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• Editorial
• Bibliographical Essay: Isaac Kramnick, English Middle-class Radicalism In the Eighteenth Century
• I: I Social and Political Thought
• Community, Individuality, and Freedom
• Rousseau's Social Thought
• A Sociological History of Utilitarianism
• Spencer and Comte In American Labor Thought
• Bureaucracy In Weber & Kafka
• Bergson's Political Doctrines
• Oakeshott's Political Theory
• Oakeshott's Political Philosophy
• Undermocratic Liberal Republicans
• Wilkes and Radical Politics
• Late Liberal Imperialism
• Kant and Reason In Politics
• II: Education, Politics, and Values
• Schools and Political Socialization
• Schooling For Imperialism
• The Political Economy of Public Schooling
• Federal Education Policy
• The Problems of Federal Education
• William James As Individualist
• Existential and Phenomenological Education
• Early Federal Educational Policy
• Education, Labor Markets, & Controlled Youth
• Government Control of Universities
• III: Economic Thought and Values
• Business and Legal History
• Schumpeter's Economic Theories
• Menger and Entrepreneurship
• Saint-simonian Economic Ideas
• The Free Market & the Third World
• Democratic Capitalism, Justice, & Religion
• Property, Law, and Economics
• The Economic Analysis of Law Vs. Values
• IV: Foreign Policy and Ideology
• The Attractiveness of War
• Walzer On International Morality
• Eduard Bernstein and Imperialism
• Roosevelt Vs. His War Critics
• American Preconceptions of Japan
• The Marshall Plan and Russia
• V: Self-knowledge, Autonomy, and Liberty
• The Self In Political Thought
• Autonomy, Self, and Will Power
• Self-knowledge: Goethe, Kant, and Hegel
• The Egoist As a “psychopath”
• The History of Social Psychology
• Psychology, Self, and Society
• Free Will, Responsibility, and Motivation
• Free Will, Purpose, and Responsibility
• Political “groupthink” and Reality
• Personal Freedom and Autonomy
• Research Fields
• Economics
• Education
• History
• Philosophy
• Political Philosophy
• Psychology
• Sociology

Free Will, Responsibility, and Motivation

James A. Easterbrook

• University of New Brunswick

The author describes freely willed behavior as occurring “whenever an individual has planfully created preferred changes in his environment.” Free will is conceptually linked with competence in striving to meet personal standards and with taking personal responsibility for one's actions. Such competence and responsibility depends upon a predictably responsive environment. Failure of will is associated with ineffective action, powerlessness, and neurosis.

An implicit theory of responsibility is presented in which a person's imputation of responsibility is described as a function of two factors: (a) intentional vs. unintentional, and (b) chosen vs. imposed. Responsibility exists in circumstances where people understand themselves to be in control of their actions, i.e., where their behavior appears intentional and chosen. In those instances where there are no inducing or impelling external influences evident, the causes of behavior are presumed to be internal. Responsibility is not imputed when behavior is generated either impulsively or in response to strong external pressures, even when the behavior is intentional.

Responsibility for behavior is associated with “proactive” (anticipatory) information processing and problem solving, rather than mere “reaction.” High drive states are associated with greater reactivity and, hence, less freedom of choice. In the process of learning methods to achieve drive reduction, the range of freedom is expanded.

The author also explores the relationship of responsibility to Rotter's concepts of internal and external locus of control of reinforcement. Individuals are shown to differ in the extent to which they perceive themselves to have freedom of will. Those claiming greater sense of choice report themselves as more satisfied, confident, and self-disciplined. They also scored higher on tests of information and intelligence.

Research connections between freedom of will and numerous psychological phenomena are discussed. These include achievement motivation, persuasion, conformity, social cooperation, and moral reasoning. The research on the antecedents of personal freedom indicates that individuals with a strong sense of internal control recall their parents as providing predictable, consistent discipline and informative, loving support for attempts to achieve independence. The social structures which promote freedom of choice and personal responsibility are identified as involving the extensive flow of information and trade. The more fluid a society, the greater value is placed on education and the greater is the likelihood of social cooperation.