Syllabus - Basic Psy - Psy131 - 2003 Batch

PSY131 - BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES - I
(2022 Batch)
Total Teaching Hours for
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4
Semester:60
Max Marks:100 Credits:4
Course Objectives/Course
Description
This course is an introduction to the study of basic psychological processes offered to the first-
semester undergraduate students of psychology. It is an introductory paper that gives an
understanding of the field of psychology, scope, and multiple perspectives and disciplines that
provide a holistic picture of human behaviour. Students will learn the key concepts, classic
examples, and modern and practical applications of fundamental psychological theories,
methods, and tools. Emphasis is on the basic psychological processes of personality, learning,
consciousness, motivation and emotion. This course allows them to learn the basics and
demonstrate the skills that a student needs to move on to the more specific and in-depth
psychology courses that follow.
Course Outcome
By the end of the course the learner will be able to:
1. Explain fundamental concepts, principles, theoretical perspectives, and arguments from

across a range of psychology content domains like learning, personality, motivation and
emotion to various situations and contexts.
2. Critically evaluate the different schools of thought in psychology
3. Define the basic biological process that influence behaviour
4. Analyze methods of scientific inquiry, evidence-based thinking, and critical thinking
skills to psychological phenomena and examples of psychological science
Unit-1 Teaching Hours:12

History and Schools of Thought
In this unit, we will examine the history of Western psychological theorizing from its
beginnings in ancient Greece, through to the schools and perspectives of psychology including
Structuralism, Functionalism, Psychodynamic, Biological, Behavioristic, Gestalt, Cognitive,
Cross-cultural, Humanistic and Evolutionary. The aim is both to build a familiarity with
psychology’s intellectual origins and to foster an awareness of its many false steps, dead-ends,
and alternative pathways to gain a better appreciation of the social, cultural, and, above all,
psychological influences on the theorizing of psychologists. Students will be able to define
psychology and understand what psychologists do and identify the major fields of study and
theoretical perspectives within psychology and know their similarities and differences. In the
end, students will be able to gain a better appreciation of why contemporary psychology takes
the shape it does, describe the evolution of psychology and the major pioneers in the field,
identify the various approaches, fields, and subfields of psychology along with their major
concepts and important figures and describe the value of psychology and possible careers
paths for those who study psychology
Biological basis of behaviour
Explain the biological perspective of psychology as it applies to the role of the nervous system
and endocrine system in regard to behaviour and mental processes. Identify and describe the
important structures of these systems. It is an introductory survey of the relationship between
human behaviour and brain function. Discuss the interaction between biological factors and
experience, methods and issues related to biological advances, develop an understanding of
the influence of behaviour, cognition, and the environment on the bodily systems, and develop
an appreciation of the neurobiological basis of psychological function and dysfunction.
Laboratory Demonstration: Biofeedback/ EEG/ Eye-tracking

Learning
This unit introduces students to the principles of learning and how those principles can be used
to modify human behaviour. Explain the behavioural perspective of psychology and relate
classical and operant conditioning concepts to student-generated scenarios. The course
emphasizes the application of learning theories and principles. Topics include reinforcement,
extinction, punishment, schedules of reinforcement, stimulus discrimination, prompting and
fading, stimulus-response chaining, generalization, modelling, rule-governed behaviour,
problem-solving, latent learning, observational learning, insight learning, concept learning,
general case instruction, and stimulus equivalence.
Laboratory Demonstration: Trial and Error learning, Habit Interference, Maze Learning
Personality
This unit is an introduction to the psychological study of human personality, broadly speaking
and more specifically in terms of how we may understand individual differences in personality
and the personalities of individual persons. Personality psychologists use empirical methods of
behavioural and clinical science to understand people in biological, social, and cultural
contexts. Students will learn the strengths and weaknesses of the major personality theories, as
well as how to assess, research and apply these theories. As much as possible, application to
real-life situations will be discussed. Students would be able to identify the various
perspectives that are common in the area of personality psychology and critically evaluate
each in terms of its explanatory and predictive power, discuss theories and perspectives of
personality development: psychoanalytic, humanistic, trait, and social-cognitive, understand
classic and current empirical measurement tools and approaches to investigation for
personality assessment in psychological and clinical science and develop an understanding of
the concept of individual differences with the goal to promote self-reflection and
understanding of self and others.
Laboratory Demonstration: Sentence completion test, NEO-PI, Type A/B

Motivation and Emotion
The unit will explain how behaviour is energized and directed by the complex mixture of
motives and emotions and describe the various theories that have been developed to explain
motivation and emotion. Unit aims to explain motivation, how it is influenced, and major
theories about motivation. We will describe hunger and eating in relation to motivation,
obesity, anorexia, and bulimia; sexual behaviour and research about sexuality; and
explain theories of emotion and how we express and recognise emotion
Laboratory Demonstration: Level of motivation, Achievement motivation,

Text Books And Reference Books:
Weiten, W. (2014). Psychology: Themes and Variations (Briefer Version, 9th edition).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
King, L. A. (2010). Experience Psychology. McGraw-Hill.
Gazzaniga, Heatherton, Halpern (2015). Psychological Science, 5th Edition, Norton.
Feldman.S.R.(2009). Essentials of understanding psychology ( 7th Ed.) Tata Mc Graw Hill.

Evaluation Pattern
CIA (Continuous Internal Assessment)-Total Marks - 50
CIA-1: Activity-based Individual Assignment- 10 Marks

CIA-2: Mid sem Exam-Case/Scenario-based Question- 25 Marks; Department level
CIA-3: Individual Assignment- 10 Marks
Attendance- 5 Marks
ESE Pattern ESE (End Semester Examination) Total Marks- 50, 02 HOURS
Question paper pattern

Section A- (Short Answers) 02 marks x5Qs =10 Marks
Section B- (Essay Type) 10 marks x 3Qs = 30 Marks
Section C-(Compulsory: Case Study) 10 marks x 1Q =10 Marks

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PSY131 - BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES - I

1. Explain fundamental concepts, principles, theoretical perspectives, and arguments from

Unit-1 Teaching Hours:12

Laboratory Demonstration: Biofeedback/ EEG/ Eye-tracking

Laboratory Demonstration: Sentence completion test, NEO-PI, Type A/B

Laboratory Demonstration: Level of motivation, Achievement motivation,

King, L. A. (2010). Experience Psychology. McGraw-Hill.

Gazzaniga, Heatherton, Halpern (2015). Psychological Science, 5th Edition, Norton.

Feldman.S.R.(2009). Essentials of understanding psychology ( 7th Ed.) Tata Mc Graw Hill.

CIA-1: Activity-based Individual Assignment- 10 Marks

ESE Pattern ESE (End Semester Examination) Total Marks- 50, 02 HOURS

Question paper pattern

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