Psychology Syllabus for SSB Odisha
Unit – I
- Introduction: Definition and Goals of Psychology; Key Perspectives in Psychology- Behavioral, Cognitive, Humanistic, Psychodynamic, and Sociocultural;
- Biological bases of
Behavior: Structure and functions of Neuron; Communication within and between
Neurons; Structure and functions of the Central Nervous System; Structure and functions of
the Autonomic Nervous System;
- Perception: Nature of perceptual process; Figure-ground
relationship; Laws of Grouping; Perceptual Constancies; Illusions; Perception of Depth and
Distance;
- Learning: Nature and Principles of Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning
and Observational Learning;
- Remembering & Forgetting:
- Systems of Memory- Sensory,
Short Term and Long Term;
- Types of Memory- Episodic, Semantic, and Procedural;
- Causes of
Forgetting- Interference, Repression and Amnesia.
Unit – II
- Thinking & Reasoning: Nature of Thinking process; Tools of thinking-Concepts,
Categories, Prototypes, Schemas and Scripts; Reasoning Process-Inductive and Deductive
reasoning; Decision making and Problem Solving;
- Intelligence: Theories of Gardner and
Stenberg; Genetic and Environmental influences on Intelligence; Measuring Intelligence and
Interpretation of Test scores;
- Personality: Theories of Personality- Psychoanalytic,
Humanistic, and Socio-cognitive; Trait and Type approaches to personality; Biological and
Socio-cultural determinants of Personality; Psychometric and projective assessment of
personality;
- Emotion: Theories of Emotion- James-Lange; Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer
and Opponent Process;
- Motivation: Theories of Motivation- Drive theory, Arousal theory,
Expectancy theory and Need hierarchy theory
Unit – III
- Basics of Development: Meaning, nature and types of Development; Principles of
Development; Factors influencing Development; Perspectives of Development- Psychoanalytic, Mechanistic; and Organismic;
- Life in Preparation: Physical, Motor; Social
and Emotional Development during Childhood and Adolescence; Piaget’s theory of
Cognitive Development; Kohlberg’s stages of Moral development;
- Self and Identity:
Emergence of Self, Structure of Self, Development of Personal Identity; Development of
Self-control; Development of Gender Differences and Gender Roles.
- Fundamentals of
Abnormality: Concept of Abnormality, Classification of Maladaptive Behavior- DSM- IV & V;
- Assessment Techniques: Diagnostic tests; Rating Scales, and Projective Tests;
- Disorders & Diseases: Personality Disorder- Paranoid, Schizoid and Dissociative; Anxiety disorder- Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Phobic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder;
- Mood
disorder-Major depressions, Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia;
- Therapy & Treatment:
Therapeutic Approaches-Psychodynamic and Cognitive Behavior therapy.
Unit – IV
- Health Psychology: Models of health and illness- The cognition model, The health
Belief model, Protection motivation model, and Leventhal’s Self Regulatory model;
Behavioral and Psychological correlates of illness; Approaches to promoting wellness;
Children’s Health issues- Malnutrition, Immunization, Autism and ADHD; Health issues of
Women and Elderly- Diabetes, Osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Depression;
- Counseling Psychology: Theories of Counseling- Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, and Client
Centered; Techniques of Counseling- Cognitive approach, Rational-Emotive approach,
Behavioral Approach, Transactional Analysis; Counseling Programs- Counseling
Relationship, Transference and Counter Transference, Termination of Counseling
Relationship; Students’ Counseling- Goals, Roles and activities of the school and college
counselor;
- Positive Psychology: Goals of Positive psychology; Foundations of Positive
Psychology- Positive Emotions, Positive Individual Traits and Positive Experiences, Self- direction, Optimism, gratitude, Purpose, and mindfulness
Unit – V
- Social Psychology: Attitudes- Nature, Characteristics and Functions of Attitude;
Attitude Formation and Change; Attitude Measurement; Prejudices and Stereotypes- Nature and Components of Prejudice; Acquisition of Prejudices; Reduction of Prejudice;
Group- Structure and Function; Group processes- Social facilitation, Social Loafing, Social
Modeling, Conformity and Obedience; Leadership- Definitions, Types and Functions; Trait,
Situational, Interactional and Contingency approaches to Leadership;
- Organizational
Behavior: Structure and Functions of Organization; Common Organizational Designs,
Management Roles, Functions and Skills; Work Motivation- ERG Theory, McClelland Theory,
Cognitive evaluation theory, Goal Setting theory, Reinforcement Theory;
- Psychological
Statistics: Measures Central Tendency and Variability; Hypothesis Testing- Level of
Significance, Type I and Type II error; ‘t’ test for independent and Dependent Samples,
Mann-Whitney ‘U’ Test, One way and Two way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis H test; Concept of
Correlation; Rank order and Product Moment Correlation.
