Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Free Will & Determinism
- Determinism - The view that
behaviour is controlled by internal
or external forces acting upon the
individual.
- Types of
Determinsm
- Soft
Determinism
- Psychic Determinism - The view
that behaviour is determined by
a mix of innate drives and early
experiences.
- E.g. Freud's psychoanalytic theory
of personality
- This is a version of determinism
that allows for some element of
free will.
- Hard Determinsim
- Biological Determinism -
Biological factors such as
genes and neurotransmitters
determine behaviour.
- E.g. Biological explanations
of OCD
- This is the view that all
behaviour can be predicted and
therefore there is no free will
- Environmental Determinism -
Behaviourists believe that all
behaviour is predetermined by past
experiences through the processes
of classical and operant
conditioning
- Evaluation
- Biological determinism & Environmental determinism: Humanists argue
against it. Evidence to support BD e.g. concordance rate for OCD (MZ 68% DZ
31%) MZ share 100% genetic material. As MZ CR higher, suggests that
biological factors do determine some behaviours. As CR not 100%, suggests
there are other factors, including environmental ones, influence behaviour.
- Prosecution & treatment : Legal professionals argue against biological determinism. Many US murder cases have had
the murderers claim that their behaviour was determined by inherited aggressive tendencies and therefore they
should not be punished with the death penalty. E.g. Stephen Mobley "Born to kill" evidenced by family history of
violence. in practice, determinism allows for 'excuses' for behaviour to be made. Determinsim also issue in treatment
of mental disorders. This view suggests that Sx and Depression are determined by an individual's biology. Therefore
treatments should target genes and neurotransmitters. This blocks consideration of other treatments which may be
beneficial e.g. CBT.
- Free will - The idea that each individual has the
power to make choices about their behaviour
- Humanistic Approach - humanistic
psychologists argued that
self-determination was a necessary part of
human behaviour. Without it, healthy
self-development and self-actualisation
are not possible.
- Moral responsibility - the basis of moral responsibility is that
an individual is in charge of their own actions i.e. they can
exercise free will. The law states that children and those who
are mentally ill do not have this responsibility but otherwise,
there is an assumption in our society, that 'normal' adult
behaviour is self-determined.
- Evaluation
- Free will is an illusion: Skinner put forward the idea that just being able to decide
between courses of action is not free will but it may give us the illusion.. His point
was that a person may 'choose' a particular action but infact this choice was
determined by previous experiences and reinforcement. There had also bee
research to challenge free will : Libet at al recorded activity in motor area of the
brain before a person had made a conscious decision to move their finger. in other
words the decision to move a finger (a conscious state) was simply 'read out' out of a
predetermined action. Also, Chun Siong Soon et al found activity in the pre-frontal
cortec up to 10 seconds before a person was aware of their decision to act.