defintion of determinism?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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