Essay
Discuss free will and determinism in psychology
- Module
- Issues and debates
- Institution
- AQA
A level issues and debates 16 marker full mark essay
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Discuss free will and determinism in psychology (16 marks)The free will vs determinism debate argues whether individuals’ behaviour is controlled by
either internal or external forces that allow behaviour to be predicted, or whether
individuals have an active role in controlling their behaviour.
There are several different ways that behaviour can be described as determined. Firstly,
biological determinism emphasises the role of genes on influencing behaviour, for example,
as seen in schizophrenia, certain genes can influence our neurotransmitters such as
serotonin and dopamine. High levels of dopamine are associated with schizophrenia, as
explained in the dopamine hypothesis. Secondly, environmental determinism describes
behaviour to be caused by previous experiences through the processes of conditioning. This
was seen in the study of phobias where phobias are said to be developed because of
associating an object/situation with high anxiety. Thirdly, psychic determinism explains
behaviour as being a result of a combination of innate drives and early experiences. Finally,
scientific determinism explains how every event has a direct cause on behaviour.
Free will is demonstrated within the humanistic approach in which the humanistic
psychologists, Maslow and Rogers, argue that self-determination is a necessary part of
human behaviour. Rogers claimed that if an individual remains controlled by external forces,
they cannot take responsibility for their behaviour and begin to change it. Moral
responsibility is when an individual oversees their own actions. Under law, children and
those who are mentally ill are exempt from having moral responsibility.
A weakness with characterising a behaviour as genetically determined or environmentally
determined is that neither can always be 100% the sole determining factor in behaviour. For
example, studies comparing identical twins find about 80% similarity on intelligence and
about 40% for depression. This means that, if one twin has a high IQ, there is only an 80%
chance that the other twin will be the same. If genes were entirely deterministic, then there
would be a 100% chance the other twin would have an equally high IQ. Equally, the
environment doesn’t entirely determine behaviour. For example, as explained by the
diathesis stress model, the environment may trigger certain behaviours, however, this is due
to the environment causing the expression of genes. Therefore, this suggests that an
interactionist rather than a deterministic approach better represents the reality of
behaviour.
A further weakness of a deterministic explanation of behaviour is that it can have
undesirable outcomes. There have been instances where murderers claim that their
behaviour was determined by inherited aggressive tendencies and therefore, they argue
that they should not be punished with the death penalty. This was seen in the case of
Stephen Mobley, who killed a pizza shop manager in 1981, in which he claimed it occurred
because he was ‘born to kill’ as evidenced by his family history of violence. Nonetheless, the
argument was rejected. Furthermore, undesirable outcomes can also be seen in the
treatment of mental disorders. Adopting the view that disorders such as schizophrenia and
depression are determined primarily by genes and neurotransmitters, then it is assumed
that drug treatment should target these areas. However, this could result in ignoring other
potentially as/more effective treatments such as CBT. CBT claims to be one of the most
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