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The Freewill Debate

The Freewill Debate. What are the parameters within which we can make choices. Key terms. Using you texts, define the following terms : Freewill Scientific determinism Biological determinism Hard determinism Psychic determinism Environmental determinism Causal explanations

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The Freewill Debate

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  1. The Freewill Debate What are the parameters within which we can make choices

  2. Key terms • Using you texts, define the following terms: • Freewill • Scientific determinism • Biological determinism • Hard determinism • Psychic determinism • Environmental determinism • Causal explanations • Soft determinism (you might want to highlight key words in the definitions)

  3. Examples from across the specification • Freewill: CBT, IMH • Scientific determinism: Penton-Voak • Biological determinism: Pope - testosterone • Hard determinism: Jacobs • Psychic determinism: Psychosexual stages • Environmental determinism: Little Albert

  4. Applied questions • Complete question in PHG Revision Guide - discuss • Write your own question • Ask your partner to answer it. • Remember to focus on the terminology

  5. Freewill • The (other) approaches • Humanism: free will underpins the entire approach: without it personal growth and optimal mental health can’t occur. • Psychodynamism: often regarded as deterministic, the approach does incorporate a degree of free will in psychoanalytical processes e.g. in acknowledging and overcoming defence mechanisms • Cognitive psychology: in order to alter irrational beliefs and biases, it is necessary engage with the choice between to or more alternatives. Meta cognition involves the evaluation of competing cognitions. • Issues • IMH: see humanism • Morality: legally children and the mentally ill are excused responsibility for their actions, all others and considered to accountable for their actions i.e. they are self-determined. There are considerable implications if we accept that individuals are not responsible for their actions.

  6. Brain areas • Orbitofrontal cortex: area of the frontal cortex concerned with decision making, simulating potential consequences and impulse control (see Baumeister) • Medial prefrontal cortex: concerned with our sense of self, it also coordinates our emotions along with the nucleus accumbens(dopamine heavy, pleasure seeking area) and the amygdala (fear, danger). • Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is the last area of Pfc to develop and appears to be the “decider of the deciders”. It is the most objective/rational area and (ideally) works in conjunction with the mPfc/ - Sapolsky 2016. • The late onset of Pfc functionality/development may be an evolutionary process to limit the impact of genes and promote freewill.

  7. Evaluation • Research: • Baumeister, ego depletion, watching sad movies and squeezing hand exercisers – is freewill finite? But does physical depletion equate to cognitive depletion? Furthermore the existence of impulse control is itself evidence for freewill. Therefore, understanding impulse control at a meta cognition level – i.e. being able to analyse the origin of thoughts – may be the key to altering behaviour. • Chun Siong Soon 2008, activity in prefrontal cortex up to 10 seconds before conscious awareness of intention to act. However, there is no evidence that the intention is anything more than a readiness to act and therefore there is still the option of altering the decision. • Note: 4th bullet point evaluation in PHG inadequate, superficial and flippant (scary)

  8. Evaluation • Holistic and Emergent conclusions: • Holistic approaches argue that it is reductionistto assume that freewill is located in one or two areas of the brain, and that the sense of self and the choices that come with it “emerge” from the complexity of biological processes. Others simply do not want to engage with the reality that if freewill exists, in any form, then it must have a biological basis, and cite more spiritual, unfalsifiable explanations. • It may be the case that those who believe that they have no freewill and those that believe they have, are both right. It is entirely possible that freewill, as such, is an option that not everybody takes up (see Zimbardo, Milgram, Asch, and Rotter). Furthermore, if freewill is a possibility, then what is true for humans may also be true for some members other large mammalian species (such as Orcas). • However, the examiner is probably expecting a soft determinism conclusion. So, we should/could take the view that most behaviours seem to have elements of choice within biological and environmental boundaries.

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