Comparison of Free Will & Determinism

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The Psychodynamic Approach

There are five approaches to psychology: psychodynamic, biological, cognitive, behaviourist and humanistic. Mostly, they fall on the deterministic side. But some involve some free will.

Freud

The psychodynamic approach is based on Freud’s work.
Freud believed that behaviour was guided by unconscious forces. In other words, these forces are determining behaviour.
This is called psychic determinism.

Psychic determinism

For example, if someone forgot to go to their doctor’s appointment, they would think it was an accident.
Freud would interpret this action as the person actually, unconsciously, not wanting to go.
So the person had a behaviour (forgetting) based on a cause (not wanting to go).

Conscious intention

Freud did also state that some behaviours were as a result of conscious intention.
An example of conscious intention would be a person choosing to go to therapy.

The Biological Approach and the Behaviourist Approach

The biological approach is a deterministic approach. The behaviourist approach is also deterministic.

The biological approach

This approach summarises behaviour as being caused by biological influences.
- Examples of biological influences would include: genetics, hormones, and structure.

The biological approach and determinism

For example, schizophrenia has been explained by being caused by genetics and abnormalities in brain structures.
To be technically biologically deterministic, behaviours must be solely caused by biological influences.

The behaviourist approach

The behaviourist approach is also deterministic.
Skinner stated that behaviour is based on environmental influences.
Behaviour is the result of encouraging behaviour through reinforcement or discouraging behaviour by punishing.
This concept is known as environmental determinism.

Environmental determinism

Differences in behaviours amongst different people can be explained by them having gone through different environmental conditioning. They experience a different history of reinforcement of behaviours.
For example, siblings behave differently because of their parents treating them according to birth order.

The Cognitive Approach and The Humanistic Approach

The cognitive approach is a combination of free will and determinism. The humanistic approach is the only approach that is based more on free will.

The cognitive approach - determinism

The cognitive approach is a combination of free will and determinism.
On the deterministic side, the brain receives external sensory information and processes this information.
The processing will lead to different behaviours.
In addition, people’s brain structure and cognitive ability can have genetic roots.

The cognitive approach - free will

On the free will side, people can use cognitive reasoning to make decisions. People can make choices by thinking about them.

The cognitive approach - both

Taken together, people are influenced by outside behaviours and their own brain structure (deterministic) but can impose reasoning on their thinking (free will).

The humanistic approach

Finally, the humanistic approach is basically the only approach that is based more on free will.
Humanists believe that people can choose how to behave to achieve their full potential.
- I.e. all individuals control their behaviour.