ISC Class 11 Syllabus 2027 Psychology

ISC YEAR 2027

INDIAN SCHOOL CERTIFICATE
EXAMINATION

PSYCHOLOGY
(855)

February 2025
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and practices.
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Schools to motivate pupils towards the
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experience.
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of the educational experience.
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the national psyche and be sensitive to national
aspirations.

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: counselling, developmental, educational,
organizational and social (in brief).
Paper I - Theory: 3 hours ……70 marks
(iii) Heredity and Environment – meaning of the
Paper II- Project Work:……30 marks
term ‘heredity’; basic principles and
PAPER - I (THEORY) – 70 MARKS mechanism of heredity (genetic). Meaning of
the term ‘environment’; importance of both
1. The Subject Psychology heredity and environment in behaviour.
(i) Definition of Psychology; schools of thought- The definition and role of chromosomes and
Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviourism, genes (dominant and recessive). Significance
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, of environment: physical and social. Heredity
Psychology and other disciplines. related diseases: Mental Impairment and
Definition of Psychology, meaning of the Huntington’s disease. How both heredity and
terms: behaviour, stimulus and response. The environment interact to produce behaviour
eclectic approach of modern Psychology- (Twin studies- identical and fraternal twins,
biological, behavioural, psychoanalytic, Separated Twin Study).
cognitive and socio-cultural approaches. 2. Methods of Psychology
Main features of the schools of Structuralism,
Functionalism and Behaviourism, (i) Scientific Methods in Psychology -
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology (two observation, case study, surveys,
Psychologists of each approach and their experimentation – steps. Psychological tests
relevant concepts). and their uses, ethical issues.

Psychology and other Disciplines: The application of scientific methods in the
Relationship between Psychology and study of behaviour. What is meant by
Economics, Political Science, Law and scientific observation? Field study;
Criminology, Sociology, Computer Science, controlled and uncontrolled observation;
Mass Communication and Music & Fine Arts. longitudinal and cross-sectional studies; the
case history method; the experimental method
(ii) Fields of Psychology – clinical, counselling, - variables and controls - steps in an
developmental, educational, organizational experiment; surveys and use of
and social. questionnaires/self-reports. One advantage
The general importance and aims of studying and one disadvantage for each method of
Psychology and its special benefits. Psychology. Meaning of samples (random,
Applications - different branches and the kind biased, representative); meaning of
of work done in special fields - clinical, population. Psychological tests –
characteristics, definition, uses and types.

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Ethical Issues- voluntary participation, (definition only); after-images-positive and
informed consent, debriefing, sharing results negative (definitions only).
of the study, confidentiality of data. (iii) Errors in perception - illusions of size and
(ii) Interpretation of research results – use of shape
statistics in interpretation of data - False interpretations - illusions: Muller-Lyer,
understanding of why statistics is used Height -Width, Ponzo, Zoellner, Poggendorf.
(descriptive & inferential). Basic statistical
concepts – statistics, sample, population. 4. Emotions and Motivation
Why statistics is used in Psychology - (i) What is meant by emotion; the basic
interpretation of findings: describing and emotions.
summarizing data, comparing individuals/ Subjective and cognitive experience,
groups, investigating relationships between physiological basis of emotion – role of
variables, predicting. Descriptive statistics - thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system and
for summarizing scores. Inferential statistics - cortex, reactions and overt expression.
to determine whether observed differences Primary emotions - fear, anger, joy, sorrow,
between groups are likely/unlikely to have affection.
occurred by chance.
(ii) Theories of emotion dealing with
How scores are grouped into frequency physiological, subjective and cognitive
distributions; central tendency of a frequency aspects.
distribution - mean, median, mode and when
each measure is used; dispersion: the extent James Lange, Cannon Bard, Schachter -
to which scores are spread out - range, Singer theories.
variance, standard deviation; why both (iii) What is meant by motives, needs and
central tendency and variability are instincts.
important in psychology. Motivation as an internal force generating
3. Attention and Perception certain behaviour - biological needs and
homeostasis; instincts as unlearned and
(i) Nature of attention - its inner and outer
physiological desires. Intrinsic - the desire to
determinants.
perform activities for their own sake.
The importance of attention in perception -
(iv) Theories of Motivation.
how both physical factors such as size,
colour, movement, change, intensity, contrast Pull and push theories, Optimum Arousal
and psychological factors such as need, theory and Expectancy theory - Graphic
interest and emotion determine attention and representation of Maslow's Needs Hierarchy.
perception. (v) Social motives.
(ii) Perceptual processes - difference between Three distinctively human motives:
sensation and perception. Organizational Achievement - accomplishing difficult tasks;
principles of perception - laws, constancies, Power - exerting influence over others;
depth and colour perception. Aggression - learning and control of human
Process involved in transforming sensation to aggression, causes and effects.
perception. Important factors in perceptual (vi) Frustration - blocking of motives; conflict
process - figure and ground, laws of among motives.
grouping: similarity, proximity, continuity,
Frustration as a result of motives not finding
simplicity, closure ; constancy of size, shape,
free or adequate expression. Different types
colour and brightness; factors involved in
of conflict among motives: approach-
depth perception -monocular cues – linear
approach, avoidance-avoidance, multiple
perspective, relative size, height in the field,
approach-avoidance (with examples).
aerial perspective, interposition, gradient of
texture, shadows- light and dark; binocular
cues- retinal disparity, convergence and
accommodation ; attributes of colour - hue
and wavelength, brightness and saturation

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

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