IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Psychology (1980)

PAPER - I
1. Write brief explanatory or illustrative notes on any five of the following:
(a) Movement and space errors in judgement
(b) Relational discrimination.
(c) Subliminal perception
(d) Species specific behaviour
(e) Role of endocrine glands in personality development
(f) Interrelation between reliability and validity
(g) Imprinting
(h) Retroactive inhibition

Or

Answer briefly any five of the following:
(a) How is a constant error in judgement taken care of in a psycho-physical experiment?
(b) What do you understand by sensory deprivation?
(c) What is the functional significance of having two eyes or two ears?
(d) How do you distinguish between classical and instrumental conditioning?
(e) What is the duplicity theory of vision?
(f) Illustrate the influence of context or set in perception.
(g) How do you genetically explain the differences among children of even same parents?
(h) Why should intelligence tests be standardized for different countries and cultures if intelligence is said to be least affected by environment?

SECTION I
2. Examine the place of humanistic psychology within the framework of psychology as it has come to be understood since the starting of the first laboratory of psychology.

3. Discuss the recent experimental studies of the functioning of the human brain and explain the implications of the findings to the understanding of the physiological basis of the levels of consciousness.

4. "Activities phylogenetic in nature are least susceptible to improvement through practice, while activities ontoganetic in nature are observed to be appreciably accelerated by practice at appropriate maturational level." Examine fully the significance of this statement, citing some experimental evidences to support it.

5. (a) What are the bodily changes that accompany an emotion?
(b) How have psychologist applied the knowledge of the occurrence of these changes in understanding the individual behaviour?

6. (a) Explain the terms: 'absolute limen', differential limen', ‘point subjective equality'.
(b) Describe any one psycho-physical experiment to study the differential limen.

SECTION II
7. "Perception is a selective process". Discuss fully this statement, citing the results of a few experimental studies.

8. Compare and contrast the main issues in the learning theories of Hull and Tolman.

9. (a) Compare the different measures of retention and explain the advantages of the method which you consider the best.
(b) What is meant by organization of memory? How does it help improve recall?

10. (a) Explain the meaning of 'perceptual defence' or 'functional fixedness'
(b) Describe an experiment to study any one of the above terms.

11. (a) Discuss briefly how far the theories regarding the nature of intelligence have influenced the approaches to its measurement,
(b) Must all tests be valid? Explain the conditions in which a test could have low validity without prejudice to its utility.

PAPER - II
SECTION A
1. Describe the basic concepts of the Gestalt School of Psychology. Examine the systems which are closely allied and opposed to it in their approaches.

2. Discuss how personality is an integration of psychological needs and social demands. How would Lewin interprete this process of integration in personality development?

3. Critically evaluate the questionnaire method of personality measurement. Illustrate your answer by citing any one questionnaire method. Is Statistical method in any way useful in this context?

4. Describe a Semantic Differentia! Technique with illustrations. Discuss its reliability, validity and utility in social psychological research.

5. Describe the chief characteristics of a neurotic life style. Indicate the major fantasies of anticipated harm entertained by neurotic.

SECTION B
6. Discuss the merits and limitations of the use of experimentally established principles of learning for the purpose of changing unadaptive behaviour

7. Examine critically the ecological approach to community Mental Health problems. Illustrate your answer with an example.

8. What is sociopathic personality? Discuss the importance of family relationship in sociopathic personality syndrome.

9. Discuss the role of Psychology in personnel selection in industry. Does proper selection ensure productivity as well as job satisfaction of the workers?

10. Write critical notes on any two of the following:
(a) Delusions of persecution and grandeur
(b) Alcoholism and its treatment
(c) Existential approach to personality