Free Will
Free will suggests that human beings are self-determining and choose our own thoughts and actions, it does not deny any biological or environmental forces but says we are able to reject these as we are masters of our own destiny. This is advocated by the humanistic approach.

Determinism
Determinism suggests that free will has no role in explaining behaviour. There are hard and soft versions.

HARD DETERMINISM; aka fatalism, suggests all human behaviour has a cause and that, in theory, it should be possible to identify these causes. This is compatible with the aims of science. Everything we think and do is dictated by internal and external forces that we cannot control. May be too extreme a position.
SOFT DETERMINISM; important feature of the cognitive approach. Though it says that all human behaviour has a cause, soft determinism states that there is some room for manoeuvre; people have conscious mental control over the way they behave. There are determining forces but this does not detract from the freedom we have to make choices in everyday life.

Biological, Environmental and Psychic Determinism

BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM; the biological approach stans the role of biological determinism in behaviour. Many of out physiological and neurological processes are not under our conscious control.
Also, many behaviours and characteristics such as mental disorders are thought to have a genetic basis.
Furthermore, research has demonstrate the effect of hormones on behaviour, e/g testosterone on aggressive behaviour.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM; Skinner described free will as 'an illusion' and argues that all behaviour comes as a result of conditioning. Our experience of choice is simply the sum of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us over our lives.
We think we are acting independently but out behaviour has been shaped by external events and agents of socialisation.
PSYCHIC DETERMINISM; Freud also agreed that free will is an illusion but believes it is more the result of the influence of biological drives and instincts. It sees human behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood. There are no accidents. E.g a Freudian slip.

The Scientific Emphasis on Causal Explanations
A basic principle of science is that every event has a cause and that that cause can be explained by general laws. Knowledge of causes and the formulation of laws are important; they allow scientists to predict and control future events.
therefore all extraneous variables are removed in a laboratory experiment to try and predict and control human behaviour.

	Created by Abbie Holland about 6 years ago

Note on Issues and Debates, created by Abbie Holland on 20/02/2018.

Issues and Debates