Psychology Class XI Syllabus

Psychology Class XI Syllabus

Course Structure

Unit	Topic	Marks
I	Introduction to Psychology	8
II	Methods of Psychology	9
III	The Bases of Human Behaviour	8
IV	Human Development	7
V	Sensory and Perceptual Processes	8
VI	Learning	8
VII	Human Memory	8
VIII	Language and thought	7
IX	Motivation and Emotion	7
	Total	70

Unit I: Introduction to Psychology

The unit seeks to help in understanding and appreciating Psychology as a discipline, its applications and relationships with other sciences through appropriate and interesting examples and analysis of everyday experiences.

Nature of Psychology; Evolution of the discipline of Psychology; Developments of Psychology in India; Psychology and other disciplines; Linkages across psychological processes. Emerging perspectives: Evolutionary Psychology, Cultural Psychology and Positive Psychology.

Unit II: Methods of Psychology

The objective of this unit is to familiarize with the methods of studying and understanding behaviour.

Goals of psychological enquiry; Some important methods: Observation, Naturalistic, Experimental, Correlational studies; Interview, Case study; Psychological tools: Tests, Questionnaires; Qualitative Methods, Ethical issues in the study of psychological processes.

Unit III: The Bases of Human Behaviour

This unit focuses on the role of biological and socio-cultural factors in the shaping of human behaviour and experience.

Evolutionary perspective on human behaviour; Biological and cultural roots; Nervous system and endocrine system: Structure and relationship with behaviour and experience; Brain and behaviour, Role of Neurotransmitters in behaviour. State of consciousness and wakefulness. Genetic bases of behaviour; Culture and human behaviour: Socialization, Enculturation and Acculturation; Globalization; Diversity and pluralism in the Indian context.

Unit IV: Human Development

This unit deals with variations in development and the developmental tasks across the life span.

Meaning of development; Factors influencing development; Contexts of development; Overview of developmental stages: Prenatal, Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence (particularly issues of identity, health, social participation and moral development), Adulthood and Old age.

Unit V: Sensory and Perceptual Processes

This unit aims at understanding how various sensory stimuli are received, attended to and given meaning.

Knowing the world; Nature of stimuli; Nature and functioning of sense modalities; Sensory Adaptation; Attention: Nature and determinants; Selective and sustained attention; Principles of perceptual organization; Role of perceiver-characteristics in perception; Perceptual phenomena: After images; Space Perception, Perceptual constancy, Illusions,Socio-cultural influences on perception.

Unit VI: Learning

This unit focuses on how human beings acquire new behaviour and how changes in behaviour take place.

Nature of learning: Paradigms of learnings: Classical and Operant Conditioning, Observational Learning, Cognitive learning, Verbal learning, Concept learning, Skill-learning; Factors facilitating learning; Transfer of learning: Learning styles; Learning disabilities; Some Applications of learning principles.

Unit VII: Human Memory

This unit deals with how information isreceived, stored, retrieved and lost. It will also discuss how memory can be improved.

Nature of memory; Information Processing Approach; Levels of processing; Memory systems: Sensory memory, Short-term memory, Long -term memory; Knowledge representation and organisation in memory; Memory as a constructive process; Memoryand Emotions; Nature and causes of forgetting; Enhancing memory; Brain and memory.

Unit VIII: Language and Thought

This unit deals with thinking and related processes likereasoning, problem-solving, decision making, creative thinking and relationship between thought and language.

Building blocks of thinking: Thought and language: Nature and interrelationship; Stages of cognitive development: Development of language and language use; Reasoning; Problem-solving; Decision making; Creative thinking: Nature, process and development.

Unit IX: Motivation and Emotion

This unit focuses on why human beings behave as they do. It also deals with how people experience positive and negative events and respond to them.

Nature of motivation; Biological needs; Social and psychological motives: Achievement, Affiliation and Power, Maslow's hierarchy of needs; Emerging concepts: Competence, Self efficacy and Intrinsic Motivation; Nature of emotions; Physiological, cognitive and cultural bases of emotions; Expression of emotions; Positive emotions: Happiness, Optimism, Development of positive emotions; Managing negative emotions such as anger and fear.