ISC Class 11 Psychology Syllabus 2023-24

PSYCHOLOGY (855)
Aims: (ii) To develop an understanding of the methods of
research and study employed in Psychology.
(i) To develop an understanding of human
behaviour: the nature of individuals and of (iii) To develop an appreciation of the practical
members of social groups. value of Psychology and its applications in
daily life.

CLASS XI
There will be two papers in the subject: of work done in special fields - clinical,
counselling, developmental, educational,
Paper I - Theory: 3 hours ……70 marks
organizational and social (in brief).
Paper II- Practical Work:……30 marks
(iii) Heredity and Environment – meaning of the
PAPER - I (THEORY) – 70 Marks term ‘heredity’; basic principles and
Part I (20 marks) will consist of compulsory short mechanism of heredity (genetic). Meaning of
answer questions relating to the fundamental aspects the term ‘environment’; importance of both
of the entire syllabus. heredity and environment in behaviour.
The definition and role of chromosomes and
Part II (50 marks) will consist of two sections, A and B.
genes (dominant and recessive); the laws of
Candidates will be required to answer two out of heredity: uniformity and variability.
three questions from Section A and three out of five Significance of environment: physical and
questions from Section B. Each question in this part social. Heredity related diseases: Mental
shall carry 10 marks. Retardation and Huntington’s disease. How
both heredity and environment interact to
SECTION A
produce behaviour (Twin studies, Adoption
1. The Subject Psychology Studies, Separated Twin Study).
(i) Definition of Psychology; Nature – bio 2. Methods of Psychology
science, social science or pure science;
(i) Scientific Methods in Psychology -
schools of thought – Structuralism,
observation, case study, surveys,
Functionalism, Behaviourism, Psychoanalysis,
psychological tests, experimentation – steps.
Gestalt psychology.
Psychological tests and their uses.
Definition of Psychology, meaning of the
The application of scientific methods in the
terms behaviour, stimulus and response.
study of behaviour. What is meant by
Subject matter / nature of Psychology as a
scientific observation? Field study;
bio science, social science or pure science.
controlled and uncontrolled observation;
The eclectic approach of modern Psychology.
longitudinal and cross-sectional studies; the
Main features of the schools of Structuralism,
case history method; the experimental method
Functionalism and Behaviourism,
- variables and controls - steps in an
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology (two
experiment; surveys and use of
Psychologists of each approach and their
questionnaires/self-reports. One advantage
relevant concepts).
and one disadvantage for each method of
(ii) Fields of Psychology – clinical, counselling, Psychology. Meaning of samples (random,
developmental, educational, organizational biased, representative); meaning of
and social. population. Psychological tests –
The general importance and aims of studying characteristics, definition, uses and types.
Psychology and its special benefits. (ii) Interpretation of research results – use of
Applications - different branches and the kind statistics in interpretation of data -

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 understanding of why statistics is used perceptions not based on any of the known senses
(descriptive & inferential). Basic statistical (general understanding of ESP).
concepts – statistics, sample, population.
Why statistics is used in Psychology - SECTION B
interpretation of findings: describing and 4. Emotions and Motivation
summarizing data, comparing individuals/
(i) What is meant by emotion; the basic
groups, investigating relationships between
emotions.
variables, predicting. Descriptive statistics -
for summarizing scores. Inferential statistics - Subjective and cognitive experience,
to determine whether observed differences physiological basis of emotion, reactions and
between groups are likely/unlikely to have overt expression. Primary emotions - fear,
occurred by chance. anger, joy, sorrow, affection, physiological
basis of emotion.
How scores are grouped into frequency
distributions; central tendency of a frequency (ii) Theories of emotion dealing with
distribution - mean, median, mode and when physiological, subjective and cognitive
each measure is used; dispersion: the extent aspects.
to which scores are spread out - range, James Lange, Cannon Bard, Schachter -
variance, standard deviation; why both Singer theories.
central tendency and variability are
(iii) What is meant by motives, needs and
important in psychology.
instincts.
3. Attention and Perception Motivation as an internal force generating
(i) Nature of attention - its inner and outer certain behaviour - biological needs and
determinants. homeostasis; instincts as unlearned and
The importance of attention in perception - physiological desires; evidence indicating the
how both physical factors such as size, existence of unconscious motives. Intrinsic -
colour, movement, change, intensity, contrast the desire to perform activities for their own
and psychological factors such as need, sake.
interest and emotion determine attention and (iv) Theories of Motivation.
perception. Pull and push theories, Optimum Arousal
(ii) Perceptual processes - difference between theory and Expectancy theory - Graphic
sensation and perception. Organizational representation of Maslow's Needs Hierarchy.
principles of perception - laws, constancies, (v) Social motives.
depth and colour perception.
Three distinctively human motives:
Process involved in transforming sensation to Achievement - accomplishing difficult tasks;
perception. Important factors in perceptual Power - exerting influence over others;
process - figure and ground, laws of Aggression - learning and control of human
grouping: similarity, proximity, continuation, aggression, causes and effects.
simplicity, good figure; constancy of size,
shape, colour and brightness; factors (vi) Frustration - blocking of motives; conflict
involved in depth perception -monocular and among motives.
binocular cues; how colour is perceived - Frustration as a result of motives not finding
biological and psychological factors ; free or adequate expression. Different types
attributes of colour - hue, wavelength, of conflict among motives: approach-
brightness and saturation; laws of colour approach, avoidance-avoidance, multiple
mixture; colour blindness, adaptation and approach-avoidance (with examples).
after-images.
5. Learning
(iii) Errors in perception - illusions of size and shape;
(i) What is meant by learning; how learning
what is meant by extra-sensory perception (ESP).
takes place - Classical and Operant
False interpretations - illusions: Muller-Lyer, Conditioning; Insight learning, Observational
Height -Width, Ponzo, Zoellner, Poggendorf Learning and Learning Styles.
(details of experiments are required); ESP -

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 Definition of learning - Pavlov and Classical made more effective. Decision making and
Conditioning; Thorndike and Trial and problem solving - heuristics and algorithms.
Error; Skinner and Operant Conditioning; Reaching specific conclusions from available
experiments, findings and principles information - deductive and inductive
established. Insight and Observational reasoning; common errors - faulty premises,
Learning - Kohler and Bandura's studies. biases, fallacy of single case, rationalization,
Learning Styles – Auditory, Visual and hindsight. Improving reasoning - avoiding
Kinesthetic. errors, examining premises and ambiguities,
(ii) Learning disabilities: definition and types. guarding against emotion. Decision Making
Characteristics of the disabilities - Dyslexia, and Problem Solving - steps involved,
dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia optimum expected utility, means-end-
(symptoms and management). Adjustment analysis, analogy.
problems and remedials. (iv) Creative thinking - what is meant by
convergent and divergent thinking; stages in
6. Remembering and Forgetting
creative thinking, how creativity can be
(i) The memory system - how it works - fostered.
different models.
Use of divergent thinking in creativity -
Sensory memory, Short and Long term stages in creative thinking, preparation,
Memory - encoding, storage, retrieval. Terms incubation, illumination,
like iconic image, free recall, serial position verification/validation. How creativity may be
effects, recency effects, primary effects, encouraged: enrich knowledge and
episodic, working memory. Semantic and experience, encourage independence,
Procedural Memory. Processing memory - curiosity and promote positive mood.
the Atkinson Shiffrin Model and Parallel
Distributed Processing. PAPER - II (PRACTICAL WORK) – 30 Marks
(ii) Why and how forgetting occurs. Candidates will be expected to have completed two
Trace decay, retro and proactive studies / experiments from any chapter covered in
interference, retrieval failure, amnesia - Theory. Assessment will be based on a written report
retrograde and anterograde; Alzheimer's which should cover –
disease; Dementia. (I) Aim
(iii) How memory can be improved. (II) Basic concept: Definition of concepts used and
Attention, use of imagery, Mnemonic devices, related theory. Identification of variables –
application of principles of learning. independent and dependent.
7. Thinking, Problem Solving and Creativity (III) Method - (i) Sample of the Study
(i) What is meant by thinking. (ii) Procedure followed (data-
collection, nature of raw data)
Definition and basic elements of thought.
Nature and elements of thinking: images, (iii) Treatment of Data
visual image, concepts and language - (iv) Results & Discussion
interdependence of language and thought; (v) Conclusion
different kinds of thinking: convergent,
divergent, creative, goal-oriented and aimless (IV) Bibliography
thinking. Mark allocation per study [15 marks]:
(ii) Concepts and how they are formed. Basic Concept 3 marks
Definition - importance of concepts in
thinking - artificial, natural, simple and Method (correctness of procedure) 4 marks
complex concepts. Results and discussion 4 marks
(iii) Reasoning - how it is carried out; common Viva 4 marks
errors in reasoning, how reasoning can be

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