free will vs determinism- ISSUES AND DEBATES

Question 1

What are the assumptions of the free will position?

Answer 1

• assumes that humans are free to choose their own behaviour
• they’re self determining
• doesn’t mean behaviour is uncaused in the sense of it being completely random, but assumes that influences can be rejected completely at will.
• soft determinism= freewill isn’t freedom from cause, but freedom from coercion and constraint
• if our actions are voluntary and in line with our desired goals, then they are free.
• people have conscious mental control over the way that they behave

Question 2

Humanistic psychology and free will

Answer 2

• ROGERS AND MASLOW
• we are able to direct our lives towards self chosen goals
• emphasis on free will is apparent in humanistic based therapies where the term client and facilitator are used to indicate the voluntary nature of the therapy and the idea that the individual has the power to solve their own problems.

Question 3

Cognitive psychology and free will

Answer 3

• soft-determinism approach
• considers problem solving and attentional mechanisms as ‘choosers’ of thoughts and behaviours.
• while it seems that we choose what we pay attention to, these mechanisms operate within the parameters of their innate capabilities and our past experiences, suggesting we aren’t free to choose what we see.

Question 4

AO3- strengths of the free will debate

Answer 4

• introspection upon our decisions when there are many possible and equally desirable options implies free will.
• subjective impressions are considered, even if humans don’t have free will, the fact that they think they do has implications for behaviour
• ROTTER
  proposed that individuals who feel like outside factors control their life suffer more from stress than those who feel they can influence the situation

-BREHM
argued that people react if they feel that their freedom is threatened

Question 5

AO3- limitations of free will argument

Answer 5

• difficult to define what free will is and what the ‘self’ that ‘does the choosing’ consists of
• evidence for the existence of free will is subjective
• LIBET
  claims that brain processes that initiate the movement of a hand occur almost half a second before the moment the subject reports choosing to move it
• a pure free will approach is inconsistent with the deterministic assumptions of science

Question 6

What are the assumptions of determinism?

Answer 6

• hard determinism assumes that every physical event is caused, including human behaviour
• if all events are caused and perfect knowledge is gained of the current state of the universe, it follows that future events are entirely predictable.
• determinism, with its basis on causal laws, is the basis of science

Question 7

Behaviourists on determinism

Answer 7

• environmental determinism
• learning from the environment causes behaviour
• Skinner’s belief that the deterministic laws of learning could predict and control the future
• skinner argued that free will is a complete illusion created by the complexity of learning, all human behaviour is a result of conditioning and our experience of choice is merely the sum total of reinforcement

Question 8

psychoanalysis on determinism

Answer 8

• psychic determinism
• our behaviour is controlled by unconscious forces
• the reasons for our actions are rationalised by our conscious minds

Question 9

What’s biological determinism

Answer 9

• the deterministic influence of genetics, brain structure and biochemistry

Question 10

AO3- strengths of determinism

Answer 10

• illusion of freewill challenged by mental disorders like OCD and depression
• determinism is a key assumption in science
• the value of scientific research is that prediction and control of human behaviour has led to the development of treatments, therapies and behavioural interventions that’ve helped many
• the majority of psychologists accept determinism

Question 11

AO3- limitations of determinism

Answer 11

• inconsistent with societies idea of self - control and responsibility that underlie our moral and legal assumptions
• only extreme examples of determinism are taken into account
• determinism is unfalsifiable since it always assumes that there’s a cause even if they haven’t found one

Question 12

If an exam q asks about free will-determinism and how it links to 2 other psychology topics, which 2 would you use?

Answer 12

• psychopathology
• forensics