Free Will & Determinism
Psychology: AQA A Level, topic 8.1.6
Free Will
There are two competing concepts of what guides people’s behaviour: free will or determinism. Free will is when people can choose how they behave.
Free will
- Free will is when people can choose how they behave.
- Their behaviour is not determined by biological, genetic, or external factors (such as social influence).
- Their behaviour is also not determined by past behaviour.
- Decisions and intentions guide human choices and behaviours.
Subjectivity and free will
- Free will can be subjective. Some people may believe that they are choosing how to behave, but may actually be governed by external forces.
- For example, in a school, children may feel like they are making decisions about their appearance, but are actually conforming to the norm of the majority.
- They are governed by social influence; an external factor.
Psychological disorders and free will
- Certain psychological disorders (such as schizophrenia, bipolar, OCD, ADD, etc.) are difficult to explain through free will.
- It is unlikely that people are choosing to behave in those ways.
- They are more likely to be deterministic, as a result of genetic or biological causes.
Determinism
There are two competing concepts of what guides people’s behaviour: free will or determinism. Determinism states that people do not choose how to behave but are influenced by external forces.
Determinism
- Determinism boils down to cause and effect relationships.
- People cannot choose how to behave - they only behave (effect) as a result of a cause.
- In other words, past events and causes can have an effect on our current behaviour.
The 3 types of determinism
- Determinism can be split into 3 different things that cause it: biological (genetic) determinism, environmental determinism, and psychic determinism.
- Biological determinism focuses on the argument that genes determine our dispositions, behaviours and responses.
- Psychic determinism focuses on learned unconscious behaviours (rather than conscious decisions) guiding our behaviour.
- Environmental determinism focuses on things like conditioning (to survive in an environment we may have to learn a behaviour) and this learned behaviour will then determine our actions.
Arguments for determinism
- Scientific theories are based on the ability to predict future events on past events.
- For example, doctors can predict the effects of medication on a patient’s body based on past studies done on the drug.
Arguments for determinism cont.
- The entire physical universe operates on the deterministic principle.
- The universe is full of cause and effect relationships.
- So the deterministic view is scientific as we can use past events in similar situations to predict future behaviours.
Arguments against determinism
- One disadvantage of determinism is the fact that it is unfalsifiable.
- Unfalsifiable means that it cannot be proved wrong, which is a benchmark of science.
- Determinism makes the assumption that behaviours are based on past events or causes, which may or may not be discovered.
Test yourself on Free Will & Determinism
What are the two competing theories about what guides behaviour?
What does the concept of free will state?
What are the two competing theories about what guides behaviour?
What does the concept of determinism state?