ISC Class 11 Syllabus 2028 Psychology

ISC
INDIAN SCHOOL CERTIFICATE
EXAMINATION

YEAR 2028

PSYCHOLOGY
(855)

Developed by:
Research, Development and Curriculum Division (RDCD)
CISCE

January 2026
____________________________________________________________________________________________

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aspirations.

PSYCHOLOGY (855)

Aims:
1. To develop an understanding of human behaviour: the nature of individuals and of members of social
groups.
2. To develop an understanding of the methods of research and study employed in Psychology.
3. To develop an appreciation of the practical value of Psychology and its applications in daily life.

CLASS XI

There will be two papers in the subject:
Paper I - Theory: 3 hours ……70 marks
Paper II- Project Work:………30 marks

PAPER I (THEORY) : 70 MARKS
1. The Subject Psychology
(i) Definition of Psychology; schools of thought- Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviourism,
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, Psychology and other disciplines.
Definition of Psychology, meaning of the terms: behaviour, stimulus and response. The eclectic
approach of modern Psychology- biological, behavioural, psychoanalytic, cognitive and socio-
cultural approaches. Main features of the schools of Structuralism, Functionalism and Behaviourism,
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology (two Psychologists of each approach and their relevant
concepts).
Psychology and other Disciplines: Relationship between Psychology and Economics, Political
Science, Law and Criminology, Sociology, Computer Science, Mass Communication and Music &
Fine Arts.
(ii) Fields of Psychology – clinical, counselling, developmental, educational, organizational and social.
The general importance and aims of studying Psychology and its special benefits. Applications -
different branches and the kind of work done in special fields - clinical, counselling, developmental,
educational, organizational and social (in brief).
(iii) Heredity and Environment – meaning of the term ‘heredity’; basic principles and mechanism of
heredity (genetic). Meaning of the term ‘environment’; importance of both heredity and environment
in behaviour.
The definition and role of chromosomes and genes (dominant and recessive). Significance of
environment: physical and social. Heredity related diseases: Mental Impairment and Huntington’s
disease. How both heredity and environment interact to produce behaviour (Twin studies- identical
and fraternal twins, Separated Twin Study).

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2. Methods of Psychology
(i) Scientific Methods in Psychology - observation, case study, surveys, experimentation – steps.
Psychological tests and their uses, ethical issues.
The application of scientific methods in the study of behaviour. What is meant by scientific
observation? Field study; controlled and uncontrolled observation; longitudinal and cross-sectional
studies; the case history method; the experimental method - variables and controls - steps in an
experiment; surveys and use of questionnaires/self-reports. One advantage and one disadvantage for
each method of Psychology. Meaning of samples (random, biased, representative); meaning of
population. Psychological tests – characteristics, definition, uses and types.
Ethical Issues- voluntary participation, informed consent, debriefing, sharing results of the study,
confidentiality of data.s
(ii) Interpretation of research results – use of statistics in interpretation of data - understanding of why
statistics is used (descriptive & inferential). Basic statistical concepts – statistics, sample, population.
Why statistics is used in Psychology - interpretation of findings: describing and summarizing data,
comparing individuals/ groups, investigating relationships between variables, predicting. Descriptive
statistics - for summarizing scores. Inferential statistics - to determine whether observed differences
between groups are likely/unlikely to have occurred by chance.
How scores are grouped into frequency distributions; central tendency of a frequency distribution -
mean, median, mode and when each measure is used; dispersion: the extent to which scores are
spread out - range, variance, standard deviation; why both central tendency and variability are
important in psychology.

3. Attention and Perception
(i) Nature of attention - its inner and outer determinants.
The importance of attention in perception - how both physical factors such as size, colour, movement,
change, intensity, contrast and psychological factors such as need, interest and emotion determine
attention and perception.
(ii) Perceptual processes - difference between sensation and perception. Organizational principles of
perception - laws, constancies, depth and colour perception.
Process involved in transforming sensation to perception. Important factors in perceptual process -
figure and ground, laws of grouping: similarity, proximity, continuity, simplicity, closure ; constancy
of size, shape, colour and brightness; factors involved in depth perception -monocular cues – linear
perspective, relative size, height in the field, 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 (definition only); after-images-
positive and negative (definitions only).
(iii) Errors in perception - illusions of size and shape.
False interpretations - illusions: Muller-Lyer, Height - Width, Ponzo, Zoellner, Poggendorf.

4. Emotions and Motivation
(i) What is meant by emotion, the basic emotions.
Subjective and cognitive experience, physiological basis of emotion – role of thalamus, hypothalamus,
limbic system and cortex, reactions and overt expression. Primary emotions - fear, anger, joy, sorrow,
affection.
(ii) Theories of emotion dealing with physiological, subjective and cognitive aspects.
James Lange, Cannon Bard, Schachter - Singer theories.
(iii) What is meant by motives, needs and instincts.
Motivation as an internal force generating certain behaviour - biological needs and homeostasis;
instincts as unlearned and physiological desires. Intrinsic - the desire to perform activities for their
own sake.

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(iv) Theories of Motivation.
Pull and push theories, Optimum Arousal theory and Expectancy theory - Graphic representation of
Maslow's Needs Hierarchy.
(v) Social motives.
Three distinctively human motives: Achievement - accomplishing difficult tasks; Power - exerting
influence over others; Aggression - learning and control of human aggression, causes and effects.
(vi) Frustration - blocking of motives; conflict among motives.
Frustration as a result of motives not finding free or adequate expression. Different types of conflict
among motives: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, multiple approach-avoidance (with
examples).

5. Learning
(i) What is meant by learning; how learning takes place - Classical and Operant Conditioning; Insight
learning, Observational Learning and Learning Styles.
Definition of learning - Pavlov and Classical Conditioning; Thorndike and Trial and Error; Skinner
and Operant Conditioning; experiments, findings and principles established. Insight and
Observational Learning - Kohler and Bandura's studies. Learning Styles – Auditory, Visual and
Kinesthetic.
(ii) Learning disabilities: definition and types.
Characteristics of the disabilities - Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia. Characteristics of
each learning disability. Remedials for Dyslexia only.

6. Remembering and Forgetting
(i) The memory system - how it works - different models.
Sensory memory, Short and Long term Memory - encoding, storage, retrieval. Terms like iconic
image, free recall, serial position effects, recency effects, primacy effects, episodic. Semantic and
Procedural Memory. Processing memory - the Atkinson Shiffrin Model and Parallel Distributed
Processing.
(ii) Why and how forgetting occurs.
Trace decay, retro and proactive interference, retrieval failure, amnesia - retrograde and
anterograde; Alzheimer's disease; Dementia (symptoms).
(iii) How memory can be improved.
Attention, use of imagery, Mnemonic devices, application of principles of learning.

7. Thinking, Problem Solving and Creativity
(i) What is meant by thinking.
Definition and basic elements of thought. Nature and elements of thinking: images, visual image,
concepts and language - interdependence of language and thought; different kinds of thinking:
convergent, divergent, creative, goal-oriented and aimless thinking.
(ii) Concepts and how they are formed.
Definition - importance of concepts in thinking - artificial, natural, simple and complex concepts.
(iii) Reasoning - how it is carried out; common errors in reasoning, how reasoning can be made more
effective. Decision making and problem solving - heuristics and algorithms.
Reaching specific conclusions from available information - deductive and inductive reasoning;
common errors - faulty premises, fallacy of single cause. Improving reasoning - avoiding errors,
examining premises and ambiguities, guarding against emotion. Decision Making and Problem
Solving - steps involved, optimum expected utility, means-end-analysis, analogy.
(iv) Creative thinking - what is meant by convergent and divergent thinking; stages in creative thinking,
how creativity can be fostered.

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Use of divergent thinking in creativity - stages in creative thinking, preparation, incubation,
illumination, verification/validation. How creativity may be encouraged: enrich knowledge and
experience, encourage independence, curiosity and promote positive mood.

PAPER II (PROJECT WORK) : 30 MARKS
Candidates will be expected to have completed two studies / experiments from any chapter covered in Theory.
Assessment will be based on a written report which should cover –
(I) Aim
(II) Basic concept: Definition of concepts used and related theory. Identification of variables –independent
and dependent.
(III) Method –
(i) Sample of the Study
(ii) Procedure followed (data-collection, nature of raw data)
(iii) Treatment of Data
(iv) Results & Discussion
(v) Conclusion
(IV) Bibliography
Mark allocation per study [15 marks]:
Basic Concept 3 marks
Method (correctness of procedure) 4 marks
Results and discussion 4 marks
Viva 4 marks

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