Determinism

      

Determinism: The belief that everything is caused by the laws of nature. Because causes determine what happens, this belief is called determinism. One of the goals of science is to predict things by finding their causes and then using them to predict what will happen. If you don't know the cause of something, you can't predict it – you can only guess whether it'll happen.

Often if you know something's cause, you can control it. Control is another goal of science.

For centuries philosophers have argued over whether we have free will or whether our behavior is totally determined by natural law. If behavior is not determined, how can psychology study its causes? If psychology can't study behavior scientifically, how can it be a science? See Free will v. determinism