8.2.1 Types of Determinism

What is the essence of this debate?

• The difference between being actively in charge of your own behaviour and outcomes (free will) or giving in to ‘fate’ and other external forces to decide your destiny (determinism)
  
• A deterministic approach involves surrendering any autonomy for your own actions or for the actions of others e.g. ‘people in X situation will always behave like this’
  
• A free will approach involves assuming autonomy for your own actions even in the face of strong external influences e.g. ‘X situation does not necessarily have to result in this behaviour’
  
  

Which path will you take? Is it in your hands or is it Fate? This is the essence of this debate

Determinism - types of determinism

• Hard determinism: this type of determinism is based on the cause-effect explanation (a feature of the scientific method) as it assumes that all types of behaviour can be explained using general, causal laws of behaviour: an idea which is the ultimate in fatalism
  
• Soft determinism: this type of determinism is based on hard determinism but it includes the mediating effects of cognitive factors such as thoughts, emotions, reflection which means that human beings can exercise some control over outcomes
  
• Biological determinism: this type of determinism assumes that biological processes control behaviour e.g. neurotransmission, hormones, genes
  
• Environmental determinism: this type of determinism is based on the ideas behind conditioning i.e. that human beings are controlled by external forces such as agents of socialisation e.g. parents, teachers
  
• Psychic determinism: this type of determinism is based on the idea that human beings are controlled by internal, unconscious drives which are derived from repressed conflicts
  
  

The Skinner box - an example of hard determinism and environmental determinism as the environment exerts a direct effect on the rat’s behaviour

Link to approaches and examples from research

• The behaviourist approach underpins both hard determinism and environmental determinism with its emphasis on a simple cause-effect explanation of behaviour based on environmental stimuli and learned responses
  
• Early proponents of behaviourism such as Skinner demonstrate the attitudes prevalent in hard determinism (he declared that free will is an ‘illusion’)
  
• Token economies are good examples of environmental determinism as they emphasise the role of external rewards as the motivation to change behaviour (also seen in the Learning approach)
  
• The cognitive approach is an example of soft determinism as it follows the assumptions made by hard determinism but makes allowances for individual choice and thought
  
• The concept of schema is an example of soft determinism in that an individual’s schema is dictated to some extent by external factors but the individual still exercises some control over how their schema develops e.g. someone who has been brought up to be racist may adapt their schema when they interact with other races and cultures
  
• The biological approach is underpinned by biological determinism to some extent as it assumes that biological processes determine behaviour and outcomes
  
• The theory of localisation of function is an example of biological determinism as it links specific behaviours to brain regions and structures e.g. Raine et al.’s  (1997) research which suggested that murderers lack activity in the prefrontal cortex
• The psychodynamic approach is underpinned by psychic determinism with its emphasis on the idea that people unconsciously repress their true desires due to conflicts developed in early childhood
• Freud’s study of Little Hans concluded that the boy had a horse phobia linked to his oedipus complex based on Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages of development
  
  

Cognitive schema: an example of soft determinism as the individual exercises some control and choice over how their schemas adapt to new information

Arguments in support of determinism

• The principles of determinism are in line with the features of science i.e. that behaviour has a cause and can be measured
• Some behaviours may be determined by external factors e.g. mental illness as a result of being exposed to war, abuse, neglect

Arguments against determinism

• If determinism is a 100% valid theory it would mean that everyone born under the same circumstances ends up with the same experiences or outcomes which is clearly untrue e.g. people born into a criminal family who choose a different path in life
• For all its seeming scientific credentials determinism is unfalsifiable as it cannot pinpoint exactly what the causes of behaviour are e.g. a rich man steals a bottle of wine from a shop