GATE 2025 Syllabus for Humanities and Social Sciences

Reasoning and Comprehension
XH-B1
(Compulsory for all XH candidates)

This part is to test the candidate’s ability to comprehend and interpret written information – skills
that are critical to research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The section will not directly test
language competence in terms of grammar, vocabulary etc. The focus is instead on critical
reasoning (similar to what is often found in exams like LSAT, GRE, GMAT etc.) and analysis of
the text and its stylistic and rhetorical structure.

Questions of this section XH-B1 will test the following skills:

 Reading Comprehension: Ability to understand complex language material in short paragraphs
and answer questions regarding them.

 Expression: Questions on stylistic and rhetorical aspects of a short passage including
corrections or modifications of particular sentences.

 Analytical Reasoning: ability to understand relationships in statements or short passages and
being able to draw reasonable conclusions/inferences from them.

 Logical Reasoning: Thinking critically to evaluate or to predict an argument, identify the main
and supporting arguments, predict outcomes etc.

XH-C1 Economics

C1.1 Microeconomics: Theory of Consumer Behaviour: Cardinal Approach and Ordinal
Approach; Consumer Preferences; Nature of the utility function; Marshallian and Hicksian
demand functions; Duality Theorem. Slutsky equation and Comparative Statics. Homogeneous
and Homothetic Utility Functions; Euler’s Theorem. The Theory of Revealed Preference: Weak
Axiom of Revealed Preference and Strong Axiom of Revealed Preference, Theory of Production
and Costs: Short-run and Long-run Analysis, Existence, Uniqueness and Stability of Market
Equilibrium: Walrasian and Marshallian Stability Analysis. The Cobweb Model, Decision making
under uncertainty and risk. Asymmetric Information: Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard. Theory
of Agency costs. The Theory of Search, Non-Cooperative games: Constant sum game, Mixed
Strategy & Pure Strategy, Bayesian Nash Equilibrium, SPNE, Perfect Bayesian Equilibria., Theory
of Firm: Market Structures — Competitive and Non-competitive equilibria and their efficiency
properties. Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm, Factor Pricing: Marginal productivity
Theory of Distribution in Perfectly Competitive markets; Theory of Employment in Imperfectly
Competitive Markets — Monopolistic Exploitation, General Equilibrium Analysis. Welfare
Economics: Fundamental Theorems, Social Welfare Function. Efficiency Criteria: Pareto-
Optimality.

C1.2 Macroeconomics: National Income Accounting: Closed Economy Concepts and
Measurement and Open Economy Issues, Determination of output and employment: Classical &
Keynesian Framework, Theories of Consumption: Absolute Income Hypothesis, Relative Income
Hypothesis, Life Cycle Hypothesis, Permanent Income Hypothesis and Robert Hall’s Random
Walk Model; Investment Function Specifications - Dale Jorgenson’s Neoclassical Theory of
Capital Accumulation and Tobin’s, Keynesian Stabilization Policies, (Autonomous) Multipliers
and Investment Accelerator, Demand and Supply of Money, Components of Money Supply,
Liquidity Preference and Liquidity Trap, Money Multiplier, Interest Rate determination, Central
Banking, Objectives, Instruments (Direct and Indirect) of Monetary Policy, Prudential Regulation,
Quantitative Easing (Unconventional Monetary Policy), Commercial Banking, Non-Banking
Financial Institutions, Capital Market and its Regulation, Theories of Inflation and Expectations
Augmented Phillips Curve, Real Business Cycles, Adaptive Expectations Hypothesis, Rational
Expectation Hypothesis and its critique. Closed Economy IS – LM Model and Mundell Fleming
Model: Monetary and Fiscal Policy Efficacy. The Impossible Trinity.

C1.3 Statistics, Econometrics and Mathematical Economics: Probability Theory: Concepts of
probability, Probability Distributions [Discrete and Continuous], Central Limit Theorem, Index
Numbers and Construction of Price Indices, Sampling Methods & Sampling Distribution,
Statistical Inferences, Hypothesis Testing, Linear Regression Models and the Gauss Markov
Theorem, Heteroscedasticity, Multicollinearity and Autocorrelation, Spurious regressions and
Unit roots, Simultaneous Equation Models – recursive and non-recursive. Identification Problem,
Differential Calculus and its Applications, Linear Algebra – Matrices, Applications of Cramer’s

Rule, Static Optimization Problems and Applications, Input-Output Model, Linear Programming,
Difference equations and Differential equations with applications.

C1.4 International Economics: Theories of International Trade, International Trade under
Imperfect Competition, Gains from Trade, Terms of Trade, Trade Multiplier, Tariff and Non-
Tariff barriers to trade; Dumping and Anti-Dumping Policies, GATT, WTO and Regional Trade
Blocks; Trade Policy Issues, Balance of Payments: Composition, Equilibrium and Disequilibrium
and Adjustment Mechanisms, Foreign Exchange Market and Arbitrage, Exchange rate
determination, IMF & World Bank.

C1.5 Public Economics: Market Failure and Remedial Measures: Asymmetric Information,
Public Goods, Externality, Regulation of Market – Collusion and Consumers’ Welfare, Public
Revenue: Tax & Non-Tax Revenue, Direct & Indirect Taxes, Progressive and non-Progressive
Taxation, Incidence and Effects of Taxation, Public expenditure, Public Debt and its management,
Public Budget and Budget Multiplier, Tax Incidence, Fiscal Policy and its implications,
Environment as a Public Good, Market Failure and Coase Theorem, Cost-Benefit Analysis.

C1.6 Development Economics: Theories of Economic Development: Adam Smith, David
Ricardo, Karl Marx, J. Schumpeter, W. Rostow, Balanced & Unbalanced Growth, Big Push
Approach, Indicators of Economic Development: HDI, SDGs, MDGs, Poverty and Inequalities –
Concepts and Measurement Issues, Social Sector Development: Health, Education, Gender,
Fertility, Morbidity, Mortality, Migration, Child Labor, Age Structure, Demographic Dividend,
Models of Economic Growth: Harrod-Domar, Solow, Ramsey, Technical progress – Disembodied
& Embodied, Endogenous Growth Models.

C1.7 Indian Economy: Economic Growth in India: Pattern and Structure, Agriculture, Industry
& Services Sector: Pattern & Structure of Growth, Major Challenges, Policy Responses, Rural &
Urban Development – Issues, Challenges & Policy Responses, Flow of Foreign Capital, Trade
Policies, Infrastructure Development: Physical and Social; Public-Private Partnerships, Reforms
in Land, Labour and Capital Markets, Poverty, Inequality & Unemployment, Functioning of
Monetary Policy in India, Fiscal Policy in the Indian context: Structure of Receipts and
Expenditure, Tax reforms-Goods and Services Tax, Issues of Growth and Equity, Fiscal
Federalism, Centre-State Financial Relations and Finance Commissions of India; Sustainability of
Deficits and Debt, The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act 2003, Demonetization
and aftermath. India’s balance of payments, Composition of India’s Trade, Competitiveness of
India’s exports, India’s exchange rate policy.

XH-C2 English

C2.1 Multi-genre literatures in English—poetry, the novel and other forms of fiction including the
short story, drama, creative non-fiction, and non-fiction prose—with emphasis on the long 19th
and 20th centuries.

C2.2 Especially in a comparative context, anglophone and in English translation, literatures from
India and, extending to some degree, the larger Indian subcontinent.

C2.3 Literary criticism and theory; critical and cultural intellectual-traditions and approaches
widely referred to and used in the discipline of English.

C2.4 History of English literature and English literary studies.

C2.5 Research approaches and methodologies, including interpretive techniques responsive to
literary forms, devices, concepts, and genres.

Note:

(i) The five units above list aspects that the question paper will include rather than signal separate
modules or sections. These five units listed are not necessarily exclusive to each other either. The
question paper will also not be divided into sections corresponding to the above aspects; and

(ii) While the paper will test candidates for a reasonable breadth of disciplinary knowledge, it
would prioritize conceptual depth and methodological sensitivity demonstrative of disciplinary
training over information, wherever possible.

XH-C3 Linguistics

C3.1 Language and Linguistics

Language spoken, written and signed; description and prescription; language and cultural heritage;
language and social identity; language as an object of inquiry – its structure, units and components;
design features; writing systems; biological foundations and language faculty; linguistic
competence and performance; levels of grammar; contrast and complementation; rules - context
dependent and context free; levels of adequacy for analysis; interdisciplinary approaches; schools
of linguistic thought (European, American) and the Indian Grammatical Tradition.

C3.2 Levels of Grammar and Grammatical Analysis

A. Phonetics and Phonology: Vocal tract anatomy; phonation; articulatory parameters;
classification of sounds; gestural theory of speech production; cardinal vowels; secondary and co-
articulation; suprasegmentals - length, stress, tone, intonation and juncture; IPA; basic physics of
sound and of phonation and articulation; acoustic cues for speech sounds; organisation of phones
into phonemes; phoneme inventories and cross-linguistic properties; syllable structure and
phonological properties; principles of phonological analysis - phonetic similarity, contrastive and
complementary distribution, free variation, allophones; linear and non-linear approaches; levels of
representation; phonological rules; distinctive features (major class, manner, place, etc.); feature
geometry; rule ordering, markedness and unspecified featural values; core principles of lexical
phonology, optimality theory, autosegmental phonology and prosodic morphology.

B. Morphology: Concepts of morpheme, morph, allomorph, zero allomorph, conditions on
allomorphs; lexeme and word; types of morphemes – structural and functional; affixes vs clitics;
grammatical categories; morphological theories – generative, lexicalist, process and distributed
morphology; identification of morphemes and parts of speech; alternation; morphophonology;
inflection vs. derivation; conjugation and declension; word creation and word formation rules and
processes; creativity and productivity, blocking, bracketing paradoxes, constraints on affix
ordering; mental lexicon; lexical categories; valency changing operations.

C. Syntax: Basic syntactic units and their types: word, phrase, clause, sentence and their description
and generation; grammatical and case relations; key ideas fromsyntactic theories, Generative
Grammars including Minimalist Program, HPSG, Relational Grammar and Lexical Functional
Grammar; phrase structure rules (including X-bar theory); universal grammar and cross-linguistic
properties; idea of grammaticality judgements; solving the language acquisition problem;
diagnostics of structure; syntactic phenomena such as movement, binding, ellipses, case-checking,
islands, argument structure etc.; unergatives and unaccusatives.

D. Semantics and Pragmatics: Types of meaning, lexical and compositional; syntax-semantics
interface (semantic roles, binding, scope, LF etc.); sense and reference, connotation and

denotation, lexical semantic relations (homonymy, hypo/hypernymy, antonymy, synonymy,
ambiguity); prototype theory and componential analysis; sentence meaning and truth conditions,
contradictions, entailment; basic set theory; propositions, truth values, sentential connectives;
arguments, predicates, quantifiers, variables; in/definiteness, mood and modality; language use in
context; sentence meaning and utterance meaning; speech acts; deixis; presupposition and
implicature: Gricean maxims; information structure; politeness, power and solidarity; discourse
analysis.

C3.3 Historical Linguistics

Neogrammarian laws of phonetic change such as Grimm’s, Verner’s, Grassmann’s Laws; genesis
and spread of sound change; split and merger; conditioned vs. unconditioned change; lexical
diffusion of sound change; analogical changes and paradigm levelling; relative chronology of
different changes; study of sound change in progress; morphosyntactic (syncretism,
grammaticalisation and lexicalisation) and semantic change (extension, narrowing, figurative
speech); linguistic reconstruction - external vs. internal: the comparative method; lexicostatistics;
language contact and dialect geography – borrowing and impact of borrowing; pidgins and creoles;
bi- and multilingualism as the source for borrowing; dialect geography - dialect atlas; isogloss,
focal, transition and relic areas.

C3.4 Sociolinguistics

Micro-and macro approaches to language in society; linguistic repertoire language, dialect,
sociolect, idiolect; diglossia; taboo, slang and euphemism; elaborated and restricted codes; speech
community and communicative competence; ethnography of speaking; lingua franca; diasporic
language; linguistic variables and their co-variation along linguistic/social dimensions; language
policies and development (especially inIndia); language contact and outcomes (language loss,
pidginization and creolization); code-mixing and code-switching; language movements – state and
societal interventions; script development and modifications; linguistic minorities; language
ecology and endangerment linguistic vitality, language endangerment (EGIDS scale), parameters
of endangerment, documentation and revitalisation.

C3.5 Areal Typology, Universals, Cross-linguistic Features

Morphological types of languages agglutinative, analytical (isolating), synthetic fusional
(inflecting), polysynthetic (incorporating) languages; formal and substantive universals, absolute
and statistical universals; implicational and non-implicational universals (Greenberg); linguistic
relatedness—genetic, typological and areal classification of languages; universals and parametric
variation; word order typology; salient features of South Asian languages - Indo-Aryan, Dravidian,
Austro-Asiatic, and Tibeto-Burman language families; Linguistic Survey of India; contact induced
typological change.

C3.6 Methods of Analysis

Experimental and non-experimental methods; sampling and tools; identification of variables and
their variants; data processing and interpretation; quantitative analysis of data; ethnomethodology;
participant observation; field methods and elicitation; document creation; ethics.

C3.7 Applied Linguistics

Psycholinguistics — the study of how humans learn, represent, comprehend, and produce
language. Topics include word recognition and storage, sentence production and comprehension,
reading, speech perception, language acquisition, neural representation of language, bilingualism,
and language disorders.

XH-C4 Philosophy

C4.1 Classical Indian Philosophy

C4.1.1 Orthodox Systems: Sānkhya- Puruṣa, Prakṛti, Guṇas, Satkāryavāda, Mokṣa (Kaivalya),
Pramāṇas and Theory of Error, Yoga – Pramāṇas, Theory of Error, Iśvara, Citta, Kleśa, Aṣṭānga-
yoga, Kaivalya (Mokṣa), Nyāya – Pramāṇas, Hetvābhāsa, Iśvara, Asatkāryavāda, Theory of Error,
Navya-Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika – Parataḥprāmāṇya, Padārthas (categories), Theory of Atomism
(paramāṇuvāda), Mīmāmsā– Dharma, Apūrva, Mokṣa, Pramāṇas (both in Kumārila and
Prabhākara), Anyathākhyāti, and, Vedānta– Advaita (Adhyāsa, Brahman, Iśvara, Ātman, Jīva,
Mokṣa, Viśiṣṭādvaita (Tattva-traya, Mokṣa, and Refutation of Māyāvāda), Dvaita, Dvaitādvaita,
Śuddhādvaita, Pramāṇa in Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita.

C4.1.2 Heterodox Systems: Cārvāka – Pramāṇa, Indian marerislism and Hedonism, Jainism-
Pramāṇas, Syādvāda, Anekāntavāda, Padārtha (categories), Jīva and Ajīva, Mokṣa, Mahāvrata,
Aṇuvrata, and, Buddhism – Ti-piṭaka, Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika, Mādhyamika, Yogācāra-
Vijñānavāda, Pañca-skandha, Anityavāda, Anātmavāda, Doctrine of Momentariness, Doctrine of
Dependent Origination, Pramānas, Doctrine of Two Truths, Doctrine of Tri-kāya, Ṣaḍ-pāramitās,
Brahmavihāras, Pāñcaśīla, and Bodhisattva Ideal, and Upāyakauśalya.

C4.1.3 Upaniṣads, Bhagavadgītā, and Dharmaśāstras: Philosophy of the Upaniṣads – Pure
Monism, Brahmam and Ātman, Pañca-kośa, Parā-vidyā and Aparā-vidyā, Meaning of Dharma,
Ṛta, Purusārtha, Śreyas and Preyas, Varṇāśrama-dharma, Dharma- Svadharma and Sādhāraṇa
Dharma, Ṛna, Yajña, Karma-yoga, Sthitaprajña, Lokasaṃgraha, and Law of Karma.

C4.1.4 KāṣmiraŚaivism, Śaivasiddhānta, VīraŚaivism, Śāktism and Vaiṣṇavism: KāṣmīraŚaivism
– Pratyābhijña school, Śiva and Śakti, and Conception of Kriyā, Śaivasiddhānta – God (pati) and
Divine Power (śakti), Proofs for God’s Existence, Bondage and Liberation, VīraŚaivism –
Philosophical basis of VīraŚaivism, Śāktism - Philosophical basis of Śāktism, and Vaiṣṇavism –
Philosophical basis of Vaiṣṇavism.

C4.2 Contemporary Indian Philosophy

C4.2.1 Vivekananda: Notion of God, Freedom and Karma, Nature of Soul/self, Practical Vedanta,
and Universal Religion. Aurobindo: World Process – Involution and Evolution, Four Theories of
Existence, The Supermind, Integral Yoga, and Gnostic Being. Iqbal: Nature of Intuition, Nature
of Self, and Notion of God. Tagore: Humanism and Nature of Man, Notion of Religion, and
Nationalism. K. C. Bhattacharyya: Concept of Absolute and Its Alternative Forms, and Notion
Subjectivity and Freedom. Radhakrishnan: Nature of Ultimate Reality, Religious Experience,
Intellect and Intuition, Hindu View of Life. J. Krishnamurti: Notion of Freedom, Choiceless
Awareness, Truth is a Pathless Land, and Notion of Education. Gandhi: Notion of Truth, Non-
violence, Satyagraha, Swaraj, and Trusteeship. Ambedkar: Annihilation of Caste, Neo-

Buddhism, Democracy, and Natural Rights and Law. M. N. Roy: Radical Humanism and
Materialism.

C4.3 Classical and Modern Western Philosophy

C4.3.1 Metaphysics: Pre-Socratic Philosophy of Thales, Anaxagoras, Anaximenies, Ionians,
Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus and Democritus. Metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle: The
question of Being (to on/ousia): Being as Idea in Plato's Phaedo, Republic and the Sophist, Being
as synthesis of hyle [matter] and morphe [form] in Aristotle's Metaphysics and Physics. Problem
of evil and existence of God in St. Augustine, St. Anselm, and St. Thomas Aquinas Metaphysics
in Modern Philosophy: Substance, Mind-Body Dualism, Attribute, Parallelism, Pre-established
harmony, the existence of God, Problem of Solipsism, Self and Personal Identity, Rejection of
Metaphysics, Phenomena and Noumena, Transcendental Deduction of Categories, Being and
Becoming, Absolute Idealism

C4.3.2 Epistemology: Plato and Aristotle’s Theory of Knowledge, Doxa, Episteme, and Sophia,
Method of Dialectics, Theoretical and Practical Reason, Theory of Causation, Descarte’s Method
of Doubt, cogito ergo sum, Innate Ideas and its refutation, Principle of Non-contradiction,
Sufficient Reason, and Identity of Indiscernible, Locke’s Three Grades of Knowledge, Berkeley’s
Critique of Abstract Ideas, Hume’s Impressions and Ideas, Induction and Causality, Kant’s
Copernican Revolution, Forms of Sensibility, Possibility of Synthetic a priori Judgments. Hegel’s
Dialectics, Spirit, and Absolute Idealism.

C4.3.3 Ethics: Concepts of Good, Right, Justice, Duty, Obligation, Cardinal Virtues,
Eudaemonism; Intuition as explained in Teleological and Deontological Theories; Egoism,
Altruism, Universalism, Subjectivism, Cultural Relativism, Super-naturalism, Ethical realism and
Intuitionism, Kant’s moral theory, Postulates of Morality, Good-will, Categorical Imperative,
Duty, Means and ends, Maxims; Utilitarianism: Principle of Utility, Problem of Sanction and
Justification of Morality, Moral theories of Bentham, J. S. Mill, Sidgwick; Theories of
Punishment; Ethical Cognitivism and Non-cognitivism, Emotivism, Prescriptivism,
Descriptivism.

C4.3.4 Social and Political Philosophy: Plato’s theory of Justice and State, Aristotle’s definition
of State and Political Naturalism; Classical Liberalism and Social Contract Theory (Hobbes,
Rousseau, Locke); Marx’s Dialectical Materialism, Alienation, and critique of Capitalism.

C4.3.5 Logic: Truth and Validity, Nature of Propositions, Categorical Syllogism, Laws of
Thought Classification of Propositions Square of Opposition, Truth-Functions and Propositional
Logic, Quantification and Rules of Quantification; Symbolic Logic: Use of symbols; Truth Table
for testing the validity of arguments; Differences between Deductive and Inductive Logic,
Causality and Mill’s Method.

C4.4 Contemporary Western Philosophy

C4.4.1 Frege’s Sense and Reference; Logical Positivism’s Verification theory of meaning,
Elimination of Metaphysics; Moore’s Distinction between Sense and Reference, Defense of
common-sense, Proof of an External World; Russell’s Logical Atomism, Definite Descriptions,
Refutation of Idealism; Wittgenstein on Language and Reality, the Picture Theory, critique of
private language, Meaning and Use, Forms of life; Gilbert Ryle on Systematically Misleading
Expressions, critique of Cartesian dualism; W.V.O. Quine’s Two Dogmas of Empiricism; P.F.
Strawson’s concept of Person; Husserl’s Phenomenological Method, Philosophy as a rigorous
science, Intentionality, Phenomenological Reduction, Inter-subjectivity; Heidegger’s concept of
Being (Dasein), Being in the world; Sartre’s Concept of Freedom, Bad-faith, Humanism; Merleau-
Ponty on Perception, Embodied Consciousness; William James’s Pragmatic Theories of Meaning
and Truth, Varieties of Religious experience; John Dewey on Pragmatist Epistemology with focus
on Inquiry, fallibilism and Experience, Education; Nietzsche on the Critique of Enlightenment,
Will to Power, Genealogy of Moral; Richard Rorty’s Critique of Representationalism, Against
Epistemological method, Edifying Philosophy, Levinas: Ethics as a first philosophy, Philosophy
of ‘other’; Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance, Principle of Justice; Nozick’s critique of Rawls,
Libertarianism: Charles Taylor’s Communitarianism, critique of the Liberal Self, Politics of
recognition; Martha Nussbaum’s Liberal Feminism and Capability Approach; Simone de Beauvoir
on Situated Freedom and Ethics of Ambiguity; Code and Harding on Situated Knowledge and
Strong and Weak Objectivity; Gilligan and Noddings on Ethics of Care, Debate between Care and
Justice.

XH-C5 Psychology

C5.1 Research Methods and Statistics

C5.1.1 Approaches to Research: Philosophical worldviews & criteria involved in approach.
Research design: quantitative & qualitative, mixed methods.

C5.1.2 Designing Research: Research problems, purpose statement, Variables and Operational
Definitions, Hypothesis, Sampling.

C5.1.3 Nature of Quantitative & Qualitative Research: Structured, semi-structured interviewing,
self-completion questionnaires (Survey), observation, Experimental, Quasi-experimental, Field
studies, Focus groups discussions, Narratives, Case studies, Ethnography.

C5.1.4 Ethics in conducting and reporting research.

C5.1.5 Statistics in Psychology: Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion. Normal
Probability Curve. Parametric and Non-parametric tests Effect size and Power analysis.

C5.1.6 Correlational Analysis: Correlation [Product Moment, Rank Order], Partial correlation,
multiple correlation. Special Correlation Methods: Biserial, Point biserial, tetrachoric, phi
coefficient. Regression: Simple linear regression, Multiple regression. Factor analysis:
Assumptions, Methods, Rotation and Interpretation.

C5.1.7 Experimental Designs: ANOVA [One-way, Factorial], Randomized Block Designs,
Repeated Measures Design, Latin Square, Cohort studies, Time series, MANOVA, ANCOVA.
Single-subject designs.

C5.2 Psychometrics: Foundations of Psychological measurement; Basic components: scales and
items’ Construction and analysis of items: Intelligence test items, performance tests, Ability &
Aptitude test, Personality questionnaires. Method of test construction, Standardization of
measures: Reliability, Validity, Norms, Application of assessment and measurements in Tests—
Applications of psychological testing in various settings-educations, counselling and guidance,
clinical, organizational and developmental.

C5.3 Biological and Evolutionary Basis of Behaviour: Heredity and behaviour Evolution and
natural selection, Nervous system, structures of the brain and their functions, Neurons: Structure,
functions, types, neural impulse, synaptic transmission. Neurotransmitters. Hemispheric
lateralization, The endocrine system types and functions, Biological basis of Motivation: Hunger,
Thirst, Sleep and Sex. Biological basis of emotion: The Limbic system, Hormonal regulation of
behaviour. Methods of Physiological Psychology: Invasive methods – Anatomical methods,
degeneration techniques, lesion techniques, chemical methods, microelectrode studies, Non-
invasive methods – EEG, Scanning methods, Muscular and Glandular system: Genetics and

behaviour: Chromosomal anomalies; Nature-Nurture controversy [Twin studies and adoption
studies]

C5.4 Perception, Learning, Memory and Forgetting: What is sensation, sensory thresholds and
sensory adaptations, Vision, hearing, touch and pain, smell and taste, kinesthesis and vestibular
sense, Perception: role of attention; organizing principles of perception, gestalt perception, depth
perception and illusions, Theories of learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social
learning theory, cognitive learning, Memory: encoding, storage, retrieval, Information processing
theories of memory, Retrieval in Long term memory, reconstructive nature of long-term memory,
Forgetting: encoding failure, interference theory, memory trace decay theory, the physical aspects
of memory.

C5.5 Cognition: Thinking, Intelligence and Language: Basic elements of though: Concepts,
Propositions, Imagery. Current paradigms of cognitive psychology – Information processing
approach, ecological approach, Problem solving: Methods of problem solving, Strategies and
obstacles, Role of Metacognitive processing, decision-making: choosing among alternatives,
Intelligence: Theories of intelligence (Spearman; Thurstone; Jensen; Cattell; Gardner; Stenberg)
and Emotional Intelligence; Measuring intelligence, Individual differences in Intelligence; Role
of heredity and environment, Difference between Intelligence, Aptitude and Creativity.

C5.6 Personality: Theories of personality: Psychoanalytic, behaviourist, social cognitive view,
humanism and trait and type theories, Biology of personality and Assessment of personality.

C5.7 Motivation, Emotion and Stress and Coping: Approaches to understanding motivation:
instinct, drive-reduction, arousal, incentive, humanistic, Achievement motivation, Intrinsic
motivation, aggression, curiosity and exploration, Emotions: nature of emotions; biological basis
of emotions, Theories of emotions: James-Lange, Canon-Bard, Schachter and Singer, Lazarus,
Definition of stress; what are stressors; cognitive factors in stress, Factors in stress reaction:
General adaptation syndrome; effect of stress, Coping with stress: problem-focused coping;
emotion-focused coping, REBT and meditation

C5.8 Social Psychology: Social perception: Attribution; impression formation; social
categorization, implicit personality theory, Social influence: conformity, compliance and
obedience, Attitudes, beliefs and values: Evaluating the social world, attitude formation, attitude
change and persuasion, cognitive dissonance, Prejudice, discrimination, Aggression, power and
prosocial behaviour, Belief systems and value patterns. Group dynamics, leadership style and
effectiveness, Theories of intergroup relations and conflicts.

C5.9 Development Across the Life Span: Nature versus nurture in human development, Prenatal
development: Chromosomes, Genes and DNA. Physical, cognitive and psychosocial development
in infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood, Theories of aging, Moral development.

C5.10 Applications of Psychology: Psychological disorders: Conceptions of mental disorders;
Assessment and diagnosis, DSM and Other tools, PTSD and Trauma; Psychotherapies:

Psychodynamic, Phenomenological/Experiential therapy; Behaviour therapy; cognitive therapy;
biological therapy, Applications of theories of motivation and learning in School: Factors in
educational achievement; counselling & guidance in schools, Application of theories of
motivation, learning, emotions, perceptions, group dynamics & leadership to organizational set
up, Issues of Personal space, crowding, and territoriality.

XH-C6 Sociology

C6.1 Sociological Theory

C6.1.1 Classical Sociological Traditions: Emile Durkheim (Social Solidarity, Social Facts,
Religion, Functionalism, Suicide, Anomie, Division of Labour, Law; Max Weber (Types of
authority, Social action, Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, Bureaucracy, Ideal type,
Methodology); Karl Marx: Class and class conflict, dialectical and historical materialism,
capitalism, surplus value, alienation).

C6.1.2 Structural-Functionalism and Structuralism: Bronislaw Malinowski; A.R. Radcliffe-
Brown, Talcott Parsons (AGIL, Systems approach), Robert K. Merton (Middle range theory,
reference groups, latent and manifest function), Claude Levi Strauss (Myths, Structuralism).

C6.1.3 Hermeneutic and Interpretative Traditions: G.H. Mead, Alfred Schutz (Phenomenology);
Harold Garfinkel (Ethnomethodology); Erving Goffman (Symbolic interaction, dramaturgy);
Clifford Geertz (Culture, thick description).

C6.1.4 Post-Modernism, Post-Structuralism and Post-Colonialism: Pierre Bourdieu, Michel
Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, Anthony Giddens, Frankfurt School.

C6.1.5 Conflict Theory: Ralf Dahrendorf; C Wright Mills.

C6.1.6 Indian Thinkers: M.K. Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, Radha Kamal Mukherjee, G. S. Ghurye,
M.N. Srinivas, Irawati Karve.

C6.2 Research Methodology and Methods

C6.2.1 Conceptualizing Social Reality: Philosophy of Science; Scientific Method and
Epistemology in Social Science; Hermeneutic Traditions; Objectivity and Reflexivity in Social
Science; Ethics and Politics of research.

C6.2.2 Research Design: Reading Social Science Research, Data and Documents; Induction and
Deduction; Fact, Concept and Theory; Hypotheses, Research Questions, Objectives.

C6.2.3 Quantitative and Qualitative Methods: Ethnography; Survey Method; Historical Method;
Comparative Method.

C6.2.4 Research Techniques: Sampling; Questionnaire and Schedule; Statistical Analysis;
Observation, Interview and Case study; Interpretation, Data Analysis and Report Writing.

C6.3 Sociological Concepts

C6.3.1 Sociological Concepts: Social Structure; Culture; Network; Status and Role; Identity;
Community; Socialization; Diaspora; Values, Norms and Rules; Personhood, Habitus and Agency;
Bureaucracy, Power and Authority; Self and society.

C6.3.2 Social Institutions: Marriage, Family and Kinship; Economy; Polity; Religion; Education;
Law and Customs.

C6.3.3 Social Stratification: Social Difference, Hierarchy, Inequality and Marginalization: Caste
and Class; Status and Power; Gender, Sexuality and Disability; Race, Tribe and Ethnicity.

C6.3.4 Social Change: Evolution and Diffusion; Modernization and Development; Social
Transformations and Globalization; Social Mobility –Sanskritization, Educational and
Occupational change.

C6.4 Agrarian Sociology and Rural Transformation: Rural and Peasant Society; Caste-
Tribe Distinction and Continuum; Agrarian Social Structure and Emergent Class Relations; Land
Ownership and Agrarian Relations; Decline of Agrarian Economy, De-Peasantization and
Agrarian Change; Agrarian Unrest and Peasant Movements; Feudalism, Mode of production
debate; Land reforms; Panchayati Raj; Rural development programmes and community
development; Green revolution and agricultural change; Peasants and farmers movements.

C6.5 Family, Marriage and Kinship; Theoretical Approaches: Structural-
Functionalist, Alliance and Cultural; Gender Relations and Power Dynamics; Inheritance,
Succession and Authority; Gender, Sexuality and Reproduction; Children, Youth and Elderly;
Emotions and Family; Emergent Forms of Family; Changing Marriage Practices; Changing Care
and Support Systems; Family Laws; Domestic Violence and Crime against Women; Honour
Killing.

C6.6 Indian Society/Sociology of India: Colonial, Nationalist, Indological perspectives (G.S.
Ghurye); Structural-Functional approach (M.N. Srinivas); Dialectical approach (A.R. Desai);
Subaltern studies (R. Guha); Non Brahmin perspectives (Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar);
Feminist perspectives (LeelaDube, SharmilaRege); Social Institutions – Family, Kinship,
Household, Village and Urban Settings; Social Stratification – Caste, Class, Tribe and Gender;
Tradition and Modernity (M.N. Srinivas, Yogendra Singh, Dipankar Gupta); Peasants and agrarian
sociology (Andre Beteille, A.R. Desai, D.N. Dhanagare); Village studies; Communalism and
Secularism.

C6.7 Social Movements

C6.7.1 Introduction to Social Movements: Nature, Definitions, Characteristics; Social Movement
and Social Change; Types of social movements (Reform, Rebellion, Revival, Revolution,
Insurrection, Counter Movement).

C6.7.2 Theories of Social Movements: Structural–functional; Marxist; Resource Mobilization
Theory; New Social Movements.

C6.7.3 Social Movement in India with Specific Reference to Social Basis, Leadership, Ideology
and Actions: Peasant movement; Labour movement; Dalit movement; Women’s movement,
Environmental movement.

C6.7.4 Social Movements, Civil Society and Globalization: Social movement and its relationship
with state and civil society; Social movements and impact of globalization: Debates; Issues of
citizenship.

C6.8 Sociology of Development

C6.8.1 Perspectives on the Study of Development: Definitions and Indices; Liberal, Marxist, and
Neo-Marxist Perspectives (Dependency theory, World Systems); Epistemological Critiques of
Development.

C6.8.2 State and Market: Institutions and ideologies: Planned Development and Society;
Globalisation and Liberalization.

C6.8.3 The Micro-Politics of Development: Transforming Communities: Maps and Models;
Knowledge and Power in Development; Re-inventing Development: Subaltern Movements; Post-
colonial development; Decentralization and devolution; Participatory approaches.

C6.8.4 Sustainable Development: Post-sustainable development; Development, violence and
inequality; Post-structural perspectives (Escobar); Alternative development paradigms; Feminist
critique; Human development.