Getting Started Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self The Conscious Self Focus on Free Will, Voluntary Action This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any image; any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self Is the Self Determined? Or… …can a ghost in the machine make changes?

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self The Sense of Free Will in Decisions Will and Five Types of Decisions (James, W. Vol 2, Chapter on Will, pp ) The reasonable type decision. Matters settle themselves. We wake up, and things seem clear… We…sense… being free in seeing what is right.

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self The Sense of Free Will… 2.Ending hesitation due to outside forces. No way seems better than the other. We grow tired of the inconclusiveness…When outside forces say we must decide, we decide…one way or another, almost at chance. 3.Ending hesitation from within. We can no longer stand trying to figure out the best course of action. “Decide now!!!” we say – however reckless, and decide we do.

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self The Sense of Free Will… 4.Changes of heart… We suddenly become serious, our conscience awakens (or in some cases we become light and frivolous). Either way, the true answer seems clear. 5.“…we ourselves by our own willful act inclined the beam…the feeling of effort accompanies these…dreary resignation…[or the realization that by] murdering one alternative…[how much] he is making himself lose…the sense of inward effort.

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self Determinism vs. Free Will in Religion Calvinism –God is sovereign and chooses things –Because all people have sin, salvation is according to God’s choice –God chooses who is saved, and did so before the creation of the world Arminianism –God wants all people to be saved –God’s election of people to salvation is a product of their religious faith –Salvation will occur if people are sufficiently faithful to the tenets of Christianity

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self Determinism vs. Free Will in Science Deterministic psychology –Freud: Everything is determined by the major parts of the mind: e.g., conscious, unconscious, preconscious –Skinner: Everything is determined by the nature of the organism in interaction with outside control… Free-will position –Pelletier: Indeterminism in physics permits mental events to operate independently of the brain and to influence the brains events –Sir John Eccles: The mind creates fields of “spatio-temporal” influence.

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self Determinism vs. Free Will Zeno of Citium, the Stoic Philosopher (not to be confused with Zeno of Elias) cited in Chaplin & Krawiec Systems and Theories of Psychology, 1979, pp Believed that everything is fated, determined One day, Zeno discovered a slave who was stealing from him. The slave said “According to your very teachings, it was determined that I would steal. Therefore, I am not personally responsible.” Zeno replied: “It has also been determined that I will beat you.”

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self The Ethical Tradition in Western Civilization There exists self-determinism in conduct This conflicts with certain aspects of science Yet, until science proves there is strict determinism, self-determinism – that is, free will, remains viable. From Chaplin & Krawiec (1979), Theories of Psychology pp )

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self Freedom from the Free Will Debate Libet’s finger raising experiment: –Instruction: Say when you will raise your finger –A negative electrical shift in the brain arises related to raising a finger –300 to 400 milliseconds later, participants said they were going to start People don’t know when they exert will! From Chaplin & Krawiec (1979), Theories of Psychology pp )

Does the Self Possess Free Will? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self Freedom from the Free Will Debate Wegner’s cursor control study –Confederate and participant co-controlled cursor –Participant stops on an image “by choice” –Sometimes the confederate controls it; sometimes not People don’t know when they control the cursor!

How Is the Conscious Self Expressed? © Copyright 2006 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach Part 2: Parts of PersonalityChapter 7: The Conscious Self ~ end ~