ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12 Previous Year Question Paper Solved

ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12 Previous Year Question Paper Solved for practice. Step by step Solutions with Questions of Part-1 and Part-2 (Section A , Section-B). By the practice of Psychology 2017 Class-12 Solved Previous Year Question Paper you can get the idea of solving.

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ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12 Previous Year Question Paper


-: Select Your Topics :-

Part-I

 Section-A Part-II

 Section-B Part-II


Maximum Marks: 70
Time allowed: Three hours

  • Candidates are allowed additional 15 minutes for only reading the paper. They must NOT start writing during this time.
  • Answer Question 1 from Part I and five questions from Part II,
  • The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].

Part – I (20 Marks)
Answer all questions.

ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12 Previous Year Question Paper 

Question 1: [20]
Answer briefly all the questions (i) to (xx) :
(i) Define personality, according to Eysenck.
(ii) State the formula for calculating the IQ of an individual.
(iii) Give the full form of SCII.
(iv) What is meant by the term fixation according to Freud ?
(v) Briefly explain what is meant by gender identity.
(vi) What is obsessive compulsive disorder ?
(vii) Explain the term aptitude.
(viii) Define depression.
(ix) What is meant by automatic vigilance ?
(x) Explain the term object permanence.
(xi) What is burnout ?
(xii) Explain the term free association.
(xiii) What is meant by matching individuals to their jobs ?
(xiv) Who put forward the Structure of Intellect Model of intelligence ?
(xv) What is meant by disorganized attachment ?
(xvi) Briefly explain oral stage of psycho sexual development.
(xvii) What is meant by group test of intelligence ?
(xviii) Who are delinquents ?
(xix) What is meant by secondary cognitive appraisal ?
(xx) Explain the term development.
Answer 1:
(i) According to Eysenck (1971), “Personality is the more or less stable and enduring organisation of a person’s character, temperament, intellect and physique, which determine his unique adjustment to the environment.”

(ii) \mathrm{IQ}=\frac{\mathrm{M} \mathrm{A}}{\mathrm{CA}} \times 100
where IQ = Intelligence Quotient
MA – Mental Age
CA – Chronological Age.

(iii) The full form of SCII is Strong Campbell Interest Inventory.

(iv) Fixation: Excessive investment of psychic energy in a particular stage of psycho- sexual development; this results in various types of psychological disorders.

(v) Gender identity is defined as personal conception of oneself male or female and is an important aspect of the developing self concept of coregender identity is usually formed by age three. It is the ability to label themselves appropriately and consistently.

(vi) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder defined by the occu-rrence of unwanted and intrusive obsessive thoughts or distressing images; usually accompanied by compulsive behaviors performed to neutralize the obsessive thoughts and images.

(viii) Depression is a mood disorder which is marked by the feelings of extraordinary sadness and dejection, or display of loss of interest in pleasurable activities,

(ix) Automatic vigilance is the strong tendency to pay attention to undesirable or negative information.
Leon, Oden and Anderson (1973) in com-parative judgments of criminal offenses found that more serious crimes (rape, murder) has more extreme weight than less serious crime (forgery, fraud).

(x) Object Permanence is the understanding or realization of an infant that an object or person continues to exist even when out of sight. It develops between third and sixth sub-stage of the sensori-motor stage. This development in many cultures can be seen in the game of peek-a-boo.

(xi) “Burnout” is a complete physical, emotional and mental or attitudinal exhaustion caused by excessive prolonged stress. It is a worn out state because of repeated to encounter with stress.

(xii) Free association is a technique of Psycho-dynamic psychotherapy in which an individual must speak-out whatever comes into his or her mind regardless of how personal, painful or seemingly irrelevant it may seem to the client. The purpose is to thoroughly to explore the contents of the pre-conscious mind.

(xiii) Through job analysis, job characteristics i.e. the components of each job are known. Then through application of psychological tests the characteristics of the person are traced. Then these two are thatched. This is known as matching individuals with jobs. If matching is hundred percent, then the person is best suited for the job.

(xiv) J. P. Guilford put forward the structure of Intellect model of Intelligence.

(xv) Babies with disorganized attachment often shows inconsistent contradictory behaviour. They greet their mothers bright when she returns after separation for sometime but they turn away or approach without looking at her. They seem confused and afraid. This is the least secure pattern and is most likely to occur in babies whose mothers are insensitive, intensive or abusive.

(xvi) Oral stage is the initial psychosexual stage during which the developing infant’s main concerns are with oral gratification. The oral phase in the normal infant has a direct bearing on the infants activities during the first 18 months of life. Freud said that through mouth the infant makes contact with the first object of libido, the mother’s breast. Oral needs are also satisfied by thumb-sucking, other objects like dolls, toys or blankets into the mouth. Freud believed that by the end of first year oral phase begins to shift towards anal region.

(xvii) Group tests of intelligence are test which can be administered to many individuals at the same time. It is not costly in terms of administration and time. No trained examiners are required to administer the test e.g.,

  1. Army alpha test (group verbal test)
  2. Army beta test
  3. Raven’s Progressive matrices (Group Non-verbal test)

(xviii) Delinquents are adolescents who engage in violent and anti-social behavior and have ‘ a “rule-breaking” tendency. It is associated with various interacting risk factors like ineffective parenting, school failure, peer or neighborhood pressures, low social economic status. The children may get pay off for such anti-social behavior. However
most delinquent do not become adult criminals.

(xix) Secondary cognitive appraisal, as proposed by Lazarus, is the assessment of one’s coping abilities and resources that whether they are sufficient to meet the harm, threat or challenge of the event. When harm and threat is high and coping abilities are low, substantial stress is felt. When coping ability is high, stress may be minimal.

(xx) Development refers to a progressive series of changes in an orderly coherent pattern. Progress signifies that the changes are one- directional-that they lead forward rather than backward. Orderly and coherent suggests that there is a definite relationship between the changes taking place and those that proceeded or will flow with them.


Part — II (50 Marks)

Section — A
Answer any two questions.

ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12 Previous Year Question Paper

Question 2:
(a) Describe the theory of Multiple Intelligence. [6]
(b) Who are gifted children ? Give any six characteristics of gifted children. [4]
Answer 2:
(a) Howard Gardner challenged the motion of general intelligence. He tried to give a broad base to the concept of intelligence and its measurement by providing a multiple frame. According to him, intelligence can be best described as an individuals multiple abilities, talents and multiple skills. His theory first appeared in the frames of mind (1983).

He proposed seven independent types of intelligence that grow and develop differently in different people. They are as follows.

Linguistic intelligence : It includes linguistic competence, talents and skills such as written or oral expression and understanding. It includes syntax, semantics and Pragmatics. It is visible in professionals like lecturer, writers, lyricists.

Logical mathematical intelligence : It is responsible for all types of abilities, talents and skills in areas related to logic and mathematics. The various components are inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, scientific logical problem solving. It is exhibited in professionals like mathematicians, physicians.

Spatial intelligence : It is responsible for abilities, talents and skills involving the representation and manipulation of spatial configuration and relationship. It is visible in professionals such as painters, architects and navigators.

Musical intelligence : It covers abilities, talents and skills pertaining to the field of music, like production of music through per-formance and composition various components are pitch, discrimination, sensitivity to rhythm, timbre. It is visible in professionals like musicians and composers.

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence : It is concerned with the abilities, talents and skills involved in using one’s body or its various parts to perform skillful and purposeful movements. It is visible in professionals like dancers, athletes and gymnasts.

Inter-personal intelligence : It consists of the abilities to understand other individuals and one’s relation to others. It includes the ability to act productively, based on understanding of others. It is needed mostly in social interactions in day-to-day life.

It is exhibited in professionals like psychotherapists, sales person and politicians. Intra-personal intelligence : It is the individual’s ability to know himself, providing an insight into the total behavior. It includes the knowledge and understanding of one’s cognitive strength and style, one’s range of emotions and feelings. It is demonstrated in yogis, saints.

Gardner’s theory provided a broad and comprehensive view of human abilities. However the last four types of intelligence have been subject of great controversy as to whether they should be categorized as separate types of intelligence.

(b) According to Marland report (1972), “the gifted are those who possess outstanding abilities or potential in the areas of general ‘ intellectual capacity, specific academic aptitude, creative or productive thinking, leadership ability, visual or performing arts and psycho-motor activity”.

Characteristics of gifted children are as follows:
Physical characteristics : Their developmental milestones are observed way earlier than average children. An appropriate correlation is found between height and weight.

Mental or intellectual characteristics : They have special ability of analysis and logic. They have a good ability to understand abstract ideas. They have original thinking.

Educational characteristics : They take interest in reading reference books, newspaper, journals. They obtain good marks with less efforts than normal. They are systematic in their study.

Personality characteristics : They have a well balanced temperament and a high ability of adjustment. They are goal oriented, self-confident and have good conduct.

Social characteristics : They have special ability of leadership, they are trustworthy, like to play with children of older age group than themselves, high moral thinking and empathy and more tolerance ability.

Negative characteristics : Negative characteristics include stubbomess, shyness, demanding, poor handwriting, tend to question laws, rules authorities, over active physically and mentally, absent-minded.

Question 3:     ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) Explain the measurement of personality through Rorschach Ink blot Test. [6]
(b) Discuss the levels of consciousness put forward by Freud. [4]
Answer 3:
(b) Freud divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness : The conscious, preconscious and unconscious. Each of these levels corresponds and overlaps with Freud’s ideas of the id, ego, and super ego. The conscious level consists of all the things we are aware of, including things we know about ourselves and our surroundings. The preconscious consists of things we could pay conscious attention to if we so desired, and is where many memories are stored for easy retrieval . Freud saw the preconscious as comprised thoughts that are unconscious at the particular moment in question, but that are not repressed and are therefore available for recall and easily capable of becoming conscious.

The unconscious consists of things that are outside of conscious awareness, including many memories, thoughts, and urges of which we are not aware. Much of what is stored in the unconscious is thought to be unpleasant or conflicting for example; sexual impulses that are deemed unacceptable. While these elements are stored out of our awareness, they are nevertheless thought to influence our behavior.

Question 4:       ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) Describe the type theory of personality put forward by Hippocrates. [5]
(b) Give an account of Thurstone’s theory of Primary Mental Abilities. [5]
Answer 4:
(a) Type theories advocate that human potentialities can be classified into a few clearly defined types and each person can be described as belonging to a certain type.
Greek physician, Hippocrates gave a classification on the basis of dominant fluids. According to him, the human body consists of four types of humors or fluids — blood, yellow bile, phlegm (mucus) and black bile. The predominance of one of these four types of fluids in one’s body gives him unique temperamental characteristics leading to a particular type of personality classification is as follows-

Sanguine personality (Blood : Predominant fluid in the body): Light hearted, carefree, optimistic, easy-going, hopeful, accommo-dating, happy, responsive, sociable, talkative, lively, has leadership qualities.

Choleric personality (Yellow bile : Predo-minant fluid in the body) : Irritable, restless, aggressive, impulsive, excitable, active, angry but passionate, strong with active imaginatic , touchy, flexible.

Phlegmatic personality: (Phlegm/Mut c : Predominant fluid in the body): calm, tempered, controlled, reliable, slow/sluggish, indifferent, thoughtful, peaceful, passive, careful.

Melancholic personality (Black bile : Pre-dominant fluid in the body): Pessimistic, rigid, unsociable, bad-tempered, sad, deplorable, self-involved, dejected, anxious, moody, reserved.

(b) According to American psychologist L. L. Thurstone (1938), intelligence comprises of nine distinct primary mental abilities. According to him, there is no factor common to all intellectual activity. However there are a number of groups of mental abilities, each having its own primary factor.

The description of the factors is as follows :
Verbal factor : It is concerned with comprehension of verbal relations, words and ideas.

Spatial factor : It is involved in any task in which the subject manipulates an object imaginatively in space.

Numerical factor : It is concerned with the ability to do numerical calculations rapidly and accurately.

Memory factor : It involves the ability to memorize quickly.

Word-fluency factor: It is involved whenever the subject is asked to think of isolated words at a rapid rate.

Inductive reasoning factor : It is the ability to draw inferences or conclusions on the basis of specific inferences.

Deductive reasoning factor : It is the ability to make use of generalized results.

Perceptual factor : It is the ability to perceive objects accurately.

Problem solving factor : It is the ability to solve problems with independent efforts.

There stone assembled a battery of tests to measure these abilities. This Primary Mental Abilities test (PMA) is still widely used.

The weakest part of the group factor theory was that it discarded the concept of common factor.


Section – B
Answer any three questions

Solved Previous Year Question Paper ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12  

Question 5:   
(a) Describe the concrete cognitive development during childhood. [5]
(b) Discuss the motor milestones of development in infancy. [5]
Answer 5:     ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) In Piaget’s theory, a stage of cognitive development occurring roughly between the ages of seven and eleven, is the stage of concrete operations. According to Piaget, a child’s mastery of conservation marks the beginning of this stage. Logical thought emerges in this stage. The key developments at this stage are as follows :

Conservation : Children at this stage under-stand that physical entities (weight, length, amounts) remain fixed so long as nothing is added or taken away from it, though it might appear different. Understanding of this nature’s constant is known as conservation. The various kinds of conservation are :

Conservation of substance: Two identical clay balls are presented. The subject admits that they have equal amounts of clay. If one ball is deformed into the shape of a “sausage”, the subject will still say that both contains equal amounts of clay at this stage.

Conservation of length : Two sticks are aligned in front of the subject and he admits their equality. Now if one of the sticks is moved to the right, and the subject is asked whether they are of the same length, the subject will admit that they are still of the same length.

Conservation of members : Two rows of clay balls are placed in one-to-one correspondence subject admits that both rows have equal number of balls. Now, one of the rows is elongated or contracted and subject is asked whether both the rows still have the same number of balls. They admit equality.

Conservation of liquids : Two beakers are filled to the same level with water. The subject sees that they are equal. Now, liquid of one container is poured into a tall tube. The subject is asked whether each contains the same amount. At this stage, They agree that each contains the same amount.

Conservation of area : In two identical cardboard’s same number of identical wooden blocks are placed in identical portions. Then the subject is asked whether each cardboard has the same amount of space remaining. The experimenter then scatters the blocks on one of the cardboard’s. The subject is asked the same question. In both the cases, the subject admits that same amount of space is left.

Reversibility : In this stage, children can solve the questions mentally. They do not need to measure or weigh objects. For example — In the famous Muller-Lyer illusion :

In the figure, in step 1, a child agrees that stick A and stick B are equal. In step 2, stick B appears longer than stick A. But children in the concrete stage are capable of mentally reversing the arrows shafts to its original configuration, would admit it to be the same as stick A.

Categorization : This includes abilities such as ‘seriation’, ‘transitive inference’ and ‘class inclusion’.

  • Seriation : It refers to the ability to arrange items along a dimension such as weight (lightest to heaviest) or colour (lightest to darkest).
  • Transitive inference : It refers to the ability to recognize a relationship between two objects by knowing the relationship between each of them and a third object.

For example : Amenda is shown three sticks — a yellow, red and green. She has been told that the yellow stick is longer than red one and the red one is longer than the green one, then without physically comparing the yellow with the green one, she can tell that the yellow stick is longer than the green one.

Class inclusion : Class inclusion is the ability to see the relationship between the whole and its parts. For example—A bunch of ten flowers (seven roses and three carnations) is shown to the children at this stage and asked whether there are more roses or more flowers. They realize that roses are a sub-class of flowers and therefore there cannot be more roses than flowers.

Spatial thinking : Children at this stage can understand spatial relationship, i.e., they have a clear idea how far it is from one place to another and how long it takes to get there. They have the ability to use maps and models.

Inductive and deductive reasoning :
Children at this stage use inductive reasoning, rather than deductive reasoning. It refers to that type of logical reasoning that moves from particular observation about members of a class to a general conclusion about the class.

For example : My dog barks, so does Jerry’s dog and Melissa’s dog. So, it looks as if all dog’s barks.

The children at this stage, however, cannot very clearly think of hypothetical propositions. Also, they cannot understand the broad meaning of abstract concepts such as freedom, integrity. Intellectual growth, is still incomplete.

(b) Physical growth is rapid during infancy. If provided with good nutrition, infants almost tripple in weight and increase in body length by about one-third, during the first year.

Reflexes : At birth, new borns possess several simple reflexes (inherited responses to stimulation in certain areas of the body). The reflexes which new boms show at birth and very shortly thereafter are as follows :

  • Blinking : Baby closes eyes in response to light.
  • Rooting : When cheek is touched or stroked, baby turns toward touch, moves lips and tongue to suck.
  • Sucking : When nipple or other object placed in mouth, baby sucks.
  • Tonic neck : When baby is placed on back with head turned to one side, baby stretches out arm and leg on side baby is facing.
  • Moro : Baby throws out arms and fans fingers, extends neck and cries in response to loud noise or sudden drop of head.
  • Babinski : When baby’s foot is stroked from head to toe, toes fan out.
  • Grasping : When palms of hands are stroked, baby closes fingers around the object in a strong grasp.
  • Stepping : Baby makes stepping motions if held upright so one foot just touches a surface.

Locomotor development:
Birth — Fetal posture
One month — Lifts head
Six weeks — When held upright, holds head erect and steady
Two months — Lifts chest; Lifts self by arms; Rolls from side to back
Three months — Grasps cube; reach and miss
Four months — Rolls from back to side
Four months — sits with support
Seven months — Sits alone; crawls
Eight months — Stands with help; Pull to stand
Nine months — Plays pat-a-cake
Eleven months — Stands alone; crawls up stairs
Twelve months — Walks alone
Sixteen months — Walks up stairs with help
Twenty three months — Jumps in place
Thirteen months — Builds tower of two cubes
Fourteen months — Scribbles vigorously

Question 6:      ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) What’is meant by positive stressor ? Explain any two situational causes and any two dis positional causes of stress. [5]
(b) Explain the wellness cycle of stress. [5]
Answer 6:
( a) Positive stressors refer to any situation or circumstance that a person finds motivating and inspiring.
For example : Falling in love, meeting a star. The situations are enjoyable, yet accompanied by biochemical, physiological, cognitive and behavioral changes.

Two situational causes of stress are :
Stressful life events : These range from cataclysmic events such as death of one’s spouse or being fired from a job. This also includes events such as childhood sexual abuse, rape, man-made or natural disasters such as world trade centre attack.

Daily hassles : Daily hassles have a cummulative impact on health and illness such hassles include being stuck in a traffic jam, waiting in line, doing household chores, living in poverty, being in a bad relationship or maintaining a high stress job.

Two disposition causes of stress are :
Negativity, Pessimistic explanatory style : Some people are predisposed by their personalities to experience stressful events as especially stressful. This line of research has focused on the psychological state called negative affectivity, i.e., a pervasive negative mood marked by anxiety, depression and hostility.
While some people characteristically explain the negative events of their lives in terms of internal, stable and global qualities of themselves. This is known as pessimistic explanatory style.

Psychological sense of control : This refers to the feelings that one can exert control over stressful events. Perceived control is the belief that one can determine one’s own behavior, influence one’s environment and bring about desired outcomes. Perceived control is more closely related to self-efficacy, i.e., one has the ability to enact the necessary actions to obtain a specific outcome in a specific situation. The more the psychological sense of control, less stress is reported to be experienced and better coping occurs.

(b) Any physical environmental and social causes of the stress state is termed as stressors. Some examples of stressors are as follows:
Physical stressors — related to problems in one’s body.
Social stressors — demands of the society, in the form of rigid social norms.
Work stressors — demands of the job, or role conflict or work overload.
Environmental stressors — Adverse climatic . conditions, noisy neighborhood, traffic jams
Decision stressor — Inability to take decision because of certain conflicts.
Change stressor — Change in job, school or relocating to a new place/city.

When an individual reacts to a stress or in an adaptive manner, i.e. the person has developed effective ways of coping, it leads to the Wellness cycle. There are certain health-promoting lifestyle responses that leads to wellness and helps in combating stress, which are as follows :

Immediate techniques and skills :
Adaptive behavioral responses : This includes techniques such as assertiveness and time management strategies.

Adaptive physical responses : This includes having nutrition’s diet, regular exercise and adequate relaxation (may be through relaxation training).

Adaptive cognitive and emotional responses : This includes cognitive restructuring which leads to changes in the belief structure, influencing perception of events as well as stress inoculation, i.e. developing an adaptability or resistance to stressful situation.

Cognitive and emotional development : They tend to have improved mental health and thus a resistance to future stressors. This in turn leads to increased productivity, increased enjoyment and increased intimacy.

Long-term effects : When the health promoting techniques and skills are practiced for a long period of time, it leads to changes in the internal resources and thus leads to an adaptive personality. Some of the long-term effects are as follows :

  • Behavioral developments : It leads to increased self-esteem, self-confidence and self-respect.
  • Physical development : It leads to improved health and resistance to diseases.

It leads to improved health and resistance to diseases.

Question 7:     ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) Explain the five axes of DSM IV. [5]
(b) Discuss the basic nature of schizophrenia and specify its symptoms. [5]
Answer 7:    ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
a) A multiaxial system involves an assessment on . several axes, each of which refers to a different domain of information, that may help the clinical plan treatment and predict outcomes. There are five axes which are as follows :
Axis I : Clinical disorders, other condi-tions that may be a focus of clinical attention. This would include deliriums, dementia and annestic and other cognitive disorders. Subtance-related disorders schizophrenia and other Psychotic disorders mood disorders, Anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, Eating disorders, sleep disorders.

Axis II : Personality disorders; Mental Retardation Axis II is for reporting Personality disorders and mental retardation. It may also be used for noting prominent maladaptive personality features various personality disorders are as follows :

  • Histrionio Personality Disorder.
  • Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
  • Borderline Personality Disorder.
  • Antisocial Personality Disorder.
  • Dependent Personality Disorder.
  • Avoidant Personality Disorder.

Axis III : General Medical Condition Axis III is for reporting current general medical conditions that are potentially relevant for the understanding and management of the individual’s mental disorder.

Axis IV : Psychosocial and Environ¬mental Problems. A psychosocial or environ¬mental problem may be a negative life event, an environmental difficulty or deficiency, a familial or interpersonal stress. The various categories are as follows :

  • Problems with primary support group
  • Problems related to the social environment
  • Educational problems
  • Occupational problems
  • Housing problems
  • Economic problems
  • Problems with access to health care services.

Axis V : Global Assessment of function-ing Axis V is for reporting the clinician’s judgement of the individual’s overall level of functioning. This information is useful in planning treatment and measuring the impact and in predicting outcome.

The reporting of overall functioning on Axis V can be done using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. The GAF scale is divided into 10 ranges of functioning. The scale has two components : The first part covers symptom severity and the second part covers functioning.

(b) Schizophrenia is a serious psychotic condition. The name is coined after the two Greek work : ‘Schizo’ meaning ‘split’ and ‘phrenia’ meaning ‘mind’. Thus, Schizo-phrenia means split on Fragmentation of mind or personality. Approximately one percent of the population suffers from this disorder at some point of time in their life. Such persons typically have problems with attention, perception, thinking, social-relationship, motivation and emotion.
E.g. they hear voices that are not there, speak a language that others doesn’t understand, laugh when there is nothing numerous and do not have touch with reality.

Positive Symptoms : It is disturbances that are “added” to the person’s personality.
Delusions — false ideas-individuals may believe that someone is spying on him or her, on that they are someone famous (or a religious figure, movie star or president).

Hallucinations — seeing, feeding, tasting, hearing or smelling something that really does not exist. The most common experience is hearing imaginary voices that given commands, or comments to the individual.

Disordered Thinking and Speech : Moving from one topic to another, in a nonsensical fashion. Individuals may also make up their own words or sounds, rhyme in a way that doesn’t make sense, or repeat words and ideas.

Dis organised Behavior : This can range from having problems with routine behaviours . like hygiene or chosing appropriate clothing for the weather, to unprovoked outbursts, to impulsive and uninhabited actions. A person may also have movements that seem anxious, agitated, tense or constant without any apparent reason.

Negative Symptoms are capabilities that are “cost” from the persons personality.

  • Social withdrawal
  • Extreme apathy
  • Lack of drive or initiative
  • Emotional platness.

Question 8:      ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) What is conformity ? Explain Solomon Asch ’s study on conformity. [5]
(b) Explain the concept of social learning, realistic competition and stereotyping, as factors causing prejudice. [5]
Answer 8:     ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) Conformity is defined as a tendency to change one’s beliefs and behaviors in ways that are consistent with group standards. Conformity also involves yielding to group pressures. These pressures can be implicit or explicit, real or imagined. Thus, it is going along with the group or behaving in a way that is consistent with majority.

Solomon Ash’s Study on Conformity : Asch in his experiment, took five male students who participated in a study on perception, where they sat around a table and had to judge the length of lines. They were shown a card where three lines of varying length are drawn and a second card where only one line was drawn.

Social Comparison : The five male students had to judge which line on the first card was most similar to the line on the second card in terms of length. One of the lines was exactly the same length. The five subjects each uttered their responses aloud. The judgement’s were easy and there were no disagreements
 The judgement’s were easy and there were no disagreements
Social Disapproval : Then a second set of line was presented and finally a third. At this point the experiment was quite dull. On the third trial, the first subject gave an answer which was wrong. The second, third and fourth subject also followed. When it was time for the fifth subject, he was disturbed and it was clearly visible that the answer were wrong.

Need to be liked and accepte : Under this circumstances, people sitting in the fifth position sometime gave a wrong answer even though they knew which was the right answer.

Thus people conform even though doing so means contradicting their own perceptions of the world. In many cases, the individuals continue to believe that their private judgments are correct and the group is wrong. Nevertheless, when they are asked to respond publicly they give the same wrong answers that other give.

(b) Prejudice refers to negative evaluations of a group or of the members of a group without considering them as individuals. The various causes of prejudice are as follows :
Social learning : Children are not bom with prejudices. They leam them from their family, peers, media and society around them. Socialization refers to the process by which children leam the conventional social norms of their surroundings. Prejudice can be learned inside or outside the home. It can take place through the standard social learning mechanisms.

For example: Children may simply initiate the prejudices of adults and friends, they may be positively reinforced by using derogatory ethnic humour; or simply learn to associate particular minority groups with poverty, crime, dirtiness and other negative characteristics. For e.g., : While North Americans have historically tended to be more prejudiced against those who originally came from Africa, Asia and Latin America, than against those who came from Western Europe.

Realistic competition : Prejudice also stems from inter group competition. This idea begins with the assumption that society is composed of groups that differ in power, economic resources, social status and other desirable attributes.

Dominant groups are motivated to maintain their privileged positions and subordinate groups are motivated to reduce that inequality. The competition produces inter group conflict and therefore prejudice.

Realistic group conflict theory views prejudice as an inevitable consequence of competition among groups for resources or power.

For example : Prejudice may stem from competition between blacks and Latinos for blue-collar jobs, or between whites and minorities for admission to selective colleges.

Stereotyping : Stereotypes are beliefs (cognitive component) about the personal attributes shared by people in a particular group or social category. Nineteenth century stereotypes of Native Americans described them as dirty, cruel and warlike savages. Twentieth century stereotypes tend to depict them as silent , passive, drunken and lazy. Stereotypes form the basis of prejudice, which is the effective component of group antagonism. Thus prejudices are a result of stereotypes present in an individual.

Question 9:     ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
Write short notes on any two of the following : [5 x 2]
(a) Any five ways in which Psychology helps in school environment.
(b) Rehabilitation.
(c) Role of a counselor in dealing with families and with groups.
Answer 9:       ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12
(a) School environment refers to the environment in which the learner finds himself and in which the learning process takes place. The contribution of psychology in school environment is as follows :

To understand individual differences :
No two individuals are alike in the world. The teacher has to face a class of 30 to 50 students which have a great range of individual differences. The teacher with the help of the knowledge of the kind of individual differences may adjust his teaching to the needs and requirement of the class. This may be helpful in creating a conclusive environment.

To understand effective teaching methods : It gives us the knowledge of appropriate methods of teaching. It helps in developing new strategies of teaching- Valid psychological principles not only suggests new techniques of teaching- learning but also eliminates many traditional practices. Use of audio-visual aids makes the difficult concepts more clear and definite and learning is more lasting. It is the contribution of educational psychology that teacher make use of various types of audio-visual aids in class in class¬room teaching. Now subjects are included in the time table keeping in mind their difficulty level.

Curriculum construction : Psychological principles are also used in formulating curriculum for different stages. No two difficult subjects are taught in successive periods. Needs of the students, their development characteristics learning patterns and needs of the society are all incorporated in the curriculum.

Measurement of learning outcomes : Psychological tools help the teacher to assess the learning outcomes of the students. It also helps to evaluate the teaching methods in the light of performance of students.

Development of positive attitude : Teacher’s training program aim to develop positive attitude of teachers towards teaching profession. They help to develop confidence in trainees to face the problems and adaptability to deal with unexpected problems in daily classroom teaching. Earlier teachers used to give undue importance to theoretical subjects in school. Activities like debates and drama or sports were considered a waste of time. Nowadays, these activities are given their due importance for the harmonious development of personality.

(b) Types of Rehabilitation is the action of restoring someone to health or normal life though training therapy after imprisonment, addiction or illness. Rehabilitation denotes a wide range of interventions designed to help people with disabilities caused by mental illness, improve their functioning and quality of life by enabling them to acquire the skills and support needed to be successful in usual adult roles and in the environment of their choice.

Normative adult roles include living independently, attending school, working in competitive jobs, relating to family, having friends and having intimate relationship. Psychiatric rehabilitation emphasizes indepen-dence rather than reliance on professionals.

Vocational rehabilitation : Impairment of vocational role performance is a common complication related to schizophrenia. Vocational rehabilitation has always been a centerpiece of psychiatric rehabilitation.

Social skills rehabilitation : Psychiatric patients have difficulty fulfilling social roles, such as worker, sponse and friend and have difficulty meeting their needs when social interaction is required, (e.g., negotiating with merchants, requesting assistance to solve problems).

Cognitive rehabilitation : Increased recognition of the prevalence and importance of new cognitive deficits has stimulated increasing interest in remediation strategies. Effect of medication is small and does not have meaningful impact on neurocognitive functioning in community.

As a result, a parallel interest has arisen in the potential for rehabilitation or cognitive remediation. Psycho social rehabilitation does not attempt to cure serious mental disorders, rather it seeks to help persons with such disorders live as close to a normal life in the community as possible. The key goals of rehabilitation are as follows :

To help such persons understand their disorders so that they can cope with them more effectively. For instance, patients may be taught to recognize. For early warning signs of deterioration. Those with schizophrenia can be taught to recognize the hallucinations that often precede psychotic breaks.

Psycho social rehabilitation focuses on teaching patients the practical skills they need to live in the community how to use public transportation, shop for groceries, prepare meals.

Efforts are made to have a single professional coordinate to help the patients. Efforts with respect to employment, housing, nutrition medical care and finance. Such case management help to ensure that patients get all the help available to them and do not “slip between the cracks.”

Psycho social rehabilitation helps keep persons with serious mental disorders from having relapses or from experiencing serious problems with the law. Such programs are most beneficial if the continue on a regular basis.

(c) Counselling is an interactive process conjoining the counselee,who needs assistance and the counselor, who is trained and educated to give assistance. The function of a professional counselor is to render help and advice to any individuals for solving of their personal problems. The counseling service may be individual or group, depending on the purpose of the case. So, it may include sessions of both individual and group counseling.

Family therapy : Family therapy began with the finding that many people who had showed marked improvement in individual therapy—often in institutional settings had a relapse when they returned home.

Family based treatment approaches are designed to reduce high levels of criticism and family tension. Family therapy encourages change and development and the combined resolution of family conflicts and problems. The therapists aims is to engage the family in beneficial solutions, seeking constructive ways for family members to support each other through direct participation.

Family therapy may begin with one family member being referred for treatment but family therapist often label this individual “the identified patient”, thus implying that all members of the family are “patients”. Family members meet as a group to discuss problems, family background and family relationship. These discussions and interactions helps the therapists find out the patterns of communication, power plays, techniques of control and reinforcement contingencies within the family.

Family therapists may emphasize on psycho dynamics, that is to uncover the underlying motives and conflicts within the family and stimulate insight into them. Other family therapists may use humanistic- existential approaches and still others use a behavioral framework. Therapists using behavioral approaches to family therapy aim to assess and modify harmful reinforcement contingencies in the family.

These therapists may also analyze and try to reconstruct undesirable modelling patterns. A special strength of many behavioral approaches is their emphasis on behavioral exchange. The behavior that each family member would like to see in others are pinpointed explicitly; that information is then used to enhance the rewards of family life for each member, not just the identified patient.

Group therapy : Like family therapy, group therapy is intended to capture some of the essence of “real life” in a social context. It is sometimes a supplement to individual therapy, sometimes a substitute for it.

Group therapies can help people open up areas of thought and feeling that were previously sealed off, enhance their personal growth and deepen their relationship. The aim is to support the individual in solving their emotional difficulties. The combination of past experiences and experiences outside the therapeutic group, with the interaction between group members and therapists, becomes the material through which the therapy is conducted.

The groups usually consisting of about 5 to 15 people have one or two leaders, or trainers, as the therapist are sometimes called. The leaders generally try to create an atmosphere in which emotions and feelings are stressed. Group leaders must be highly skilled in dealing with the difficult interpersonal problems that can arise when so many people are responding all at once. They must be sensitive to the anxiety that can develop in some members and capable of protecting those who are fragile.

People thinking about joining such a group should investigate to make sure that the group objectives fit their own and that the group is being conducted by competent leaders.

Clinical psychologists have effectively used group therapy for many clinical problems, especially substance-abuse disorders. The methods used are mainly talking, psychodrama, constellation work.

-: End of ISC Psychology 2017 Class-12 Solved Paper :-


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