M. A. Psychology Entrance Exam Syllabus

• Syllabus for Qualifying Online Entrance Examination (OEE) for M. A. Psychology Admission for the academic year 2025-2026.
• Regular & Self-Supporting

FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY

• Psychology is a science with specific goals.
• Brief history & perspective includes: Structuralism, Functionalism, Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, Behaviourism.
• Career Avenues & Fields of Psychology: Clinical, Industrial & Organizational, Educational, Social, Developmental, Health, Criminal & Forensic, Military, Sports, Neuropsychology, Environmental, Positive, Spiritual and Women & Child psychology.
• The Indian Psychology includes: Past and present
• Application: Understanding Behaviour through Methods in Psychology

COGNITIVE PROCESSES

• Includes sensation, attention and perception, nature of perception, laws of perceptual organization.
• Learning involves Classic and Operant conditioning, observational learning.
• Memory processes are studied using, information processing models.
• Forgetting: Theories of forgetting are studied.
• Application: Techniques for improving memory in Psychology.

MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

• Motivation includes definition, concept of homeostasis & Maslow's Hierarchy of Motivation
• Types of Motivation: Physiological, Psychological & Social
• Motivational Conflicts: Intra-Conflicts & Inter-Conflicts
• Emotion includes: Definitions, Nature & Importance, Basic Emotions (Joy, Excitement, Tenderness, Sadness, Anger, Fear & Love).
• Application: Conflict Resolving Skills

PERSONALITY AND INTELLIGENCE

• Personality: Definitions, Nature
• Personality as a set of traits: Cattell's, Allport's & Big Five Theory of Personality
• Freud's Psychoanalytical Theory of Personality and Transactional Analysis
• Intelligence includes: Definitions, Theories of Intelligence (Gardner's Theory, Cattell's Theory of Intelligence).
• Applications include: Testing and enhancing Emotional intelligence.

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Includes definition, brief history of social psychology, with special emphasis on India.
• Scope of social psychology includes: Levels of social behaviour
• Approaches to understanding social behaviour
• Community mental health

INDIVIDUAL LEVEL PROCESSES

• Focuses on the difference between Social Cognition & Social Perception
• Self Concept includes: Nature, Self-regulation and self-presentation
• Attitude includes: Definition, components, Dimensions and formation of attitude.
• Prejudice: Causes
• Application: Formation of attitude and Prejudice eradication Psychology

INTERPERSONAL PROCESSES

• Interpersonal attraction, love.
• Pro-social behaviour
• Locus of control, increasing our helping nature
• Aggression includes: Meaning, Nature and causes of Aggression
• Application: Prevention and reducing aggression

GROUP DYNAMICS

• Includes: When we join and when we leave, the benefits of joining.
• Cooperation and Conflict.
• Conformity includes: Factors affecting Conformity, Obedience & Authority
• Group decision making
• Team Building

PSYCHOLOGY OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR-I

• Abnormality includes: Meaning, Definition, Nature
• Historical Background of Abnormality
• Criteria of abnormal behaviour (Biological, Psychological, Socio-cultural)
• Current Classification Systems: DSM-5 & ICD-10/11 an Overview.

ANXIETY DISORDERS, OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDERS (OCD), TRAUMA & STRESSOR RELATED DISORDERS

• Generalized Anxiety Disorders: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Panic & Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety (Phobia): Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Body Dimorphic Disorders: Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder & Acute Stress Disorder: Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes

SOMATOFORM AND DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

• Somatic symptoms Disorder: Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Illness Anxiety Disorder: Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Conversion Disorders: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Dissociative Identity Disorders: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes

DEPRESSIVE AND BIPOLAR DISORDERS

• Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder: Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Bipolar-I Disorder: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Bipolar-II Disorder: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes.
• Suicide and Cyclothymic Disorder: Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

• The Life-Span Perspective: The Importance of Studying Life- Span Development, Characteristics of the Life-Span Perspective, Some Contemporary Concerns.
• The Nature of Development: Biological, Cognitive, and Socio emotional Processes, Periods of Development, The Significance of Age, Developmental Issues.
• Theories of Development: Psychoanalytic Theories, Cognitive Theories, Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories, Ethological Theory, Ecological Theory, Eclectic Theoretical Orientation.
• Research in Life-Span Development: Methods for Collecting Data, Research Designs, Time Span of Research

BIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS & PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT

• Genetic foundation of Development: The Collaborative Genes, Genes and Chromosomes, Genetic Principles, Chromosomal and Gene linked Abnormalities
• Heredity and Environment interaction: The nature x Nurture Debate the Teratology and Hazards to prenatal Development
• Reproductive Challenges and Choices.
• The Course of Prenatal Development and Birth Process Assessing the New born

INFANCY PHYSICAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY

• Motor, Sensory and Perceptual Development Cognitive Development
• Piaget's Theory of Infant Development
• Learning, Remembering, and Conceptualizing
• Language Development

EARLY CHILDHOOD

• Physical changes, Cognitive Changes
• Piaget's preoperational stages
• Vygotsky's Theory
• The Self, Emotional and Moral Development
• Families, Peer relations and Play

HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

• Health Psychology: Definitions, Nature, aims
• Biopsychosocial Model of Health
• Psychology's Role in Health - Problems in the HealthCare System, "The Person” in Health and Illness, How the Role of Psychology Emerged and Progress in Health Psychology's Goals.
• Application: The Need of Health Psychology- Changing Patterns of Illness, Expanded Health Care Services, Increased Medical Acceptance

STRESS AND COPING

• Stress includes: Definitions, Nature & Types
• Sources of Stress: Sources within the Person, Sources in the Family & Sources in the Community and Society
• Responding to Stress includes: Physiological, Emotional & Behavioural Response
• Coping Behaviour includes: Problem Focused coping (Ellis's rational thinking, Positive reinterpretation & Humour as a stress reducer) & Emotion Focused Coping (Using systematic problem solving, using time more effectively & improving self-control)

CHRONIC HEALTH PROBLEMS AND ITS MANAGEMENT

• Personal Issues in Chronic Health Disorders: The Physical Self, Achieving Self, Social Self & Private Self
• Emotional Responses to Chronic Health Disorders: Denial, Anxiety & Depression
• Major Chronic Health Problems: Heart Disease, Hypertension, Stroke, Cancer, Type II Diabetes & AIDS
• Application: Psychological Interventions for Chronic Health Disorders (Pharmacological Interventions, Individual Therapy, Social Support Interventions and Relaxation, Stress Management after COVID-19)

PRIMARY PREVENTION & HEALTH PROMOTION

• Quality of life and Health Behaviour: Changing Health Habits & Health Beliefs (Attitude change & Placebo Effect)
• Health Compromising Behaviours (Characteristics): Obesity, Smoking & Drinking
• Developmental, Gender, and Sociocultural Factors in Health Development and Health, Gender and Health, Sociocultural Factors and Health
• Health Promoting Behaviours: Diet, Exercise, Sleep, Rest, Vaccination and Screening, Accident prevention

PSYCHOLOGY OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR-II

• Schizophrenia includes: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Schizophreniform Disorder: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Schizoaffective Disorder: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Delusional Disorders: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes

PERSONALITY DISORDERS AND IMPULSE CONTROL DISORDERS

• Characteristics of Personality Disorder and Gender Differences
• Personality Disorders Characterized by Odd or Eccentric Behavior: Paranoid, Schizoid & Schizotypal - Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Personality Disorders Characterized by Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic Behavior: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, & Narcissistic - Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Personality Disorders Characterized by Anxious or Fearful Behavior: Avoidant, Dependant, & Obsessive- Compulsive - Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes

EATING DISORDERS, SLEEP-WAKE DISORDERS, SEXUAL DISORDERS, SUBSTANCE-RELATED AND ADDICTIVE DISORDERS

• Eating Disorders (Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, & Binge- Eating Disorder): Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Sleep-Wake Disorders (Insomnia disorder, hyper somnolence disorder, Narcolepsy. Breathing related sleep disorder, Circadian rhythm sleep-wake Disorder): Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Alcohol Related Disorders (Alcohol use Disorder, Alcohol Intoxication, Alcohol Withdrawal): Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Gambling Disorder, Internet and Cell phone Addiction: Nature, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes

NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

• Autism Spectrum & ADHD: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Intellectual Disability: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Communication Disorders: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes
• Learning Disorders: Nature, Types, Symptoms, Diagnostic Criteria & Causes

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

• Nature and Definitions
• Misconceptions, Determinants of personality
• Idiographic and nomothetic approach
• Classification of personality theories

PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVES

• Introduction to Psychodynamic perspective
• Freud's classical psychodynamic theory
• Jung's Analytical Psychology
• Adler's individual psychology

BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVES

• Pavlov's classical conditioning
• Skinners operant conditioning
• Bandura's social cognitive theory
• Dollard and Millers stimulus-response theory

TRAIT & MOTIVATION, EMOTION PERSPECTIVES

• Allport's traits theory, Cattells factor theory
• Eysenck, Costa &McCrae theory
• Carl Rogers person Centered theory
• Motivation and Emotion perspectives • Murrays Need theory • Lazarus cognitive mediation theory

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

• Definitions and Nature of Positive Psychology.
• Traditional Psychology, Assumptions and Goals of Positive Psychology.
• Fields of Positive Psychology.
• The Nun study: Living longer with positive emotions

HAPPINESS AND THE FACTS OF LIFE

• Psychology of WELL-BEING.
• Positive affect and Meaningful Life
• Subjective Well-being: Hedonic basis of happiness
• Self-Realization: The Eudaimonia basis of happiness
• Happiness Across the Life Span, Gender and happiness, Marriage and happiness, other facts of life.

POSITIVE EMOTIONS, WELLBEING AND RESILIENCE

• What are positive emotions? The Broaden and Build Theory of Positive Emotions.
• Positive Emotions and Health Resources: Physical, Psychological and Social Resources.
• Positive emotions & well-being, Flow experiences and Savouring.
• What is resilience? Perspectives of Resilience, Resilience Research, Growth through Trauma.

PERSONAL GOALS, POSITIVE TRAITS AND LIFE ABOVE ZERO

• What are personal goals? The Search for Universal Human Motives, Materialism and its discontents.
• What makes a trait positive? Personality, Emotions and Biology.
• Positive beliefs, Virtue and Strengths of Character.
• Logotherapy: Basic concepts, Contours of positive life: Meaning and Means, Mindfulness and Well-being

BASIC COUNSELLING SKILLS

• Counselling process: counselors and helpers
• What are basic counselling skills?
• Helping relationship and helping process
• Counselling skills: Starting, structuring and summarizing
• Facilitating problem solving
• Improving client's feedback

CONSIDERATIONS IN COUNSELLING

• Ethical issues and dilemmas
• Multicultural and gender aware helping
• Getting support and being supervised

INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY- NATURE AND SCOPE

• Meaning, subject matter and functions of Industrial Psychology
• History of I/O Psychology
• I/O Psychology in the present
• Future of I/O Psychology

PERSONNEL SELECTION AND TRAINING

• Job Profile, job analysis and Recruitment techniques
• Interviews, psychological testing and Needs assessment for training
• Psychological Principles in training and training for knowledge and skill
• Evaluation of Training Programme

EVALUATING JOB PERFORMANCE

• Uses of performance evaluation: Downsizing, promotion, seniority
• Sources of evaluation: The evaluator and performance appraisal
• Appraisal rating systems: Graphic rating scales and rating errors
• Non-rating evaluation methods: Checklists and comparison methods

MOTIVATION AT THE WORKPLACE

• Concept of work motivation
• Need theories: McClelland, Herzberg
• Cognitive theories: Goal Setting Theory, Self-Efficacy Theory
• Motivation: Self-discipline – seven step process

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING (THEORY)

• What is psychological test? History
• Classification, characteristics
• Steps in test construction
• Ethical issues in test construction

RELIABILITY OF TESTS

• Meaning, true score estimation
• Types: Test-retest, Split-half, Parallel-form and Scorer reliability
• Standard error of measurement
• Reliability- Influencing factors and improvement techniques

VALIDITY OF TESTS

• Meaning
• Types: Content, criterion and construct
• Convergent and discriminant validity
• Validity: Statistical calculation method

NORMS

• Meaning of norms, Norm-referencing and Criterion-referencing tests
• Types of norms: Age, grade, percentile and standard-score norms
• Injunctive norms, descriptive norms, consensus norms, critical norms
• Reciprocity norms, social-responsibility norms, situational norms

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

• Definition, Nature and Scope of applied Psychology
• Fields of Applied psychology
• Clinical applications (classification of mental disorders DSM V, ICD 10, therapies – CBT, Clint Centered therapy, REBT)
• Cognitive Neuro Science (nature and major applications – PNI, EEG, MRI, CT, PET etc)

APPLICATIONS IN EDUCATION

• Definition, Nature and Scope of Educational Psychology
• Effective Teaching - Learning Methodologies / Pedagogies (group discussions, projects, presentations, interactive methods)
• Issues of Various Categories of Challenged Students – Physically, mentally, economically challenged, Intellectual Disabilities (ID)
• Problems and Solutions to Educational Problems physical environment, Government policies, school and higher education, Ashramshalas

FAMILY AND DEVELOPMENTAL APPLICATIONS

• Definition, Nature and Scope of Developmental Psychology
• Issues of Adolescents (stress and strain, identity crisis, adjustment to physiological and psychological changes)
• Family and Marital Problems and Solutions
• Love, Relationships (dating, live in) and Break Ups

SOCIAL ISSUES AND NEW TRENDS IN APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

• Role of Psychologists in tackling Social Issues (interventions, research, policy level work)
• Psychology of Terror, Psychology of Corruption
• Definition, Nature and Fields (correctional, investigative)
• Criminal Psychology, Cyber Crimes, Violence (meaning and types), Investigative Procedures (role of the psychologist) Law – contribution of Psychology to law

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

• What is experiment? Characteristics, types.
• Contribution of eminent psychologists in experimental psychology
• Scientific method: definition, nature
• Social scientific research

PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESIS IN RESEARCH

• What is problem? Definitions, origin, sources and selection. Statement of problem
• Hypothesis: Definition, formulation, sources
• Types of hypotheses

VARIABLES AND SAMPLING

• What is variable? Definitions, types
• Controlling of variables
• Sampling: Meaning and types
• Sampling distribution and sampling error

PSYCHOPHYSICS AND HUMAN LEARNING

• What is psychophysics? Methods of psychophysics
• Weber's law and Fechner's law, Signal detection theory (SDT)
• Definition and nature of Human learning.
• Methods of Human learning: Serial Learning, Distributed Vs Undistributed, Partial Vs Whole Structured

STATISTICS

• Frequency distribution, Normal Probability curve.
• Measures of central tendency: Mean, Median, Mode for grouped and ungrouped data.
• Measures of variability: Range, Standard Deviation and Quartile Deviation (Q1, Q3 and Q) for grouped data.
• Rank Difference Correlation and Chi-square.
• Product moment correlation.