Psychological Testing and Experimental Design

1. Emergence of Psychology

• Psychological thought in major Eastern systems, including Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, Sufism, and Integral Yoga, are discussed.
• Academic psychology's evolution in India is examined, covering pre-independence, post-independence, 1970s (social issues), 1980s (indigenization), 1990s (paradigmatic concerns and identity crises), and 2000s (Indian psychology in academia).
• Colonial encounters and post-colonialism's impact on psychology are highlighted.
• Western psychology's evolution from Greek heritage through medieval and modern periods, including Structuralism, Functionalism, Psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Behaviorism, Humanistic-Existentialism, Transpersonal, and Cognitive revolutions are described.
• Four founding figures of academic psychology (Wundt, Freud, James, and Dilthey) are noted and their different approaches to psychology are touched upon.
• The crisis in psychology due to strict adherence to experimental-analytical paradigm (logical empiricism) is mentioned.
• The influence of Indic ideas on modern psychology is discussed.
• Key knowledge paradigms (ontology, epistemology, methodology) are explained.
• Western psychological paradigms (Positivism, Post-Positivism, Critical perspective, Social Constructionism, Existential Phenomenology, and Co-operative Enquiry) are mentioned along with their paradigms.
• Significant Indian psychological paradigms are mentioned, including Yoga, Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, Sufism, and Integral Yoga are highlighted.
• Science and spirituality (avidya and vidya) and the importance of self-knowledge in Indian psychology are discussed.

2. Research Methodology and Statistics

• The meaning, purpose, and dimensions of research are presented.
• Research problems, variables, operational definitions, and hypotheses are discussed.
• Sampling techniques are outlined.
• Research ethics in conducting and reporting are presented.
• Parametric (t-test) and non-parametric (sign test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Friedman) tests are discussed. Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion are described.
• Correlation analysis (product moment, rank order, partial correlation, regression), multiple regression, special correlation methods, and regression are described.
• Factor analysis (assumptions, methods, rotation, and interpretation) is outlined.
• Various experimental designs (ANOVA, randomized block designs, repeated measures design, Latin Square, cohort studies, time series, MANOVA, ANCOVA, single-subject designs) are presented.

3. Psychological Testing

• Types of psychological tests are outlined.
• Test construction methods (item writing and item analysis) are described.
• Test standardization (reliability, validity, and norms) is covered.
• Areas of testing (intelligence, creativity, neuropsychological tests, aptitude, personality assessment, interest inventories) are mentioned.
• Different scales (attitude scales, semantic differential, staples, Likert scale) and computer-based testing are presented.
• Applications in various settings (clinical, organizational, business, education, counseling, and military) are noted.
• Career guidance is highlighted.

4. Biological Basis of Behavior

• Sensory systems (general and specific sensations, receptors, and processes) are explained.
• Neuron structure, functions, types, neural impulses, and synaptic transmissions are discussed.
• Neurotransmitters are mentioned.

5. Attention, Perception, Learning, Memory, and Forgetting

• Attention's forms and models.
• Approaches to perception, including Gestalt and physiological approaches, perceptual organization (Gestalt, Figure and Ground, laws of organization), perceptual constancy (size, shape, color), and illusions.
• Perception of Form, Depth, and Movement. Role of motivation and learning in perception, signal detection theory, and its applications are described.
• Subliminal perception, perceptual styles, and the information process approach are mentioned.
• The ecological perspective on perception.
• Learning processes, fundamental theories (Thorndike, Guthrie, Hull), classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, reinforcement, basic variables, and schedules, cognitive approaches to learning (latent learning, observational learning) are discussed.
• Verbal learning and discrimination learning, recent learning trends in neurophysiology are discussed.
• Memory processes: encoding, storage, retrieval. Stages of memory (sensory, short-term/working, and long-term) and types of long-term memory (procedural, episodic, and semantic).
• Theories of forgetting (interference, retrieval failure, decay, motivated forgetting) are mentioned.

6. Thinking, Intelligence, and Creativity

• Theoretical perspectives on thought processes (Associationism, Gestalt, information processing, feature integration model).
• Concept formation (rules, types, strategies, role of concepts in thinking).
• Types of reasoning.
• Language and thought.
• Problem-solving (types, strategies, obstacles).
• Decision-making (types and models).
• Metacognition: metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation are examined.
• Intelligence (Spearman, Thurstone, Jensen, Cattell, Gardner, Sternberg, Goleman, Das, Kar & Parrila) are discussed.
• Creativity (Torrance, Getzels & Jackson, Guilford, Wallach & Kogan)

7. Personality, Motivation, Emotion, Stress, and Coping

• Determinants of personality (biological and socio-cultural).
• Approaches to personality study (psychoanalytical, Neo-Freudian, social learning, trait and type, cognitive, humanistic, existential, and transpersonal).
• Other theories (Rotter's Locus of Control, Seligman's Explanatory styles, Kohlberg's theory of moral development).
• Basic motivational concepts (instincts, needs, drives, arousal, incentives).
• Approaches to the study of motivation (psychoanalytical, ethological, S-R, cognitive, humanistic)
• Personality is linked to different types of curiosity.
• Zuckerman's Sensation seeking, achievement, and power, and motivational competence.
• Emotions and their physiological correlates are discussed
• Different theories of emotion discussed (James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter, Singer, Lazarus, Lindsley).

8. Nature, Scope, and History of Social Psychology

• The nature, scope, and history of social psychology, including traditional theoretical perspectives (field theory, cognitive dissonance, sociobiology, psychodynamic approaches, social cognition).
• Social perception (communication, attributions), attitudes, and attitude change are discussed.
• Prosocial behavior.
• Group and social influence (social facilitation, social loafing, conformity, peer pressure, persuasion, compliance, obedience, social power, reactance).
• Aggression, Group dynamics, leadership style, and theories of intergroup relations are discussed.
• Applied social psychology (health, environment, law, personal space, crowding, and territoriality), and stress management strategies are discussed.

9. Human Development and Interventions

• Developmental processes (nature, principles, factors, stages).
• Theories of development (psychoanalytical, behavioristic, cognitive), and the different dimensions of development: sensory-motor, cognitive, language, emotional, and social.
• Various aspects of developmental psychology, including psychotherapies (psychoanalysis, person-centered, Gestalt, existential, acceptance commitment therapy, behavior therapy, REBT, CBT, MBCT, play therapy, positive psychotherapy, transactional analysis, dialectic behavior therapy, art therapy, performing arts therapy, family therapy).

10. Emerging Areas

• Issues of gender, poverty, disability, migration, and cultural biases, discrimination, stigma, marginalization, social suffering, child abuse, and domestic violence are explored.
• Peace psychology, conflict resolution at macro level, and the role of media in conflict resolution.
• Wellbeing (hedonic and eudaimonic types), character strengths, resilience, and post-traumatic growth are examined.
• Health concerns (health-promoting and health compromising behaviors, lifestyle, chronic diseases, psychoneuroimmunology, cancer, HIV/AIDS).
• Psychology and the interface of technology (digital learning, digital etiquette, cyber bullying, digital pornography, parental mediation of digital usage).