FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM

AO1:
Free will:
 Suggests that human being are free to choose
their thoughts and actions
 Free will does not deny that there may be
biological and environmental forces that exert
some influence but it is our choice if we accept
or reject these factors
 Free will is held by the humanist approach
Biological determinism (type):
 Your actions and behaviour are determined by
your biological makeup
 Many of your psychological and neurological
processes are not under your conscious control 
 e.g. autonomic system during periods of stress
 e.g. behaviours such as mental disorders have
a genetic basis
Hard determinism (Version):
 Can be referred to as fatalism
 All human behaviour has a cause and in
principle it should be possible to identify and
describe the effect
 This is compatible with the aims of science – to
uncover the causal laws (cause and effects)
that govern thought and action
 Assumes that all of our actions are dictated by
a cause which has happened in the past
Environmental determinism (type):
 (BF Skinner) – free will is an ‘illusion’ and
argued that behaviour is a result of
conditioning and reinforcement
Our experience of choice is because of
reinforcement that has acted on us
 We might think we are acting independently
but our behaviours are shaped by
environmental events such as socialisation
Soft determinism (version):
 Large factors of your life are predetermined
however there is still a slight element of free
will with smaller decisions
 Acknowledges that all human action has a
cause
 Open to the idea that humans have the
capability to manoeuvre their conscious
mental control over behaviour
 Room for conscious independent decisions
Psychic determinism (type):
 Human behaviour is determined and directed
by unconscious conflicts and repressed
memories from childhood
 Repressed childhood memories cause conflicts
in the unconscious mind
 e.g. depression can be caused by a traumatic
event such as death

 e.g. the role of testosterone in aggression

 Determinism is consistent with
the aims of science
P A strength of determinism is that
the notion of human behaviour
being orderly and obeying fixed
laws places psychology on equal
footing with other sciences
E Furthermore, such research can
help us predict and control
human behaviour as we can
identify a cause and effect
relationship which will enhance
our understanding of behaviour
E This is a strength because it can
lead to the development of
treatment and therapies that may
benefit many. For example,
depression is known to be caused
by an imbalance in
neurotransmitters and can help
us devise specific treatments
such as SSRIs to correct the levels
of serotonin
L Therefore, deterministic ideas of
fixed causes leading to behaviour
can be seen as scientific and can
be used to help people
AO2/AO3:
ー Hard determinism may be
considered as unfalsifiable
P A weakness of hard determinism P Research has shown that the
is that it can be deemed as
unscientific
E Determinism is based on the idea
that the causes of behaviour
exist, even though they are not
always known or proven yet. As a
principle this can be seen as
unfalsifiable
E For example, psychic
determinism claims that mental
illnesses are caused by
unconscious urges, which cannot
be tested empirically or proven
scientifically. According to figures
like Karl Popper, such
unfalsifiable theories cannot be
consistent with science
L Therefore, while some aspects of
determinism can make
psychology seem scientific, other
elements of it can lead to
psychology being seen as lesser
than science
 Support for the notion of free
will
belief in free will and an internal
locus of control can have benefits
for mental health
E For example, a study by Roberts
et al. demonstrated that
adolescents with a strong belief
in fatalism (that their lives were
decided by events outside of
their control) were at a
significantly greater risk of
developing depression. This
suggest that even if we do not
have free will, the fact that we
think we do, may have a positive
impact on mind and behaviour
E This belief has developed
treatments such as CBT to make
patients feel in control of their
emotions and life events in order
to lead to better treatment
L Thus, this demonstrates that
research based on free will can
have successful and effective
applications for mental health
treatments
ー Neurological evidence against
free will
P There has been refuting evidence
for the notion of behaviour being
influence by our free will
E For example, evidence from Soon
et al. found that activity related
to pressing a button with either
the left hand or the right hand
occurs in the brain up to 10
seconds before participants
report being consciously aware of
making the decision
E This refutes free will as it shows
that even thoughts that are
perceived to be free will are
decided and determined by our
brain before we become aware of
them. It suggests that free will is
an illusion and purely a product
of neural activity in our brain
L Therefore it may give us reasons
to believe that what seems like
free will to us may be determined
by biological (or at least external)
factors, reducing the value of free
will

NOTE: Only select the relevant AO1s (e.g. 2/3 points) and four evaluation points (AO2/AO3)