The concept of determinism comes from the Latin word determino - I define it, and in the most general sense means a certain regular conditionality of all the events and phenomena occurring in the nature and life of society. This category is widely used in the description and analysis of various phenomena in a wide range of sciences and in the ordinary consciousness of people. That is why the principle of determinism is interpreted and interpreted quite widely, depending on the field of scientific knowledge in which it is applied, as well as on the methodological basis on which the cognitive-analytical activity of the researcher is built.
The principle of determinism in philosophy is a doctrine, according to which any fact of being, any phenomenon in nature has a completely natural reason for its appearance and existence. In this sense, the principle of determinism is opposed to indeterminism, which implies a picture of the universe in which everything is possible and there is no rational explanation. The simplest form of causality can be represented by a pattern: cause is a consequence, and this pattern has the following properties:
- the time sequence in which the cause always precedes the effect;
- the cause always acts as a generating factor in relation to the investigation;
- continuity, according to which any consequence follows the cause immediately, without a time interval;
- irreversibility means the connection is unambiguous, that is, the cause cannot be the cause of the cause, if it is already the cause of the investigation, in the process of causality, the cause cannot take the place of the investigation, although any event can be both the cause and the effect;
- Necessity and universality suggest that under the same conditions for the occurrence of an event, one reason in nature, naturally and inevitably, gives rise to the same consequence.
The principle of determinism in psychology is manifested on the basis of its philosophical interpretation and understanding, and represents a scientific paradigm, according to which, all phenomena are not random and have a very specific reason. With regard to psychology, this is expressed in the fact that mental phenomena are mediated by factors that gave rise to them and which affect their existence. Here, the principle of determinism is considered as a regularity of the genesis of psychic and psychological phenomena from any causes preceding the occurrence of these phenomena. Moreover, it is believed that the time sequence in the occurrence of cause and effect does not exhaust all the characteristics of determinism. The principle of determinism can manifest itself as a systemic one, that is, when the properties of individual elements of the system are mediated by the properties of the system as a whole. The statistical form assumes that under the action of the same causes, certain deviations in the occurrence of consequences and others may be observed.
Previously, the dominant method in psychology was orientation to the mechanistic form of manifestation of determinism, according to which it was considered as the conditionality of mental manifestations by material factors. This approach contributed to the development of knowledge about reflexes, deviant behavior, affects, etc. But in general, this approach is limited, since it considers only external disturbances as causes of mental phenomena.
The inclusion of the ideas of natural science determinism in psychology contributed, firstly, to the transformation of psychology into independent scientific knowledge, and secondly, it oriented the methodology of determinism to the study of its internal laws governing causal relationships.