Month 1: Foundations of Psychology

1. Introduction to Psychology

1. Nature, scope, and applications of psychology
2. Methods of psychological study:
   • Observational methods
   • Experimental methods
   • Correlational methods
3. Influence of culture on human behavior

2. Biological Basis of Behavior

1. Structure and function of neurons
2. Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) and its role in behavior
3. Central Nervous System (CNS): brain and spinal cord functions

 

Month 2: Cognitive Processes

3. Perception and Attention

1. Principles of perceptual organization
2. Determinants of perception
3. Attention processes:
   • Selective attention
   • Sustained attention
4. Psychophysical problems

4. Learning

1. Conditioning:
   • Classical conditioning: procedures and examples
   • Instrumental (operant) conditioning: comparison with classical conditioning
2. Verbal learning: methods and procedures

5. Memory and Forgetting

1. Stages of memory:
   • Encoding, storage, and retrieval
2. Types of memory:
   • Sensory memory
   • Short-term memory
   • Long-term memory
3. Forgetting:
   • Nature and theories of forgetting
   • Interference and cue-dependent forgetting

 

Month 3: Higher Cognitive Functions and Individual Differences

6. Thinking and Reasoning

1. Concepts, categories, and prototypes
2. Schemes and scripts
3. Inductive and deductive reasoning
4. Problem-solving and mental set: solution strategies

7. Motivation and Emotion

1. Nature and types of motivation
2. Need Hierarchy Theory (Maslow)
3. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation frameworks
4. Understanding emotions: theories and components

 

8. Individual Differences

1. Intelligence:
   • Theoretical perspectives:
     1. Spearman’s theory
     2. Thurstone’s primary mental abilities
     3. Sternberg’s triarchic theory
     4. Gardner’s multiple intelligences
2. Personality:
   • Nature and approaches to personality
   • Trait theories
   • Psychodynamic approach
   • Socio-cultural perspective