Monthly Archives: January 2022

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. Explain the nature of thinking.
Answer: Thinking is a complex mental process involved in manipulating and analyzing information, either collected through the senses from the environment, or stored in memory from past experiences.
Such manipulation and analysis occur by means of abstracting, reasoning, imagining, problem solving, judging and decision-making. It is an internal process that can be inferred from overt behavior.
Main features:

1. Thinking is the base of all cognitive activities.
2. It involves manipulation and analysis of information received from the ! environment.
3. Thinking is mostly goal directed and one desires to reach the goal by planning. Two building blocks of thinking?

• Thinking is a complex mental process and people think by means of mental images or concepts.
• Mental image refers to an image which is a mental representation of a sensor}’ experience. In this we actually try to form a visual image of the whole situation.
•  A concept is a mental representation of a category. It refers to a class of objects,
  ideas, events that share common properties, e.g. When we encounter new social situation, we try to categorise it on the basis of past experience and take action towards such situations.

Q2. What is a concept? Explain the role of concept in the thinking process.
Answer: Concepts are mental categories for objects and events, which are similar to each other in one or in more than one way.

• They may be organised in schema. They are mental frameworks which represents our knowledge and assumptions about the world.
• Concepts are building blocks of thinking. They allow us to organize knowledge in systematic ways.
• Concept formation is a basic task of thinking i.e., identifying the stimulus properties that are common to a class of objects or ideas, e.g., in the activity, the participant has to classify the stimuli either on the basis of colour or shape. It is very helpful in the thinking process.

Q3. Identify obstacles that one may encounter in problem solving.
Answer: Problem solving is thinking directed towards the solution of a specific problem,
Problem solving involves following mental operations which are as follows :

1. Identify the problem
2. Represent the problem
3. Plan the solution: Set sub-goals
4. Evaluate all solutions (plays)
5. Select one solution and execute it
6.  Evaluate the putcome
7. Rethink and redefine problems and solutions

There are two major obstacles to solving a problem. These are mental set, and lack of motivation.
Mental set is a tendency of a person to solve problems by following already tried mental operations or steps.
Lack of motivation is another obstacles to solving problems. Due to lack of motivation people give up easily when they encounter a problem or failure in implementing the : first step. Therefore, there is a need to persist in their effort to find a solution.

Q4. How does reasoning help in solving problems?
Answer:  Reasoning is a form of problem solving. It is goal directed activity and involves ‘ i
Reasoning is the process of gathering and analyzing information to a arrive at a conclusion.
Types of reasoning:

1. Inductive Reasoning: Reasoning is based on specific facts and observations. Through this reasoning people analyzing other possible reasons. Scientific reasoning is inductive in nature.
2. Deductive Reasoning: The deductive reasoning begins with general solution and then draws specific solution.
3. Analogy: Analogy helps us in identifying and visualizing the salient attributes of an object.

Q5. Are judgement and decision-making interrelated processes? Explain.
Answer: Judgement and decision-making are interrelated processes. .

• In decision-making the problem before us is to choose among alternatives by evaluating the cost and benefit associated with each alternative. For example, when you have the option to choose between psychology and economics your decision will be based on future prospects.
• Decision making differs from other type or problem solving. In decision-making we already know the various solutions of choices.
• Judgements are not decisions although they make yield information necessary for decision.

Q6. Why is divergent thinking important in creative thinking process?
Answer:  Divergent thinking^ is important in creative thinking process. It’s abilities facilitate generation of a variety of ideas which may not seem to be related.
Fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration are the abilities of divergent thinking.

1. Fluency : produces many ideas for a given task or a problem. The more ideas a person produces, the higher his fluency ability.
2. Flexibility: indicates variety in thinking. It may be thinking of different uses of an object, or different interpretation of a picture, story or different ways of solving a problem
3. Originality : ability to produce ideas that are rare or unusual by seeing new relationship, combining old ideas with new ones, looking at things from different prospective.
4. Elaboration : ability that enables a person to go into details and workout implications of new ideas.
   • Divergent thinking ability facilitate generations of a variety of ideas which may not seem to be related.
   • Divergent thinking is essential in generating a wide range of ideas. Convergent thinking is important to identify the most useful or appropriate idea.

Q7. What are the various barriers to creative thinking?
Answer: Barriers to creative thinking can be characterized as habitual, perceptual, motivational, emotional and cultural.

1. The tendency to be overpowered by habits can be detrimental to creative expression as it becomes difficult to think in novel ways.
2. Motivational and emotional barriers show that creativity is more than just a cognitive process. Lack of motivation, fear of failure, fear of rejection, poor self concept and negativism may hamper creative thinking.
3. Cultural barriers are related to excessive adherence to tradition, expectations, conformity, pressures and stereo types. It arises due to the fear of being different, mediocrity, social pressure, over-dependence, personal security and tendency to maintain the things as it is.
   Strategies to overcome the barriers of creative thinking.

There are certain attitudes, dispositions, and skills, which facilitate creative thinking.
Here are some strategies to help you enhance your creative thinking abilities and skills:

• Cultivate the habit of wider reading, exposure to a variety of information, and develop the art of asking questions, pondering over the mysteries of situations and objects.
• Try deliberately to look for multiple angles of a task and situation to increase flexibility in your thinking.
• Obsbom’s Brainstorming technique can be used to increase fluency and flexibility of ideas to open-ended situations. This helps in increasing the fluency of ideas and piling up alternatives. Brainstorming can be practiced by playing brainstorming games with family members and friends keeping its principles in mind.
• Originality can be developed by practicing fluency, flexibility, and habit of associative thinking, exploring linkages, and fusing distinct or remote ideas.
• Indulgence in activities, which require use of imagi-nation and original thinking rather than routine work according to the interest and hobbies.
• Generate a number of possible ideas or solutions, then select the best from among them.
• Think of what solutions someone else may offer for the problems.
• Give your ideas the chance to incubate. Allowing time for incubation between production of ideas and the stage of evaluation of ideas may bring in the ‘Aha!’ experience.
• Sometimes ideas cluster like branches of a tree. It is useful to diagram your thinking so that you can follow each possible branch to its completion.
• Resist the temptation for immediate reward and success and cope with the frustration and failure. Encourage self-evaluation.
  Develop independent thinking in making judgments.
• Visualize cause and consequence and think ahead, predicating things that have never happened, like, suppose the time starts moving backwards, what would happen? If we had no zero?, etc.
• Be self-confident and positive.

Q8. How can creative thinking be enhanced ?
Answer: Strategies to enhance memory:

1. Originality: Originality can be developed by practicing fluency, flexibility, habit of associative thinking, exploring linkages, and fusing distinct or remote idea.
2. Use of Imagination: Engaging more frequently in activities which require use of imagination and original thinking rather than routine work according to interest and hobbies.
3. Not to accept initial ideas: Never accepting the first ideas or solution. Many ideas die because we reject them thinking that the idea might be a silly idea i.e. we have to first generate a number of possible ideas or solutions, then select the best from among them.
4. Getting feedback: Getting a feedback on the solutions we decide one from others who are less personally involved in the task.
5. Chance to Incubate : Giving ideas the chance to incubate. Allowing time for incubation between production of ideas and the stage of evaluation of ideas, may bring in the ‘Aha!’ experience.
6. Diagram thinking: Sometimes ideas cluster like branches of a tree. It is useful to diagram our thinking so that we can follow each possible branch to its completion.
7. Developing independent thinking: Developing independent thinking in making judgements, figuring out things without any help or resources.
8. Self confident : To be self-confident and positive. Never undermine to your creative potential to experience the joy of your creation.

Q9. Does thinking take place without language ? Discuss.
Answer:

• Thinking is a silent speech
• It cannot take place without language.
• Benjamin Lee Whorf was of the view that language determines the contents of thought. This view is known as linguistic relativity hypothesis. In its strong version, this hypothesis holds what and how individuals can possible think is determined by the language and linguistic categories they use (linguistic determinism).
• Experimental evidence, maintains that it is possible to have the same level or quality of thoughts in all languages depending upon the availability of linguistic categories and structures.
• Some thoughts may be easier in one language compared to another.

Q10. How is language acquired in human beings?
Answer: To achieve linguistic competence, children must master the four sub-systems or language :

• Phonology – the ability to understand and produce speech sounds
• Semantics – the ability to understand words and the different combinations of words
• Grammar – the ability to understand the rules by which words are arranged into sentences and the rules by which words can indicate tense and gender
• Pragmatics – the ability to understand the rules of effective communication such as turn-taking, initiating and ending conversations and so on.

There are two contrasting views on how language is acquired. Some suggest that language acquisition is primarily biologically determined. This is typical nativity position in nature-nurture debate. Other position is the environmentalist position which views learning as the basis of language acquisition.
Language development for behaviourists like B.F. Skinner follow the learning principles such as association, imitation and reinforcement. They explain it in terms of operant conditioning
Regional differences in pronunciation and phrasing illustrate how different patterns are reinforced in different areas.

• The nativist view supported by Noam Chomsky argues that human being’s extra ordinary capacity to learn and use language is based on certain innate mechanisms.
• Chomsky suggested that children are born with powerful language acquisition, device, LAD, which represents a knowledge of universal grammar.
• Children throughout the world seem to have a critical period that is form infancy to puberty where learning must occur if it is to occur successfully for learning language.
  Most psychologists accept that both nature and nurture are important in language acquisition.

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. What is the meaning of the terms ‘encoding’, ‘storage’ and ‘retrieval’?
Answer: Memory is conceptualized as a process consisting of three independent, though interrelated stages. These are:

1. Encoding:
   • It is the first stage which refers to a process by which information is recorded and registered for the first time so that it becomes usable by our memory system.
   • In encoding, incoming information is received and some meaning is derived.
2. Storage: It is the second stage of memory:
   •  Information which was encoded must also be stored so that it can be put to use later.
   • Storage refers to the process through which information is retained and held over a period of time.
3. Retrieval: It is the third stage of memory.
   •  Information can be used only when one is able to recover it from his/her memory.
   • Retrieval refers to bringing the stored information to his/her awareness so that it can be used for performing various cognitive tasks.

Q2. How is information processed thrdugh sensory, short-term and long-term memory systems?
Answer: Atkinson and Shiffrin model of memory also known as stage model of memory.

• This proposes the existence of three separate but sequentially linked memory systems, the sensory memory, the short-term memory and the long-term memory.
• The sensory memory—contains a fleeting impression of a sensory stimulus (a sight or a sound). It is initial process that preserve brief impression of stimuli. It has a large capacity. It is of very short duration that is less than a second.
• The short-term memory—a limited recollection of recently perceived stimuli (a telephone number or an order of drinks). It holds small amount of information for a brief periocfof time i.e. less than 30 seconds. It is primarily encoded acoustically.
• The long-term memory—a more or less permanent store of memories for later retrieval (e.g. our telephone numbers). In this stage informations are encoded semantically and storage capacity is unlimited.
• Each of these memory system is seen as differing in the way they process information, how much information they can hold and for how long they can hold that information.
  The model can be expressed in the following diagram:
  

Q3. How are maintenance rehearsals different from elaborative rehearsals?
Answer:  Maintenance rehearsals:

• It is an important control process of STM.
• It is used to retain the information for as much time as required.
• As the name suggests these kinds of rehearsals simply maintain information through repetition and when such repetitions discontinue the information is lost.
• It is carried through silent or vocal repetition.

Elaborative rehearsals:

• From the STM information enters the long term memory through elaborative rehearsals.
• This rehearsal attempts to connect the “to be retained information” to the already existing information in long term memory.
  e.g. the task of remembering the meaning of the work “humanity” will be easier if the meaning of concepts such as “compassion”, “truth” and “benevolence” are already in place.
• In elaborate rehearsals, one attempts to analyse the information in terms of various information it arouses.
• Assignment of meaning and associations are formed. –
•  It involves organization of the incoming information in as many ways as possible e.g. we can expand the information in some kind of logical framework, link it to similar memories or else create a mental image.

Q4. Differentiate between declarative and procedural memories.
Answer: Difference between declarative and procedural memories are following:
Declarative Memory

• All information pertaining to facts, names, date, such as rikshaw has three wheels or that India became independent on August 15,1947 or a frog is an amphibian or you and your friend share the same name are part of this.
• Facts retained in this memory are related to amenable to verbal descriptions.

Procedural Memory

•  It refers to memories relating to procedures of accomplishing various tasks, i.e. skill learning e.g. how to make tea, play basketball or drive a car. .
• Contents of this memory can not be described easily.

Q5. Discuss the hierarchical organisation in long-term memory?
Answer:

• Allan Collins and Ross Quillian suggested that knowledge in long-term memory is organized in terms of concepts, categories and images and are organised hierarchically and assumes a network structure. Elements of this structure are called nodes.
• Nodes are concepts While connections between nodes are labelled relationships, which indicate category membership or concept attributes.
• According to this view, we can store all knowledge at a certain level that ‘applies to all the members of a category without having to repeat that information at the lower levels in the hierarchy’.
• This ensures a high degree of cognitive economy, which means maximum and efficient use of the capacity of long-term memory with minimum effort.
• Images: An image is a concrete form of representation which directly conveys the perceptual attributes of an object.
• All concrete objects generate images and the knowledge related to them is encoded both verbally as well as visually. This is known as dual coding hypothesis, originally proposed by Paivio. Such information can be recalled with greater ease.
• According to this hypothesis, concrete nouns and information related to concrete objects are images.
• Information related to abstract concepts assume a verbal and a descriptive code. For example, if you are asked to describe a bird, the first thing that happens is that an image of a bird is generated and based on this image, you describe a bird. But, on the other hand, the meanings of concepts like ‘truth’ or ‘honesty’ will not have such accompanying images.

Q6. Why does forgetting take place?
Answer:  Each one of us has experienced forgetting and its consequences almost routinely. There | . are some reasons because of which we forget:

1.  It is because the information we commit to our long term memory is somehow lost.
2.  It is because we did not memorise it well enough.
3.  It is because we did not encode the information correctly or it is because during storage, it got distorted or misplaced.

There are theories which have been developed to explain forgetting:

1. Theory of forgetting developed by Hermann Ebbinghaus:
   According to him the rate of forgetting is maximum in the first nine hours,particularly during the first hour. After that, the rate slows down and not much is forgotten even after many days.
2.  Forgetting due to Trace decay:
   (a)Trace theory (also called disuse theory) is the earliest theory of forgetting.
   (b)The assumption here is that memory leads to modification in the central nervous system, which is akin to physical changes in the brain called “memory traces”. When these memory traces are not used for a long time, they simply fade away and become unavailable.
   Drawbacks:
   • If forgetting takes place because memory traces decay due to disuse, then people who go to sleep after memorizing should forget more compared to those who remain awake.
   • Those who remain awake after memorizing show greater forgetting than those , who sleep.
3. Forgetting due to interference:
   • The interference theory suggests that forgetting is due to interferences between various informations that the memory store contains.
   • Interference comes about at a time of retrieval when these various sets of associations compete with each other for retrieval.
     There are two kinds of interferences that may result in forgetting.
     (a) Proactive (forward moving): Proactive means what you have learnt earlier interferes with the recall of your subsequent learning. In other words, in proactive interference past learning interferes with the recall of later learning, e.g. If you know English and you find it difficult to learn French it is because of proactive interference.
     (b) Retroactive (backward moving): Retroactive refers to difficulty in recalling
     what you have learnt earlier because of learning a new material. In retroactive interference the later learning interferes with the recall of past learning.e.g. If you cannot recall English equivalents of French words that you are currently memorizing then it is because of retroactive interference.
     
4. Forgetting due to retrieval failure:
   • Forgetting can also occur because at the time of recall, either the retrieval cues are absent or they are inappropriate.
   • Retrieval cues are aids which help us in recovering information stored in the memory.
   • This view was advanced by “Tulving and his associates” who carried out several experiments to show that recall of content become poor either due to absence or inappropriateness of retrieval cues that are available /employed at the time of recall.
   • Without getting any cues one may recall a couple of them only but if the learner get cues like category names then the recall improves significantly.
     Category names may act as retrieval cues.

Q7. How is retrieval related forgetting different from forgetting due to interference?
Answer:  According to Tulving retrieval cues are adds which help us in recovering information stored in the memory.

• Tulving said that contents of memory may become inaccessible either due to absence or inappropriatance of retrieval cues that are available at the time of recall.
• According to interference theory of forgetting we forget due to interference between various informations the memory store contains.
• According to this theory learning and memorizing involve forming of associations between items and these associations remain in the memory.

Q8. What evidence do we have to say that ‘memory is a constructive process’?
Answer: “Bartlett” saw memory as a constructive and not a reproductive process.

1. He used the method of “serial reproduction” in which the participants of his experiments recalled the memory materials reportedly at varying time intervals.
   • While engaging in this method of learning material, his participants committed a wide variety of errors which Bartlett considered useful in understanding the process of memory construction.
2. Using meaningful materials such as texts, folk tales, fables etc.
   • He attempted to understand the manner in which content of any specific memory gets affects by a person’s knowledge, goals, motivation, preferences and various other psychological process.
3.  Schemas play an important role in the process of memorization. Schemas refer to an organization of past experiences and knowledge which influence the way in which incoming information is interpreted, stored and later retrieved.
   • Memory, therefore becomes encoded and is stored in terms of a person’s understanding and within his/her previous knowledge and expectations.

Q9. Define Mnemonics? Suggest a plan to improve your own memory.
Answer:  All of us desire to possess an excellent dependable memory system. There are a number of strategies for improving memory called “mnemonics” (pronounced ni – mo-nicks) to help you improve your memory.
Some of these mnemonics involve use of images whereas others emphasise self- induced organization of learned information.
Mnemonics using Images: Mnemonics using images require that you create vivid and interacting images of and around the material you wish to remember. The two prominent mnemonic devices, which make use of images are following:

1. The Keyword Method: In this method, an English word that sounds similar to the word of a foreign language is identified. This English word will function as a keyword, e.g. If you want to remember the Spanish word for duck which is “pato” you may choose “pot” as the keyword and then evoke images of keyword and the target word (Spanish word) and imagine them as interacting. You might imagine a duck in a pot full of water.
   This method of learning words of a foreign language is much superior compared to any kind of rote memorization.
2. The Method of Loci:
   • This method is particularly helpful in remembering items in serial order.
   • It requires that you first visualize objects/places that you know well in a specific sequence, imagine the objects you want to remember and associate them one by one to the physical locations.
   • Suppose you want to remember bread, eggs, tomatoes and soap on your way to the market, you may visualize a loaf of bread and eggs placed in your kitchen, tomatoes kept on a table and soap in the bathroom. When you enter the market all you need to do is to take a mental walk along the route from your kitchen to the bathroom recalling all the items of your shopping list in a sequence.
3. Mnemonics using organization: Organization refers to imposing certain order on the material you want to remember. Mnemonics of this kind are helpful because the framework you create while organization makes the retrieval task fairly easy.
   (a)Chunking: In chunking, several smaller units are combined to form large chunks. For creating chunks, it is important to discover some organization principles, which can link smaller units. This method is very much used to improve short term memory.
   (b)First letter technique: For this method you need to pick up the first letter of each word you want to remember and arrange them to form another word or a sentence, e.g. colours of a rainbow are remembered in this way (VIBGYOR— that stands for Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red).
   Drawbacks of mnemonics:
   (a)Mnemonics strategies for memory enhancement are too simplistic.
   (b)It underestimates complexities of memory tasks and difficulties people experience while memorizing.

More comprehensive approaches to memory improvement:
(a)Engage in Deep Level processing:

• “CRAIK and LOCKHART” have demonstrated that processing information in terms of meaning that they convey leads to better memory as compared to attending to their surface features.
• Deep processing would involve asking as many questions, related to the information as possible, considering its meaning and examining its relationships to the facts you already know.
• In this way, the information will become a part of your existing knowledge framework and the chances that it will be remembered are increased.

(b)Minimise interference: Maximum interference is caused when vary similar materials are learned in a sequence.

• To avoid this, Arrange your study in such a way that you do not learn similar subjects one after the other.
• Instead pick, up some other subject unrelated to the previous one. Give yourself rest periods while studying to minimize interference.

(c)Give yourself enough Retrieval cues: Cues will be easier to remember compared to the entire content and make link to the parts of the study material to these cues. Then this content will facilitate the retrieval process.
“THOMAS and ROBINSON” have developed another strategy to help students in remembering, more which they called the method of “PQRST”. It stands for Preview, Question, Read, Self-recitation and the test.

• “Preview” refers to giving a cursory look at the chapter and familiarizing oneself with its contents.
• “Question” means raising questions and seeking answers from the lesion.
• “Read”—Now start Reading and look for answers of questions you have raised.
• “Self-recitation”—After reading try to rewrite what you have read.
• Test-At the end test how much you have been able to understand.

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. What is learning? What are its distinguishing features?
Answer:  The process of learning has certain features:

1. Learning always involves some kinds of experience or practice.
   • Changes due to maturation or growth are not learning.
     e.g.: One learns that if the bell rings in the hostel after sunset, then dinner is ready to be served.
2. Sometimes a single experience can lead to learning.
   e.g.: A child strikes a match stick on the side of a matchbox and gets her/his finger burnt. Such an experience, makes the child learn to be careful in handling the matchbox in future.
   • Before it can be called learning, the change must be relatively permanent, it must last for a fairly long time.
3. Learning must be distinguished from the behavioural changes that are neither permanent nor learnt.
   eg. changes in behaviour due to fatigue, habituation and drugs.
4. Learning is a change in behaviour, for better or worse.
5. Learning follows a sequence.

Q2. How does classical conditioning demonstrate learning by association?
Answer:

• Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to associate stimulus.
• Conditioning is the simplest form of learning.
• Classical conditioning was first explained in Pavlovs experiments in which a dog was kept on a harness with a tube attached to the dogs jaw on one end, a measuring jar on the other end.
• The dogs was kept hungry in the course of experiments, every time the dogs was
  given food a bell was rung before it, slowly the dog become conditioned to believe that the ringing bell meant that food was coming. .
• So, he began salivating at the sound at the bell.
• The dog continued to salivate even when food was not given after the bell.
• Hence, salivation became a conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus. Various forms of classical conditioning are:

1. Unconditioned stimulus (US): This stimulus consistently evoked a response or is reliably followed by one or it has potential capacity to evoke a natural response. e.g. food.
2. Conditioned stimulus (CS): It is also known as a neutral stimulus because except for an altering or intentional response, the first few times it is presented, it does not evoke a specific response.
   Any stimuli which lacks natural capacity to evoke natural response but developes this capacity with consistent pairing with US. For example bell.
3. Unconditioned Response (UR): The response that reliably follows the unconditioned stimulus is known as the unconditioned response, e.g. Saliva due to food. (iv) Conditioned Response (CR): When presentation of the originally neutral conditioned stimulus evokes a response.
   This response is what is learned in classical conditioning, e.g. Saliva s a response to the bell.

Determinants of classical conditioning: 

1. Time Relations between stimuli: In classical conditioning the first three are called Forward Conditioning Procedures and the forth one is called Backward Conditioning.
   The basic experimental arrangements of these procedures are as follows:
   • Simultaneous Conditioning: When the CS and US are presented together.
     It is effective to acquire CR but requires greater number of trials.
   • Delayed Conditioning: The onset of CS precedes the onset of US. The CS ends before the end of the US. It is most effective way of acquiring CR.
   • Trace Conditioning: The onset and the end of the CS precedes the onset of US with some time gap between the two. It is effective but requires greater number of trials.
   • Backward conditioning: The US precedes the onset of CS. It is least effective way to acquire CR.
2. Type of unconditioned stimuli: The unconditioned stimuli used in studies of classical conditioning are of two types: Appetitive e.g. eating drinking etc. according to researches it is slower and requires greater number of trials
   • Aversive e.g. Noise, bitter taste etc. classical conditioning is established in one, two or three trials so it is more effective.
3. Intensity of conditioned stimuli: This influences the course of both appetitive and aversive classical conditioning. More intense conditioned stimuli are more effective in accelerating the acquisition of conditioned responses, e.g.: The more intense the conditioned stimulus, the fewer are the number of acquisition trials needed for conditioning, ie intense irritating noise is more effective.

Q3. Define operant conditioning. Discuss the factors that influence the course of operant conditioning.
Answer:  Operant or instrumental conditioning is a form of learning in which behaviour is
learned, maintained or changed through its consequences.
Determinants of operant conditioning :
1. Reinforcers

• A reinforcer is defined as any stimulus or event which increases the probability of the occurrence of a desired response.
• The type – positive or negative, frequency, quality and schedule or reinforcer are determinants of operant conditioning.

1. Type of reinforcement:
   • Positive reinforcement involves stimuli that have pleasant consequences.
     They strengthen and maintain the responses that have caused them to occur.
   • Negative reinforcer involve unpleasant and painful stimuli. Responses that lead organisms to get rid of painful stimuli or avoid and escape from them provide negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement leads to learning of avoidance and escape responses.
2. Frequency/number of reinforcement and other feature :
   • Frequency of trial on which an organism has been reinforced or rewarded.
   • Amount of reinforcement i.e. how much of reinforcing stimulus (food or water) one receives on each trial.
   •  Quality of reinforcement i.e. to the kind of reinforcer. Bread of inferior
     quality as compared with pieces of cake have different reinforcing value.
3. Schedule of reinforcement:
   • This refers to the arrangement of the delivery of reinforcement during trials.
   • When a desired response is reinforcement every time it occurs we call it continuous reinforcement.
   • When according to schedule responses are sometimes reinforced, sometimes not it is known as partial reinforcement and has been found to produce greater resistance to extinction.
4. Delayed reinforcement:
   • It is found that delay in the delivery of reinforcement leads to poorer level of performance.

Q4. A good role model is very important for a growing up child. Discuss the kind of learning that supports it.
Answer: Observational learning: The acquisition of new forms of behaviour, information or concepts through exposure to others and the consequences they experience is called observational learning. This learning is also called social learning because we human beings learn many simple and complex social skills through observations.The concept of social learning was introduced by BANDURA.
Characteristics of observational learning

• Individualsleam social behaviour of person of status, respect and behave similarly when put in specific social situation e.g. In games, children quite often use.
• For such learning only those persons are observed who are considered to be as role models.
• Social behaviours are learned by observation.
• Personality characteristics, habits are developed through observational learning.

Concept of modeling

• According to social learning much of what human beings learn through direct experience can be learned through watching someone. It is because of modeling.
• Observational learning observers acquire knowledge by observing the model’s behaviour, but performance is influence by model’s behaviour being rewarded or punished. 1
• Children of fearful parents become fearful, children of critical parents become critical and children who observe confident adults tend to become confident themselves.

Influence of modeling

• It can be well understood by studies conducted by BANDURA.
• He showed a 5 minute film to children. The film showed numerous dolls including bobo dolls in a play room. The film had three versions:
  1st group of children see a boy being punished for his aggressive behaviour while playing.
  2nd group of children see boy being rewarded and praised by adult for being aggressive to the doll.
  3rd group of children see nothing, neither the boy being rewarded nor punished for aggressive behaviour displayed.
• It was found that those children who displayed aggressive behaviour being rewarded were most Aggressive, those who had seen aggressive model being punished were least aggressive.

Conclusion
In observational learning, observers require knowledge by observing model’s behaviour but performance is influenced by model’s behaviour being rewarded or punished.

Q5. Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.
Answer: Verbal Learning: The process of learning to respond verbally to verbal stimulus, which may include symbols, nonsense syllables and lists of words.
Procedures for studying verbal learning are:

1. Paired—Associated learning:
   • This method is similar to S-S conditioning and S-R learning.
   • When the list of paired-associates is prepared, the first word of the pair is used as the stimulus and the second word as the response.
   • The first members of the pairs (stimulus term) are nonsense syllables (consonant-vowel-consonant), and the second are English nouns (response term).
     e.g.: Stimulus = Response
     Gen = Loot
     Dem= Time
     Div= Lamp
   • The learner is first shown both the stimulus response pairs together and is instructed to remember and recall the response after the presentation of each stimulus term. After that a learning trial begins.
   • Trials continue until the participant gives all the response words without a single error.
2.  Serial learning:
   • First, lists of verbal items, i.e. nonsense syllables, most familiar or least familiar words, interrelated words etc. are prepared.
   • In serial learning the participant is presented the entire list and is required to produce the items in the same serial order as in the list.
   • Learning trials continue until the participant correctly anticipates and recall in the given order.
3. Free Recall:
   • In this method, participants are presented a list of words, each word is shown at a fixed rate of exposure duration.
   • Immediately after the presentation of the list, the participants are required to recall the words in any order they can.

This method is used to study how participants organize words for storage in memory.
Studies also indicate that the items placed in the beginning or end of the lists are easier to recall than those placed in the middle which are more difficult to recall.

Q6. What is a skill? What are the stages through which skill learning develops?
Answer: A skill is defined as the ability to perform some complex task smoothly and efficiently, e.g.: car driving, writing etc.
Skill consists of a chain of perceptual motor responses or as a sequence of S-R associations, e.g.: Movements of legs, feet and toes etc.
According to Fitts skill learning develops through three stages:

1. Cognitive Phase: In cognitive phase of skill learning, the learner has to understand and memorise the instructions.
   • The learner has to understand how the task has to be performed.
   • In this phase every outside cue instructional demand, and one’s response outcome have to be kept alive in consciousness.
2. Associative Phase:
   • Different sensory inputs or stimuli are to be linked with appropriate responses.
   • As the practice increases, errors decrease, performance improves and time taken is also reduced.
3. Autonomous Phase: two important changes take place in performance.
   • The Attentional demands of the associative phase decreases.
   • Inference created by external factors reduces. Finally, skilled performance attains Automaticity with minimal demands of – conscious effort.

Q7. How can you distinguish between generalisation and discrimination?
Answer:  Generalisation:

• Pavlov noticed that when a C.S – C.R. bond has been established by conditioning, a stimulus which is similar to the C.S can produce the same response and he called this stimulus Generalisation, or in other words Generalisation occurs due to similarity.
  e.g. If the dog is conditioned to salivate to tone, it will salivate to any type of tone , like electric bell, worship bell, college bell, buzzer and other sounds.
• Stimulus Generalisation in conditioning happens usually more in childhood particularly when the child has not developed the capacity to differentiate between two stimuli.
  For example; During infancy the baby considers every woman to be his mother.

Discrimination:

• Discrimination is the process of learning to make one response to one stimulus and another response – or no response to another stimulus.
  e.g: discrimination can be obtained in classical conditioning by pairing one stimulus (the CS+) with an unconditioned stimulus and never pairing another stimulus (the CS) with the unconditioned stimulus.
• Discrimination is a response due to difference or in other words discriminative response depends on the discrimination capacity or discrimination learning of an organism.

Q8. How does transfer of learning takes place?
Answer: Transfer of learning refers to the way in which we might transfer skills learned in one situation to a second, related situation. Thus, learning to play tennis may introduce a range of coordination and racket skills that would then transfer to similar games such as squash.

• It refers to the effects of prior learning on new learning.
• Transfer is consider to be positive if the earlier learning facilitates current learning. If new learning is a related then it is consider to be negative transfer.
• Absence of facilitative of retarding effect means zero transfer i.e. earlier learning has no effect on later learning.

Q9. Why is motivation a prerequisite for learning?
Answer: Motivation is considered a pre-requisite and acts as a main facilitator of learning.

1. It is a mental as well as a physiological state, which arouses an organism to act for fulfilling the current need.
2. Motivation energises an organism to act rigorously for attaining some goal, and such sets persist until the goal is attained and the need is satisfied.
   e.g.: The more motivated you are the more hard work you do for learning.
3.  Motivation for learning arises from two sources:
   • Intrinsic motivation: One may learn many things because he/she enjoys them or it provides the means for attaining some other goal.
   • Extrinsic motivation: Throughout the session one learn to acquire knowledge and skill, which may help to get a good job later.

Q10. What does the notion of preparedness for learning mean?
Answer: Preparedness is a reference to the fact that organisms are better able to associate certain combination of stimuli, responses and reinforces than others.

• If an animal eats and is then ill, it may develop an aversion to the flavor of the food, but not to visual or auditory stimuli that works present at the same time.
• The members of different species are very different from one another in their capacities and response abilities.
• The kinds of S-S or S-R learning an organism can easily acquire depends on the associative mechanism it is genetically endowed with or prepared for.
• A particular kind of associative learning is easy for apes or human beings but may be extremely difficult for another species.
• It implies that learning very much dependent on those association for which one is genetically prepared at the same time on his/her psychological preparedness to learn a particular task.

Q11. Explain the different forms of cognitive learning.
Answer:  Insight learning is a form of cognitive learning.

• Insight is defined as sudden perception of relationship between the learner, the
  goal and intervening obstacles.
• Insight occurs when the learner suddenly sees the relations between two valuables. Many experiments have been performed on insight learning. One Of the simplest of these experiments requires the chimpanzee to reach food with a stick when it cannot be reached by hand and when nothing else other than a stick is a available in the room. Latent learning is another form of cognitive learning.

The word latent means ‘hidden’ and thus latent learning is learning that occurs but is not evident in behaviour until later, when conditions for its appearance are favourable.

• Latent learning is said to occur without reinforcement of particular responses and seems to involve changes in the ways information is processed.
• Thus latent learning is an example of cognitive learning.

Experimental evidence:

• Rats in an experimental group-the latent learning group were first given plenty of experience in a maze. After they thoroughly experienced the maze, reinforced maze learning under instrumental conditioning began ie. They were rewarded for their successful effort.
• The rats in a control group are not being given experience with the maze. The control group animals were put in a box that is unlike the maze.
• When reinforcement for maze learning starts, the experimental group did better than the rats in the control group.
• The latent learning group rats learned the maze faster and with fewer errors than did the control animals.
• It proves that the latent learning showed up in their performance.

Q12. How can we identify students with learning disabilities?
Answer: Learning disability refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested in terms of difficulty in the acquisition of learning, reading, writing, speaking, reasoning, and mathematical activities.

• The sources of such disorders are inherent in the child.

We can identify students with learning disabilities from many symptoms. These symptoms are following:

1. Difficulties in writing letters, words, and phrases, reading out text, and speaking, appear quite frequently, quite often they have listening problems, although they may not have auditory defects. Such children are very different from others in developing learning strategies and plans.
2. Learning disabled children have disorders of attention. They get easily distracted
   and cannot sustain attention on one point for long. Some times it leads to hyperactivity ie they are always moving, doing different things and trying to manipulate things without any purpose.
3. Poor space orientation and inadequate sense of time are common symptoms. Such children do not get easily oriented to new surroundings and get lost. They lack a sense of time and are late or sometimes too early in their routine work. They also show confusion in direction and misjudge right, left, and down.
4. Learning-disabled children have poor motor-coordination and poor manual dexterity. This is evident in their lack of balance. They show Inability to sharpen pencil, handle doorknobs, difficulty in learning to ride a bicycle, etc.
5. These children fail to understand and follow oral directions for doing things.
6. They misjudge relationships as to which classmates are friendly and which ones are indifferent. They fail to learn and understand body language.
7. Learning-disabled children usually show perceptual disorders. These include visual, auditory, tectual and kinesthetic, misperception etc. They fail to differentiate a call-bell from the ring of the telephone. It is not they do not have sensory acuity.They simply fail to use it in performance.
8. Fairly large number of learning-disabled children have dyslexia. They quite often fail to copy letter and words, e.g,: they fail to distinguish between b and d, p and q, p and I, was and saw, unclear and nuclear etc., they fail to organize verbal material.

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. Explain the functional limitations of sense organs.
Answer: Sense organs function with certain limitations. For example our eyes cannot see things which are very dim or very bright. Similarly our ears cannot hear very faint or very loud sounds. The same is true for other organs also. As human beings, we function within a limited range of stimulation. For being noticed by a sensory receptor a stimulus has to be of an optimal intensity or magnitude.

Q2. What is meant by light and dark adaptation? How do they take place?
Answer: Bright adaptation refers to the process of adjusting to bright light after exposure to dim light. This process takes nearly a minute or two.
Dark adaptation refers to the process of adjusting to a dimly illuminated environment after exposure to bright light. This may take half an hour or even longer depending on the previous level of exposure of the eye to light. The dark-adapted eye is about 100,000 times more sensitive to light than the light-adapted eye.

Q3. What is colour vision and what are the dimensions of colour?
Answer:

• A person’s ability to distinguish different shades of colour is termed colour vision.
• Person with normal colour vision can distinguish more than seven million different shades of colour.
• There are three basic dimensions of colour-hue, saturation, and brightness.
• Hue is property of chromatic colours. It refers to the name of the colour, e.g.,red, blue, and green. Hue varies with wavelength, and each colour is identified with a specific wavelength. For example, blue has a wavelength of about 465 nm. and green of about 500 nm. achromatic colours like black, white or grey are not characterised by hues. .
• Saturation is a psychological attribute that refers to the relative amount of hue of a surface or object.
• The light of single wavelength (monochromatic) appears to be highly saturated.
• As we mix different wavelengths, the saturation decrease. The colour grey is completely unsaturated.
• Brightness is the perceived intensity of light. It varies across both chromatic and achromatic colours.
• White and black represent the top and bottom of the brightness dimension.
• White has the highest degree of brightness, whereas black has the lowest degree.

Q4. How does auditory sensation take place?
Answer:  Sound servers as stimulus for auditory sensation. Loudness, pitch, and timbre are the – properties of sound. Organ of corti located in the basilar membrane is the chief organ of hearing
Auditory sensation begins when sound enters our ear and stimulates the chief organs of hearing.
Pinna collects the sound vibration and serve them to the tympanum through the auditory meat us.
From the timpani cavity the vibrations are transferred to the three ossicles, which increase their strength and transmit them to the inner ear. In the inner ear the cochlea receives the sound waves.
Through vibrations the endolymph is set in motion, which alsor vibrate the organ corti. Finally the impulses are sent to the auditory nerve, which emerges at the base of cochlea and reaches the auditory cortex where the impulse is interpreted.

Q5. Define attention. Explain its properties.
Answer: The process through which certain stimuli are selected from a group of others is generally referred to as attention.
The properties of attention are selection, alertness, concentration and search.

1. Selection— A large number of stimuli impinge upon our sense organs simultaneously, but we do not notice all of them at the same time. Only a selected few of them are noticed, e.g. when you enter your classroom you encounter several things like doors, walls, windows etc but you selectively focus only on one or two of them at one time.
2. Alertness— Alertness refers to an individual’s readiness to deal with stimuli that appear before him/her. e.g. while participating in a race in your school you must have seen the participants on the starting line in an alert state waiting for the whistle to blow in order to run.
3. Concentration— Concentration refers to focusing of awareness on certain specific objects while excluding others for the moment, e.g. in the classroom a student concentrates on the teacher’s lecture and ignores all sorts of noises coming from different comers of the school.
4.  Search— In search an observer looks for some specified subset of objects among a set of objects, e.g. when we go to school to fetch our younger sister and brother from the school we just look for them among innumerable boys and girls.

Q6. State the determinants of selective attention. How does selective attention differ from sustained attention?
Answer: Selective attention refers to the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. It is concerned mainly with the selection of a limited number of stimuli or objects from a larger number of stimuli Factors affecting selective attention :
External factors:
These are related to the features of the stimuli. Other factors held constant.

• The size, intensity and movement of stimuli are important determinants.
• Large, bright and moving objects easily catch our attention.
• Auditory narrations are readily attended than visual narrations.
• Stimuli that are novel and slightly complex catch our attention.
• Human figures are more likely to be attended then the in animate objects.

Internal factors can be of two types :
(1) Cognitive factors (2) Motivational factors

1. Cognitive factors include factors like interests, attitudes and preparatory set.
   • Stimuli that appear interesting are readily attended.
   • Stimuli that are favorably disposed by us also catch our attention.
   • Preparatory set a state of mind to act in a certain way and to respond to some stimuli and not to others at that moment.
2. Motivational factors
   • These are related to our biological and social needs e.g. hungry person will attain food first. During examination days students focus more on teacher’s instructions.
   • Selective attention is concerned mainly with the selection of a limited number of stimuli from a large number of stimuli whereas sustained attention refers to focusing of awareness on specific objects while excluding others for the movement.
   • It is ability to maintain attention on an object or event for longer duration.

Q7. What is the main proposition of Gestalt psychologists with respect to perception of the visual field?
Answer: Gestalt psychologists (Wertheimer, Koffka and Kohler) outlines several principles that describe the way in which basic sensory input are oganized into whole patterns.

• According to Gestalt psychologists, human beings perceive different stimuli note as discrete elements, but as an organised, “whole” that carries a definite form.
• They believe that the form of an object lies in its whole, which is different from the sum of their parts.
• For example, a flower-pot with a bunch of flowers is a whole. If the flowers are removed, the flower-pot still remain a whole. It is the configuration of the flower-
  pot that has changed. Flower pot with flower is one configuration, without flowers it is another configuration.
• Gestalt psychologists also indicate that cerebral processes of human beings are always oriented towards the perception of a good figure. That is the reason why human being perceive everything in an organized form.

Some of these principles are discussed below:

1. Figure ground relationship—We tend to divide the world around us into two parts: figure, which has a definite shape and a location in spaces; and ground, which has no shape, seems to continue behind the figure, and has no definite location. The’ figure-ground relationship helps clarity the distinction between sensation and perception.
2. Contours—Contours are formed whenever a marked difference occurs in the brightness or colour of the background. Contours give shape to the objects in our visual world because they mark one object off-from another or they mark an object off from the general ground. Contours determine shape, but by themselves they are shapeless.
3. Grouping—Haws of grouping describe basic ways in which we group items together perceptually. These are simple principles through which we perceive the world around us. The principles of grouping include similarity, proximity, closure, and continuity.
   • The principle of similarity says that objects of similar shape, size, or colour tend to be grouped together. In the auditory sense, sounds of similar tone and intensity are grouped together.
   • The law of proximity says that items which are close together in space or time tend to be perceived as belonging together or forming an organized group
   • Principle of continuation describes the tendency to perceive a line that starts in one way as continuing in the same way.
   • Law of closure refers to perceptual processes that organize the perceived world by filling in gaps in stimulation.
   • In case of principle of continuity if interruptions are too pronounced or too long, continuity disappears and a unified whole is not perceived.
4. Camouflage: When contours are disrupted visually, objects are difficult to distinguish from the background. This is camouflage. It works because it breaks up contours, e.g. uniform of soldiers in the forest.

Q8. How does perception of space take place?
Answer:  Space is perceived in three dimensions. This is because of our ability to transfer a two-dimensional retinal vision into a three dimensional perception. Spatial attributes of objects like, size, shape and distance between objects also contribute towards the perception of space.

Q9.What are the monocular cues of depth perception? Explain the role of binocular cues in the perception of depth.
Answer:  Monocular cues are psychological cues.

• These cues are often used by artists to induce depth in two dimensial paintings.
• Hence they are also known as pictorial cues.
• They help us in judging the distance and depth in two dimensal surfaces.
• Some important monocular cues that in judging the distance and depth in two dimensional surfaces are as follows:

1. Relative Size: The size of retinal images allows to judge distance based on post and present experience with similar objects. As the objects gets away, the retinal image becomes smaller and smaller. One tends to perceive an object farther away when it appears small, and closer when it appear bigger.
2. Interposition or Overlapping: These cues occur when some portion of the object is covered by another object. The overlapped object is considered farther away, whereas the object that covers it appears nearer.
3. Linear Perspective: This reflects a phenomenon by which distant objects appear to be closer together than the nearer object. For example, Parallel lines, such as rail track appear to converge with increasing distance.
4. Aerial Perspective: The air contains particles of dust and moisture that make distant objects look hazy or blurry. This effect is called aerial perspective.
5. Light and Shade: In the light some parts of the object get highlighted, whereas some parts become darker. Highlights and shadow provide us with information about an object’s distance.
6. Relative Height: Larger objects are perceived being closer to the viewer and smaller object a being farther away.
7. Texture Gradient: It represents a phenomenon by which the visual field haying more density of elements is seen farther away.
8.  Motion Parallax: It is kinetic monocular cue, and hence not considered as a pictorial cue. It occurs when objects at different distances move at a different relative speed. The distant objects appear to move slowly than the objects that are close. The rate of an objects movement provides a cue to its distance. For example, when we travel in a bus, closer objects move “against” the direction of the bus, whereas the farther objects move “with” the direction of the bus.

Binocular cues are depth information based on the coordinated efforts of both eyes.Three of them are:

1. Retinal or Binocular Disparity:
   • Retinal disparity occurs because the two eyes are separated from each other horizontally by some distance.
   • Because of this distance, the image formed on the retina of each eye of the same object is slightly different.
   • This difference between the two image is called retinal disparity.
   • The brain interprets large retinal disparity to mean a close object and a small retinal disparity to mean a distant object.
2. Convergence:
   • When we see a nearly object our eyes converge inward in order to bring the image on the fovea of each eye.
   • A group of muscles send message to the brain regarding the degree to which eyes are turning inward and these messages are interpreted as cues to depth perception.
   • The degree of convergence decreases as the object moves further away from the observer.
3. Accommodation: Accommodation refers to a process by which we focus the image on the retina with the help of ciliary muscles.
   • These muscles change the thickness of the lens of the eye. If the object gets away (more than 2m) the muscle is relaxed.
   • When it moves nearer the muscles get tensed and the thickness of the lens increases.
   • The signal about the degree of contraction of the muscle is sent to the brain which provides the cue for distance.

Q10. Why do illusions occur?
Answer:

• Illusions occur because of a result of a mismatch between the physical stimuli and its perception by the individual.
• The mismatch is caused by incorrect interpretation of information received by sense organs.
• Illusions are called primitive organizations as they are generated by an external stimulus situation that generates the same kind of experience in all the individuals.
• Some illusions are universal in nature as they are found in all individuals.
• These are also called permanent illusions because they do not change with experience and practice.
• Illusions that vary from individual to individual are called personal illusions.

Q11. How do socio-cultural factors influence our perceptions?
Answer:

• Several psychologists have studied the processes of perception in different socio-cultural setting. For example, they have used Muller-Lyer and vertical-Horizontal illusion figures with several groups of people living in Europe, Africa, and many others place, by comparing samples from remote. African villages and western settings.
• It was found that African subjects showed greater susceptibility to horizontal vertical illusions, whereas Western subjects showed greater suspectibility to Muller-Lyer illusion.
• Similar findings have been reported in other studies also. Living in dense forests the African subjects regularly experienced vertically (e.g., long trees) and developed a tendency to overestimate it.
• The Westerners, who lived in an environment characterised by right angels, developed a tendency to underestimate the length of line characterised enclosure (e.g., arrowhead).
• This research suggests that the habits of perception are learnt differently in different cultural settings.
• Hudson did a study in Africa, and found that people, who had never seen pictures, had great difficulty in recognizing objects depicted in them and in interpreting depth cues.
• Sinha and Mishra have carried out several studies on pictorial perception using a variety of pictures with people from diverse cultural settings, such as hunters and gatherers living in forests, agriculturists in cities.
• Their studies indicate that interpretation of pictures is strongly related to cultural experiences of people.

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. What is development? How is it different from growth and maturation?
Answer:  Development is a process by which an individual grows and changes throughout the life cycle.

• The term Development refers to the changes that have a direction and hold definite relationship with what precedes it.
• includes changes in size (physical growth), changes in proportion (child to adult), changes in features (disappearance of baby teeth) and acquiring new features.

Development includes growth as one of its aspects.
Growth:

• Growth refers to an increase in the size of body parts or of the organism as a whole.
• It can be measured or quantified, e.g. growth in height and weight.

Maturation: refers to the changes that follow an orderly sequence and are largely dictated by the genetic blueprint which produces commonalities in our growth and ” development.

Q2. Describe the main features of life-span perspective on development.
Answer:

• The term development means a progressive series of changes that occur as a result of maturation and experience.
• Development implies qualitative changes in behaviour.
• Development does not consist merely of adding inches to one’s height or of improving one’s ability.
• It is a complex process of integrating many structures and functions.

The study of development according to the Life-span perspective (LSP) includes the following assumptions:

• Development is life long i.e. it takes place across all age groups starting from conception to old age. It includes both gains and losses, which interact in dynamic (change in one aspect goes with changes in others) ways throughout the life-span.
• The various Process of human development i.e. biological, cognitive and socio- emotional are interwoven in the development of a person throughout the lifespan.
• Development is multi-directional. Some dimensions or components of a given dimension of development may increase, with others show decrement, e.g. the experiences of adults may make them wiser and guide their decisions. However, with an increase in age, one’s performance is likely to decrease on tasks requiring speed, such as running.
• Development is highly plastic, i.e. within a person, modifiability is found in psychological development, though plasticity varies among individuals.
• Development is influenced by historical conditions, e.g. The career orientation of school students today is very different from those students who were in schools 50 years ago.
• Development is the concern of a number of disciplines. Different disciplines like psychology, anthropology, sociology and neuro-sciences study human development with different perspectives.
• An individual responds and acts in a particular context, e.g. the life events in everyone’s life are not the same such as death of a parent, accident, earthquake etc affect the course of one’s life as also the positive influences such as winning an award or getting a good job.

Q3. What are developmental tasks? Explain by giving examples.
Answer:

• A task which arises at or about a certain period in the life of the individual, successful achievement of which leads to happiness and to success with later tasks.
• Some tasks arise mainly as a result of physical maturation, such as learning to walk.
• Others develop primarily from the cultural pressures of society, such as learning to read; and still others grow out of the personal values to read.
• Still others grow out of the personal values and aspirations of the individual, such as choosing and preparing for a vocation.

Purposes of Developmental Tasks :

• Developmental tasks serve three very useful purposes.
• They are guidelines that enable individuals to know what society expects of them at given ages. Parents, for example, can be guided in teaching their young children different skills by the knowledge that society expects the children to master these skills at certain ages and that their adjustments will be greatly influenced by how successfully they do so.
• Developmental tasks motivate individuals to do what the social group expects them to do at certain ages during their lives.
• Finally, developmental tasks show individuals what lies ahead and what they will be expected to do when they reach their next stage of development.

Q4. ‘Environment of the child has a major role in the development of the child’. Support your answer with examples.
Answer: 

• Environment of the child has a major role to play in the development of the child because it includes the surroundings in which the child develops various cognitive and motor skills. It also influences the physical development of the child according to the limits set by genetic characteristics.
• The socio-economic and cultural environment has a major role in the development of the child’s process, e.g., a child who is sent to school is able to develop characteristics of confidence and self-reliance more easily than a child who does not receive education.
  Thus, environment plays a vital role in the child’s development.

Q5. How do socio-cultural factors influence development?
Answer: 

• Environmental factors are those factors which act upon the organism from outside and influence its structure and behaviour.
• After birth the infant is exposed to a complex external environment with its variety of physical and chemical energies, as well as the social forces which arise from contact with other human beings.
• The environment differs and so also the effect on individuals. Different individuals within the same environment also differ. They develop different interests and attitudes, and they identify themselves to different groups- religious, political and recreational.

Man’s genotype serves as a ‘potential’ source for his development of behaviour. Realisation of these potentialities, however, depends upon the interactions of the genotype with his environmental factors.
A child with average potential intelligence but a ‘fertile’ co-environment would do better in life. If the environment is congenial, the development is positive while it takes a negative turn if the environment is unpleasant.

Q6. Discuss the cognitive changes taking place in a developing child.
Answer: Piaget’s given four types of stages for cognitive development:

1. Sensorimotor Stage: (Approximate age is of 0-2 years). In this stage infant explores the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.
2. Preoperational Stage: (Approximate age is of 2-7 years). In this stage symbolic thought develops and helps to expend his/her mental world. There are two features of preoperational stage:
   • Egocentrism (self-focus): children see the world only in terms of their own selves and are not able to appreciate other’s point of view.
   • Centration: focusing on a single characteristic or feature for understanding an event e.g. a child may insist on drinking a “big glass” of juice, preferring a tall narrow glass to a short broad one, even though both might be holding the same amount of juice.
3. Concrete Operational Stage: (approximate age is of 7-11 years).
   • It is made up of operations-mental actions that allows the child to do mentally what was done physically before.
   •  Concrete operations are also mental actions that are reversible.
   • Concrete operations allow the child to focus on different characteristics and not focus on one aspect of the object.
   • The child can reason logically about concrete events.
   • This helps the child to appreciate that there are different ways of looking at things.
4. Formal Operational Stage: (Approximate age is of 11-15 years). The adolescent can apply logic more abstractly, hypothetical thinking develops.

Q7.  Attachment bonds formed in childhood years have long-term effects. Explain taking examples from daily life.
Answer:

• Attachment bonds formed in childhood years have long term effects because these are notably developed between the parents and children. These bonds determine the level of trust and perception of the would during the formative years of childhood, e.g, a child growing up in a secure family, with sensitive, responsive and affectionate parents will is not them.
• The child will also make decisions in his/her life with the parents and thus, have a good relationship. However, a child who does not have a steady and good relationship with the parents will lack communication.
• Problems of juvenile delinquency are after related to the lack of attachment of an individual towards his/her parents.

Q8. What is adolescence? Explain the concept of egocenirism.
Answer:  Adolescence: The term adolescence comes from the Latin word “adolescere”, meaning “to grow” or “to grow to maturity”. The term ‘adolescence’ includes mental, emotional and social maturity as well as physical maturity.

1. It is the transition period in a person’s life between childhood and adulthood.
2. It has been regarded as a period of rapid change, both biologically and psychologically. Though the physical changes that take place during this stage are universal, the social and psychological dimensions of the adolescent’s experiences depend on the cultural context.
3. It is a time of search for identity. They begin to crave identity and are no longer satisfied to be like their peers in every respect, as they were earlier, e.g. They try to establish themselves as individuals by the use of status symbols in the form of car, clothes and other readily observable material possessions.
4. Adolescence is the threshold of adulthood they are anxious to shed the stereotype of teenagers and to create the impression that they are adults, e.g. dressing and acting like adults, they start engaging in smoking, drinking, drugs and in sex. Egocentrism: (self-focus) Children see the world only in terms of their own selves and are not able to appreciate others point of view. The egocentrism of early childhood is especially pronounced in the first year or two before children begin to play with other children-the age of parallel play.
   • Boys tend to be more egocentric then girls, partly because they sense they are often parental favourites and partly because they are given more privileges. While all children tend to be egocentric, there are certain ones whose environment encourage greater egocentrism than is found in the average child of the same age ’ level.
     Adolescents develop a special kind of egocentrism.
     According to DAVID ELKIND adolescents develop two components of egocentrism:
   • Imaginary audience
   • Personal fable.

1. Imaginary audience: adolescent’s belief that others are as occupied with them as they are about themselves.
   They imagine that people are always noticing them and observing each and every behaviour of theirs.
2.  Personal fable: it is adolescents sense of uniqueness. It takes them think that no one understands them or their feelings.

Establishment of identity: Adolescence is the stage when primary task is to establish an identity separate from their parents.
Identity refers to knowing who am I? what are the commitments and beliefs are.

• In the establishment of identity children may develop conflict with their parents and may develop “Identity Confusion”.
• Such adolescents may at one time complain of being ‘treated like a baby’ whereas on other occasions treated like ‘grown ups’.
• This identity crisis involves searching for conformity and sameness in on self and trying to get a clear sense of who am I? where I am going in my life?
  Adolescence is a period of storm and stress: It is period of uncertainties occasional loneliness, self doubt, anxiety, conforming to peer pressure and concern about themselves and their future.

Q9. What are the factors influencing the formation of identity during adolescence? Support your answer with examples.
Answer:  The formation of identity during adolescence is influenced by several factors:

1. The cultural background, family and societal values, ethnic background and socio-economic status all prevail upon the adolescents’ search for a place in society.
2. Increased interactions with peers provide them with opportunities for refining their social skills and trying out different social behaviours.
3. Peers and parents are dual forces having major influence on adolescents. Generally parents and peers serve complementary functions and full fill different needs of the adolescents.
4. Vocational commitment is another factor influencing adolescent identity formation.
5. To achieve a sense of identity, children must have an inner assurance that they get this feeling of assurance, they are secure.
   e.g. Career counselling in schools offers information regarding appraisal of the students for the formation or search of identity.
   e.g. In some cultures freedom is given to the young people to choose an occupation, whereas in certain other cultures the option of making this choice is not given to the children.

Q10. What are the challenges faced by individuals on entry to adulthood?
Answer: An adult is generally defined as someone who is responsible, mature, self-supporting
and well-integrated into society.

• In early adulthood, two major tasks are exploring the possibilities for adult living and developing a stable life structure.
• A transition from dependence to independence should occur.

Career and work:

• Adults get new responsibility at work.
• They have to adjust with new challenging situations.
• There are apprehensions regarding differences , adjustments, proving one’s competence and coping with expectations and both employer and self.

Marriage, parenthood and family:

• Adults have to make adjustments while entering a marriage relation and to know their spouse and cope with each others’ likes/dislikes. Responsibilities have to be shared if both are working.
• Parenthood is a difficult and stressful transition in young adults. It depends on factors such as number of children in the family, availability of social support, etc.

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. How does the evolutionary perspective explain the biological basis of behaviour?
Answer:

• Evolution refers to gradual and orderly biological changes that result in a species from their pre-existing forms in response to their changing adaptation demands of their environment.
• Physiological and biological changes that take place as a result of evolutionary processes are so slow that they become visible after hundreds of generations.

Three important features of modem human beings include:

• A trigger and developed brain with increased capacity for cognitive behaviours (like perception, memory, thinking, reasoning, etc).
• Ability to walk upright on two legs and
• Free hands with a workable opposing thumb.

The environmental demands had to biological and behavioral changes over a long period of time. In the human brain, the earliest to the most recent structures in the process of evolution are: Limbic system, brain stem and cerebellum are the oldest; and cerebral cortex is the latest developed.

Q2.Describe how neurons transmit information.
Answer:  Neuron is the basic unit of our nervous system. Neurons are specialized cells which convert various forms of stimuli into electrical impulses. They receive information from sense organs or from adjacent neurons, carry them to the central nervous system and bring motor information from the central nervous system to motor organs. Neurons transmit information with the help of dendrites, soma, axon and terminal buttons by converting stimuli into electrical impulses. This is done by the following method:  Dendrites —> soma —> axon —> terminal buttons

• Dendrites receive the informing neural impulses from adjacent neurons or directly from sense organs.
• The nerve impulse is then passed on the main body of the neuron i.e. soma.
• From soma the impulse is passed on to the axon.
• The axon transmits the information/impulse along its length to terminal buttons.
•  The terminal buttons transmit the information to another neuron, gland or muscle.

Q3. Name the four lobes of the cerebral cortex. What functions do they perform?
Answer : Four lobes of the cerebral cortex are:
(1) Frontal lobe (3) Temporal lobe
(2) Parietal lobe (4) Occipital lobe
Functions of these four lobes are following:

1. Frontal lobe:
   • Frontal lobe is mainly concerned with cognitive functions, such as attention,thinking, memory, learning, and reasoning.
   • It also exerts inhibitory effects on autonomic and emotional responses.
2. Parietal lobe: The Parietal lobe is mainly concerned with cutaneous sensations and their coordination with visual and auditory sensations.
3. Temporal lobe:
   • Temporal lobe is primarily concerned with the processing of auditory information.
   • Memory for symbolic sounds and words resides here.
   • Understanding of speech and written languages depends on this lobe.
4. Occipital lobe:
   • Occipital lobe is mainly concerned with visual information.
   • It is believed that interpretation of visual impulses, memory for visual stimuli and colour visual orientation is performed by this lobe.

Q4. Name the various endocrine glands and the hormones secreted by them. How does the endocrine system affect our behaviour?
Answer: Name and functions of the endocrine glands are following:

• The chemical substances secreted from the endocrine are known as HORMONES. These hormones influence the functions of the body and the course of its development and in the growth of personality.
• Endocrine glands also control and regulate the individual’s behaviour, for instance, when there is extra-supply of sugar in the blood-stream, certain ductless glands secrete insulin which reduces the sugar level in the blood to normal state.
• Endocrine glands play role in co-ordinating the body activities. Like in sudden , fear or danger, secretion from the endocrine system is mixed with blood which brings widely diverse activities to help us face this situation.
• The different endocrine glands work intimately to maintain equilibrium and coordinate body functions. For instance, if one gland is secreting more than optimum, the other gland may secrete a hormone to reduce the excess hormone and maintain equilibrium.

Q5. How does the autonomic nervous system help us in dealing with an emergency situation?
Answer:  The autonomic nervous system helps in dealing with emergency situations with the help of its two divisions : Sympathetic division and Parasympathetic division.

• Sympathetic division deals with emergencies when the action must be quick and powerful, such as in situations of fight or flight. During this period, the digestion stops, blood flows from internal organs to the muscles and breathing rate, oxygen.supply, etc. increases.
• Parasympathetic division is mainly concerned with the conservation of energy. It monitors the routine functions of the internal system of the body. When the emergency is over the sympathetic activation calms down the individual to a normal condition. As a result, all body functions like breathing rate, oxygen supply, etc. return to their normal level.

Q6.Explain the meaning of culture and describe its important features.
Answer: 

Culture: Culture refers to widely shared customs, believes, values, norms, institutions and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generation.

• Culture refers to “the man-made part of the environment.”
• It comprises diverse products of the behaviour of many people, including ourselves. These products can be material objects (e.g. tools, sculptures), ideas (e.g. categories, norms) or social institutions (e.g. family, school).
• Culture may be defined as a shared way of life of a group of socially interacting people and is transmitted from generation through socialization and related processes.

Important features of culture are following:

• Culture includes behavioural products of others who preceded us. It indicates both substantial and abstract particulars that have prior existence in one form or another.
• It contains values that will be expressed and a language in which to express them.
• Culture characterized by sharing reflects presence and experience of cultural attributes psychologically.
• Cultural involves transmission of learned behaviour from one generation to the other within a community.

Q7. Do you agree with the statement that ‘biology plays an enabling role, while specific aspects of behaviour are related to cultural factors’? Give reasons in support of your answer.
Answer:  No doubt those biological factors do play enabling in determinants human behaviour. Biological factors basically set the limits but our behaviour is more complex then the behaviour of animal.

• Major reason for the complexity is the role of culture to regulate human behaviour.
• We can explain the concept with the help of two example hunger is a basic need of human beings as well as of animals but the way this need is gratified by human beings is extremely complex.

Different people in different cultures eat different things in a different manner e.g. directly with hand or with the help of spoons, forks and knives.

• Sexual behaviour can be taken as another example sex is a physiological need. The structure and functioning is determinant by biological mechanism but it expression is different in different culture.
• At the human level, we find evidence for a dual inheritance theory. Biological inheritance takes place through genes, while cultural inheritance takes place through memes.
• The former takes place in a “top-down” manner (i.e. from parents to children)., while the latter many also take place in a “bottom-up” manner (i.e. from children to parents). Dual inheritance theory also shows that although biological and cultural forces may involve different processes, they work as parallel forces, and interact with each other in offering explanation of an individuals behaviour.

Q8. Describe the main agents of socialisation.
Answer:  Socialization is a process of social learning through which a child acquires the norms, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that are acceptable in his/her culture.
Main agents of socialization are following:

1. Parents:
   • Parents have the most direct and significant impact on children’s development.
   • Parents encourage certain behaviours by rewarding them verbally (e.g. praising).
   • They also discourage certain behaviours through non-approving behaviours.
   • The conditions of life in which parents live (poverty, illness, job stress, nature of family) also influence the styles they adopt in socializing children.
2.  School:
   • In schools children learn not only cognitive skills (e.g. reading, writing, doing mathematics) but also many social skills (e.g. way of behaving with elders and age mates, accepting roles, fulfilling responsibilities).
   • Several other positive qualities such as self-initiative, self-control responsibility, and creativity are encouraged in schools.
3.  Peer-Groups:
   • Friendship provides children not only with a good opportunity to be in company of others, but also for organizing various activities (e.g. play) collectively with the member of their own age.
   • Qualities like sharing, trust, mutual understanding, role acceptance and fulfillment develop on interaction with peers.
   • Development of self-identity is greatly facilitated by the peer groups.
4.  Media-Influences:
   • The exposure to violence on television enhances aggressive behaviour among children.
   • In recent years media has also acquired the property of a socializing agent therefore children learn about many things from newspapers, television, books and cinema.

Q9. How can we distinguish between enculturation and socialisation ? Explain.
Answer:  Enculturation refers to all learning that takes place without direct, deliberate teaching.

• It refers to all learning that occurs in human life because of its availability in our socio-cultural context.
• Observation is the key element of enculturation
• The contents are culturally shaped by our preceding generations. A major part of our behaviour is the product of enculturation.
• Socialisation is a process by which individuals acquire knowledge, skills and dispositions, which enable them to participate as effective members of groups and society.
• It is a process that continues over the entire life-span, and through which one learns and develops ways of effective functioning at any stage of development. Socialisation forms the basis of social and cultural transmission from one generation to the next.

Q10. What is meant by acculturation? Is acculturation a smooth process? Discuss.
Answer:  Acculturation refers to cultural and psychological changes resulting from contact with . other cultures. Contact may be direct (e.g. when one moves and settles in a new culture) or indirect (e.g. through media or other means). It may be voluntary (e.g. when one goes abroad for higher studies, training, job, or trade) or involuntary (e.g. through colonial experience, invasion, political refuge).

• Changes due to acculturation may be examined at subjective and objective levels.
• At the subjective level, changes are often reflected in people’s attitude towards change. They are referred to as acculturation attitudes.
• At the subjective level, changes are often reflected in people’s day to day behaviours and activities. These are referred to as acculturation strategies.

Q11. Discuss the acculturative strategies adopted by individuals during the course of acculturation.
Answer:  The following four acculturative strategies have been derived:

• Integration: It refers to an attitude in which there is an interest in both, maintaining one’s original culture and identity, while staying in daily interaction with other cultural groups.
• Assimilation: It refers to an attitude, which people do not wish to maintain their cultural identity, and they move to become an integral part of the other culture.
• Separation: It refers to an attitude in which people seem to place a value on holding on to their original culture, and wish to avoid interaction with other cultural groups.
• Marginalization: It refers to an attitude in which there is little possibility or interest or interest in one’s cultural maintenance, and little interest in having relations with other cultural groups.

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. What are the goals of scientific enquiry?
Answer: There exists diversity in types of researches or studies undertaken by psychologists but they all seem to share some common goals of enquiry, which are as follows-:

1. Description
   • This helps to define the phenomena and distinguish it from other phenomenas.
   • Description is necessary because any event or behaviour may have many aspects.
   • For example, the idea of entertainment varies from reading books to going to pubs, depending on the individual.
   • The recording of event or behaviour is an integral part of description.
2. Prediction
   • Prediction means forecasting of events.
   • It establishes relationship between two variables.
   • For example, one might say exercising leads to weight loss.
   • In psychology all predictions are made within a certain margin of error i.e. they are not pin-pointed or exact.
3. Explanation
   • Explanation involves knowing the cause or the reason behind the behaviour.
   • It also tries to understand the conditions under which a particular behaviour occurs. For example, a child behaves rudely whenever he is disturbed so his disturbances become the cause of his rude behaviour.
4. Control
   • Control means creating change in the phenomenon or behavior.
   • It refers to making behaviour happen, reduction in it or enhancement in it.
   • The changes produced by psychological treatment in terms of therapy are good examples of control.
5. Application
   • Psychological researches are often conducted to solve various problems faced by file society.
   • Psychology helps in solving problem at individual, organizational or community level.
   • For example, therapies are provided to individuals and counseling is also there to help them.
   • At file organizational level, various psychological concepts like work motivation are used to enhance performance. At file community level, counseling is provided to help people engage in various , helpful and eco-friendly behaviours.

Q2. Describe the various steps involved in conducting a scientific enquiry.
Answer:  Scientific research or study is a clearly defined process that goes through a series of steps—

1. Conceptualising a problem
   • The process begins when a researcher selects a theme or topic for study.
   • Then the research questions or problems for the study are formulated.
   • Problem is based on the review of past researches, observations and personal experiences.
   • Problem indicates the relationship between variables.
     For example, what is the relationship between reward and classroom learning?
   • After formulation of problem, the hypothesis is formed, which is the tentative and testable statement about the relationship between two variables.
     For example, increased amount of reward will lead to betterment in learning.
2. Collecting data
   • Data collection requires developing a research design or a blueprint of the entire study.
   • Participants of the study are decided, depending on the nature of study, they could be children, adolescents, college students, teachers, workers, elder people etc.
   • Methods of data collection like observation, experimental, correlational method etc are decided.
   • The next decision is taken about the tools to be used, like interview schedule,. questionnaire, survey etc.
   • Procedure for data collection is decided i.e. how the tools need to be administered to collect data i.e. individual to collect data i.e. individual or group administration.
   • This is followed by actual data collection.
3. Drawing conclusions
   • The next step is to analyse data to understand its meaning.
   • The graphical representation of data is made using, bar diagram, pie chart, histogram, mean, median, mode, standard deviation etc.
   • The purpose of analysis is to verify a hypothesis and draw conclusions accordingly.
4. Revising research conclusions
   • The research begins with the hypothesis.
   • Then researcher sees whether the conclusions support this hypothesis or not.
   • If conclusions support the hypothesis then it is confirmed.
   • If it is not confirmed researcher revises or states an alternative hypothesis/theory and again tests it and the same process continues.

Q3. Explain the nature of psychological data.
Answer:  Data is any information related to mental processes, experiences and behaviour, collected by using various tools.
Psychological data are of different types, such as-:

1. Demographic information
   This information includes personal information related to a particular individual. This includes name, age, gender, education, marital status, residence, caste, religion, income etc, which are personally relevant.
2. Physical information
   This includes information pertaining to physical environment i.e. ecological condition.
   It also includes information about economy, housing conditions, facilities at the home, in the school, transportation etc.
3. Physiological data
   This is related to Biological data.
   For example, height, weight, heart rate, level of fatigue, EEG, reaction time, sleep, blood pressure etc is collected.
   Data related to animal’s biological functioning is also collected.
4. Psychological information
   This includes data regarding psychological functioning of individual.
   It involves data about intelligence, personality, attitudes, values, emotions, motivation, psychological dysfunctions, consciousness etc.
   Thus obtained data is divided into various categories, so that it can be analysed using statistical measures.

Q4. How do experimental and control group differ? Explain with the help of an example.
Answer:

1. Experimental group: The subjects in study who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable.
   In an experiment this group is administered the independent variable (the variable that is manipulated to see its effect on any other variable under study).
2. Control Group: control group is a comparison group.
   • The independent variable is not administered on this group.
   • Subjects in a study who do not receive the special treatment given to the experimental group.

The purpose is to see whether any difference occur in two groups as a result of application of independent variable on experimental group.
For example, suppose, an experiment is carried out to study the effect of presence of others on helpful behaviour, one participant was put in a situation requiring help, say, someone drowning in swimming pool, here five other people were also present, another participant was alone in the emergency situation.
In an experiment except for the experimental manipulation, other conditions are kept constant for both the groups.

Q5.  A researcher is studying relationship between speed of cycling and the presence of people. Formulate a relevant hypothesis and identify the independent and dependent variables.
Answer:

• Variable: It is any stimulus or event which varies or can take on different valves can be measure e.g. weight, height.
• Hypothesis: It is a tentative and testable statement which expresses relation between two or more than two variables, e.g.: those who are rewarded shall require lesser number of trials to learn than those who are not rewarded.
• Independent variable: It is the variable which is systematically manipulated or altered in an experiment. It is the cause.
• Dependent variable: It is the variable that is measured in an experiment. It is the effect.
• As per the question:Hypothesis. Presence of others will enhance the speed of cycling.
  Independent variable. Presence of others Dependent variable. Speed of cycling

Q6.Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of experimental method as a method of enquiry.
Answer: Experimental method is aimed at discovering causal relationship between various factors by manipulating the situation under totally controlled conditions.
Characterstics:

• Experimentation involves manipulation of variables to study their effect on other aspects.
• Experiments are carried out in totally controlled condition.
• Subjects or individuals are assigned to experimental and control group, randomly.
• All factors other than manipulated variable that might affect the dependent variable are kept constant.

Advantages:

• Experimental method aims at establishing cause-effect relationship between the variables.
• Replication and verification of obtained result is possible.
• The investigator can manipulate the independent variable according to the
  demands of the situation.
• It can be performed at any time.
• It is very objective—No personal bias exists.

Limitations:

• Experiments are conducted in a very artificial and unrealistic situations-the setting is not natural.
• They lack external validity i.e. generalizability. Since they are not done in natural settings, the results can’t be generalized with confidence.
• It is difficult to control and know all extraneous variables like – motivation, emotion, state etc.
• It is not always possible to study a problem experimentally.
  For example, personality can’t be studied experimentally.

Q7. Dr. Krishnan is going to observe and record children’s play behaviour at a nursery school without attempting to influence or control the behaviour. Which method of research is involved? Explain the process and discuss its merits and demerits.
Answer:  Dr. Krishnan would use the method of non-participant observation to observe and record children’s behaviour at play without attempting to influence or control the behaviour. He would sit in a corner and observe the children’s behaviour without them being aware of it. He would note the behaviour of children while playing, how ’ they interact with each other and their reaction towards winning or losing. He would collect all the data in a file and then match the conclusion with the hypothesis.
Merits of non-participant observation:

• The researcher observes the people and their behaviour in naturalistic settings.
• The observer can get first hand information regarding the subject.

Demerits:

• This method is time consuming, labour intensive and subject to personal biases.
•  The researcher may interpret the behaviour based on personal values.

Q8. Give two examples of the situations where survey method can be used. What are the limitations of this method?
Answer:  Survey Method is a research method utilizing written questionnaires or personal interviews to obtain data of a given population.
For example: Surveys are used in variety of situations such as

1. They can be used in political regime to know whether people approve or disapprove any particular policy of government, say for example, policy of reservation in higher education or Nuclear deal with America in recent times.
2. They are used during elections also to know who will people vote to.
3. Surveys can also be used to test hypothesis about the relationship among variables. One may try to find out the effect of some event on people’s behaviour.
   For example – Surveys have been conducted after the earthquake at Bhuj in Gujarat to find out the impact of earthquake on people’s lives.
4. In marketing area, before launching a product surveys are often conducted. They are used to assess people’s attitude on various social issues such as family planning and gender equality.

Limitation:

1. The major difficulty is the issue of accuracy and honesty of the responses as the respondents attempt to create favourable impression – faking is possible.
2. Surveyor’s bias also affects the results. He/she may ask the question in such a way as to elicit desired response.
3. Surveys remain at the surface and it does not penetrate into the depth of the problem. They are time-consuming and expensive.
4. These techniques make the respondent conscious. So he/she may mould his/her responses.
5. Survey demand expertise, research knowledge and competence on the part of the researcher. Most of the survey researchers don’t possess these qualities in the required amount. This invalidates the quality of survey.
6. Sample selected might not be the true representative of the population.

Q9. Differentiate between interview and questionnaire.
Answer:  Interview :

• Interview is a face to face interaction between two people
• They can be structured or unstructured
• Interviews are flexible; questions can be added or altered.
• Interviewer can dig deeper by posing counter question and by noticing non-verbal clues.
• They are subjective in nature.
•  It is not a good tool for those who can’t express themselves verbally
• It requires highly skilled person as interviewer.

Questionnaire :

• It consists of a form containing a series of questions where the respondents themselves fill in the answers.
• Questionnaire is always structured.
• It is not possible to know anything more that what is asked in the question.
• They are highly objective.
• Sometimes someone else can also fill in the questionnaire other than the target person.
• Clarification of questions is sometimes not possible.
• They can be administered to a large number of people at a time.
• Comparatively less skilled person can do the Interpretation.

Q10. Explain the characteristics of a standardised test.
Answer:  Characteristics of a standardised test:

1. Reliability: Reliability refers to the consistency of scores obtained by an individual on the same test on different occasions. If the test is reliable, these showed not be any variation in the scores obtained by the students on the 2 occasions.
   For this we can complete the following:
   (i)Test-retest reliability: it indicates the temporal stability. It is computed by finding out co-efficient of correlation b/w the 2 sets of same people.
   (ii) Split-half reliability: It gives an indication about the degree of intends, consistency of the test. .
2. Validity: For a test to be usable, it must be valid. Validity refers to the question “does the test measure what it claims to measures”. E.g. If a test is for assessment intelligence, it should only be testing intelligence and not aptitude.
3. Norms: A test becomes standardized if norms are developed for the test, norm is the normal average performance of the group. The test is administered on a large number of students. Their average performance standards are based in their age, sex, place of residence, etc. this helps us in compassion of performance of groups and individual students.

Q11. Describe the limitations of psychological enquiry.
Answer:  LIMITATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ENQUIRY:

1. Lack of true zero point
   Psychological measurements do not have a true zero point like physical sciences. For example, there is no zero interest, attitude or personality.
   So the measurements are not absolute, they are relative in nature.
   Sometimes ranks are also used as scores.
2. Relative nature of psychological tools
   Psychological tests, Questionnaire etc. are not universally applied; they are made for particular context.
   Tools developed in urban context may not be applied in rural area, also western tests and other tools may not apply elsewhere.
3. Subjective interpretation qualitative data
   The data which can’t be categorized or quantified in scores or ranks, runs the risk of subjective (individual, personal) interpretation.Every researcher may give different meanings to data.

Q12.What are the ethical guidelines that a psychologist needs to follow while conducting a psychological enquiry?
Answer:  Since psychology largely deals with human beings, so the researchers need to follow some moral principles which are as follows:

1. Voluntary participation
   • This means that participants have the freedom to choose whether to participate in the study or not.
   • Use of force or coercion or any other pressure should not be used.
   • Participants should have the right to withdraw from study any time without penalty.
2. Informed consent
   • Participants in a study should understand what treatment they will undergo during study.
   • This information should be given before the study/research starts.
   • If at times it is not possible to reveal all the information, they should be at least explained the nature of study before it starts.
3. Debriefing
   • Sometimes due to the nature of the study it becomes necessary to withhold some information from the participants, this is known as deception.
   • So after the study is over the participants are given complete information to complete their understanding of research.
     For example, suppose a researcher wants to study the relationship between frustration and aggression, the participants will not be informed that they’ll be put in a frustrating situation; otherwise experiment or study will have no conclusions; so here deception is necessary.
     However, after it is over they should be told that they were aroused deliberately. , Why was it done should also be explained.
   • It ensures that the participants leave the study in the same physical or mental state as when they entered.
   • Efforts should be made to remove any anxiety or other adverse effects from the minds of the participants as a result of being deceived in the study.
4. Sharing the results of the study
   It is obligatory for the researcher to go to the participants and share the results of study with them.
   Participants expect that the results of study done with them will be told to them, they want to know about their behaviour and where do they fall as compared to others.
   It has two advantages-:
   • One, researchers full fill the expectations of the participants.
   • Second, the participants may tell the researcher about something else which may provide supplementary information.
5. Confidentiality of data sources
   • The participants have right to privacy.
   • This right is protected by keeping the information provided by them in strict confidence.
   • It becomes more important if the information is personal and may become embarrassing if revealed.
   • The information should be used for the purpose of research only.
   • To maintain confidentiality one should not record their identities.
   • Sometimes identity is required, in such cases code numbers should be given on the data sheet and the names and their codes should be kept separately.

TEXTBOOK QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1. What is behaviour? Give examples of overt and covert behaviour.

Answer

Behaviours are responses or reactions we make or activities we engage in.
Examples of overt behaviour:
→ Blinking of eyes when a something is hurled at a person.
→ Withdrawing the hand immediately after touching a hot pan.
Examples of covert behaviour:
→ The  twitching of hand muscles while playing a game of chess.
→ Pounding of heart during an interview.

Q2. How can you distinguish scientific psychology from the popular notions about the discipline of psychology?

Answer

Scientific psychology	Popular notion about psychology
It is based on scientific study of psychological phenomenon.	It uses common-sense knowledge to understand behaviour.
It explains the psychological phenomenon systematically on the basis of empirical data.	It explains the phenomenon on the basis of experiences, sayings or beliefs.
It studies the patterns of behaviour that can be predicted before they occur.	It explains events in hindsight after they occur.

Q3. Give a brief account of the evolution of psychology.

Answer

Modern psychology grew out of ancient philosophy concerned with questions of psychological significance. The formal beginning of modern psychology is traced back to 1879 when the first experimental laboratory was established in Leipzig, Germany by Wilhelm Wundt.

• The initial approach to study psychology was based on introspection or structuralism in which the individuals were asked to describe their experiences.

• It was followed by functionalism that studied the working of the mind and the impact of behaviour upon people’s interaction with their environment.
• Gestalt psychology emerged as a reaction to structuralism in the early 20th century and focused on the organisation of the perceptual experiences.
• Another reaction was the development of behaviourism that studied behaviour or responses in a measurable and objective form.

• This was followed by psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud that viewed human behaviour as a dynamic manifestation of unconscious desires, conflicts and their gratification.

• In contrast, the humanistic perspective emphasised the free will of human beings and their natural striving to grow and unfold their inner potential.

• Further, Cognitive perspective was a combination ofGestalt approach and structuralismand focused on how an individual perceived the world.

• Later, Constructivism viewed human beings as activelyconstructing their minds through the exploration of physical and the social world.

• It was followed by Vygotsky’s view that human mind develops through social and cultural processes in which the mind is perceived as culturally constructed by joint interaction between children and adults.

Therefore, the evolution of psychology passed through various stages and levels. Starting from the roots of philosophy, it took a new direction and included numerous theories of structuralism, functionalism, behaviourism, constructivism, etc. However, in contemporary era the discipline of psychology has grown into a scientific discipline, which deals with various processes underlying human experiences and behaviours.
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Q4. What are the problems for which collaboration of psychologists with other disciplines can be fruitful? Take any two problems to explain.

Answer

The problems for which collaboration of psychologists with other disciplines can be fruitful are:

→ In Medical science, Doctors have realised that the maxim, healthy body requires a healthy mind. A large number of hospitals now employ psychologists. The role of psychologists in preventing people from engaging in health hazardous behaviours and in adhering to the prescribed doctors’ regimen. While treating patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, and the physically challenged have also felt the need for psychological counselling.
→ In Engineering, it is necessary for an architecture to satisfy her/his clients by providing mental and physical space through her design and satisfy aesthetically. Engineers must also take into account human habits in their plans for safety, for example, on streets and highways. Psychological knowledge helps in a big way in designing of all mechanical devices and displays.

Q5. Differentiate between (a) a psychologist and a psychiatrist (b) a counsellor and a clinical psychologist.

Answer

(a)

Psychologist	Psychiatrist
A psychologist deals with the psychological phenomenon.	A psychiatrist deals with serious mental problems.
His/her main work is research in psychology and formulation of psychological conclusions that are derived on the basis of data.	A psychiatrist studies the causes, treatment and prevention of psychological disorders.
A psychologist does not hold a medical degree and is mainly into academic and research fields.	A psychiatrist holds a medical degree and he/she can use medical treatment to cure the patients.

(b)

Counsellor	Clinical Psychologist
A counsellor deals with the causes, treatment and prevention of different types of psychological disorders, which are related to motivational and emotional problems.	A clinical psychologist provides therapy for behavioural problems, which are related to mental disorders.
Counsellors help people in vocational rehabilitation programmes, making professional choices and adjusting to new situations in life.	Clinical psychologists conduct interviews and administer psychological tests to diagnose various problems.
A counsellor deals with different types of psychological disorders in everyday life of the patient.	A clinical psychologist deals with specific and complicated psychological disorders

Q6. Describe some of the areas of everyday life where understanding of psychology can be put to practice.

Answer

Some of the areas of everyday life where understanding of psychology can be put to practice are:

→ Psychology helps to understand various personal problems like family, marriage and work sphere and also helps to deal with larger problems related to community, society, national or international.

→ Psychology enables an individual to understand oneself in a balanced and positive way without being reactionary, in order to deal with everyday challenges and meet with personal expectations.

→ It also suggest solutions to a variety of problems related to children, adolescents, adults and the elderly people.

→ It also helps in analysing vital social problems relating to social change and development, population,  poverty, interpersonal or intergroup violence, and environmental  degradation.

→ Psychological principles helps to develop good habits of study for improving your learning and memory, and for solving your personal and interpersonal problems by using appropriate decision- making strategies.

Q7. How can knowledge of the field of environmental psychology be used to promote environment friendly behaviour?

Answer

The knowledge of the field of environmental psychology used to promote environment friendly behaviour because:

→ It studies the interaction of physical factors such as temperature, humidity, pollution, and natural disasters on human behaviour.

→ It investigates the influence of physical arrangement of the workplace on health, the emotional state, and interpersonal relations.

→ It also research the topics like disposal of waste, population explosion, conservation of energy, efficient use of community resources are associated with and are functions of human behaviour.

Q8. In terms of helping solve an important social problem such as crime, which branch of psychology do you think is most suitable. Identify the field and discuss the concerns of the psychologists working in this field.

Answer

Social psychology is most suitable branch for the purpose of solving social problems like crime.
It explores the thought process of people and their influence upon others and evaluates the impact of social environment upon the actions of an individual.
Social psychologists are concerned with topics like attitudes, conformity and obedience to authority, interpersonal attraction, helpful behaviour, prejudice, aggression, social motivation and inter-group relations.

VERY SHORT QUESTION AND ANSWER:

Q1.What is map generalisation?
Answer:
As maps are drawn at a reduced scale to serve a definite purpose, it is the job of a cartographer is to generalise the map contents. In doing so, a cartographer must select the data relevant to the selected theme and simplify it as per the needs. It is called map generalization. Every map is drawn with a definite objective. For example, a general purpose map is drawn to show information of a general nature such as relief, drainage, vegetation, settlements, means of transportation, etc. Similarly, a special purpose map exhibits information pertaining to one or more selected themes like population density, soil types or location of industries. It is, therefore, necessary to carefully plan the map contents while the purpose of the map must be kept in the forefront.

Q2.Why is map design important?
Answer:
Map Design is very important as it involves the planning of graphic characteristics of maps including the selection of appropriate symbols, their size and form, style of lettering, specifying the width of lines, selection of colours and shades, arrangement of various elements of map design within a map and design for map legend. The map design is a complex aspect of map-making and requires thorough understanding of the principles that govern the effectiveness of graphic communication.

Q3.What are different types of small-scale maps?
Answer:
Small-scale maps are divided into two types:

1. Wall Maps: These maps are generally drawn on large size paper or on plastic base for use in classrooms or lecture halls. The scale of wall maps is generally smaller than the scale of topographical maps but larger than atlas maps.
2. Atlas Maps: Atlas maps are very small-scale maps. These maps represent fairly large areas and present highly generalized picture of the physical or cultural features. Even so, an atlas map serves as a graphic encyclopaedia of the geographical information about the world, continents, countries or regions.

Q4.List out two major types of large-scale maps?
Answer:
Large-scale maps are divided into two types:

1. Cadastral maps: The term ‘cadastral’ is derived from the French word ‘cadastre’ meaning ‘register of territorial property’. These maps are drawn to show the ownership of landed property by demarcating field boundaries of agricultural land and the plan of individual houses in urban areas. The cadastral maps are prepared by the government agencies to realise revenue and taxes, along with keeping a record of ownership.
2. Topographical Maps: These maps are also prepared on a fairly large scale. The topographical maps are based on precise surveys and are prepared in the form of series of maps made by the national mapping agencies of almost all countries of the world. These maps follow uniform colours and symbols to show topographic details such as relief, drainage, agricultural land, forest, settlements, means of communication, location of schools, post offices and other services and facilities.

Q5.Is a map different from a sketch?
Answer:
A simplified map drawn freehand which fails to preserve the true scale or orientation. Map is a part of the earth’s surface on a plane surface at a reduced scale. It may also be understood that a simple network of lines and polygons without a scale shall not be called a map. It is only referred to as “the sketch”. In simple words, map has a specific scale and sketch does not have a scale. Map is drawn scientifically and sketch is drawn roughly. Sketch drawing is an art while map making is a science and science of maps is called cartography.

Q6. Write an explanatory account of types of maps.
Answer:

On the basis of scale:
1. Large-scale maps: These maps are drawn to show small areas at a relatively large-scale. For example, the topographical maps drawn at a scale of 1 : 250,000, 1 : 50,000 or 1 : 25,000 and the village maps, the zonal plans of the cities and house plans prepared on a scale of 1: 4,000,1: 2,000 and 1: 500 are large-scale maps. These are of two types:

1. Cadastral Maps
2. Topographical Maps

2. Small-scale maps: These maps are drawn to show large areas. These are of two types:

1. Wall Maps and
2. Atlas Maps

On the basis of functions, maps are of two types:

1. Physical maps: Physical maps show natural features such as relief, geology, soils, drainage, elements of weather, climate and vegetation, etc. Physical maps include relief maps, geological maps and climatic maps.
2. Cultural maps: Cultural maps show man-made features. These include a variety of maps showing population distribution and growth, sex and age, social and religious composition, literacy, levels of educational attainment, occupational structure, location of settlements, facilities and services, transportation lines and production, distribution and flow of different commodities. It includes political maps, population maps, economic maps and transportation maps.

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTION:

Q1.Why are maps considered an important tool for geography?
Answer:
Geographers need maps for following purposes:

• To get information about resources, their development and planning for their utilization;
• To study changes that are taking place on the earth;
• To understand various physical factors;
• To understand the inter-relationship between physical and human resources;
• To make a comparative analysis and
• To present facts in a way that has a memorizing effect.

Q2.How is area of map measured using a planimeter?
Answer:
The area calculation is also carried out using Polar Planimeter. In this instrument, a measure is made of the movement of a rod whose locus is constrained by having one end fixed to a radial arc. The area to be measured is traced along its perimeter in a clockwise direction with an index mark, starting from one convenient point to which the index of the tracing arm must exactly return. Reading on the dial, before and after the tracing of area’s perimeter, will give a value in instrumental units. These readings are multiplied by the same constant for the particular instrument to convert into areas in square inches or centimetres.

Q3.How is direction of map measured?
Answer:
Direction is defined as an imaginary straight line on the map showing the angular position to a common base direction. The line pointing to the north is zero direction or the base direction line. A map always shows the north direction. All other directions are determined in to this relation. The north direction enables the map- user to locate different features with respect to each other. The four commonly known directions are North, South, East and West. These are also called the cardinal points. In between the cardinal points, one may have several intermediate directions.

Q4.How is distance between maps measured by geographer, planner and other resource researcher?
Answer:
The linear features shown on the maps fall into two broad categories, i. e. straight lines and erratic or zigzag lines. The measurement of straight line features like roads, railway lines and canals is simple. It can be taken directly with a pair of dividers or a scale placed on the map surface. However, distances are required, more often, along erratic paths, i.e. the coastlines, rivers and streams. The distances along all such features can be measured by placing a thread at the starting point and carrying it along the line up to the end point. The thread is then stretched and measured to determine the distance. It can also be measured by using a simple instrument called Rotameter. The wheel of the ‘rotameter’ is moved along the route to measure the distance.

Q5.Explain in detail about physical maps.
Answer:
Physical maps: Physical maps show- natural features such as relief, geology, soils, drainage, elements of weather, climate and vegetation, etc. These are of following types:

1. Relief Maps: Relief maps show general topography of an area like mountains and valleys, plains, plateaus and drainage.
2. Geological maps: Geological Maps are drawn to show geological structures, rock types, etc.
3. Climatic Maps: Climatic Maps depict climatic regions of an area. Besides, maps are also drawn to show the distribution of temperature.

Long Answer Type Questions :

Q1.Explain the essentials of map making.
Answer:
There are five essentials of map making. These are: Scale, map projection, map generalisation, map design and map construction and production.

1. Scale: All maps are reductions. The first decision that a map-maker has to take is about the scale of the map. The choice of scale is of utmost importance. The scale of a map sets limits of information contents and the degree of reality with which it can be delineated on the map.

2. Projection: Maps are a simplified representation of the three-dimensional surface of the earth on a plane sheet of paper. The transformation of all-side- curved-geoidal surface into a plane surface is another important aspect of the cartographic process. Such a radical transformation introduces some unavoidable changes in directions, distances, areas and shapes from the way they appear on a geoid. A system of transformation of the spherical surface to the plane surface is called a map projection. Hence, the choice, utilisation and construction of projections is of prime importance in map-making.

3. Generalisation: Every map is drawn with a definite objective. For example, a general purpose map is drawn to show information of a general nature such as relief, drainage, vegetation, settlements, means of transportation, etc. Similarly, a special purpose map exhibits information pertaining to one or more selected themes like population density, soil types or location of industries. It is, therefore, necessary to carefully plan the map contents while the purpose of the map must be kept in the forefront.

4. Map Design: It involves the planning of graphic characteristics of maps including the selection of appropriate symbols, their size and form, style of lettering, specifying the width of lines, selection of colours and shades, arrangement of various elements of map design within a map and design for map legend.

5. Map Construction and Production: The drawing of maps and their reproduction is the fifth major task in the cartographic process. It can be manual or computerised method.

Q2.How does a geographer measure the distance?
Answer:
The measurement of area of features like that of administrative and geographic units is also carried out over the surface of the map by map-users. There are different methods in which areas can be determined.

1. By means of regular pattern of squares: In this method, the area to be measured is covered by squares by
placing a sheet of graph paper beneath the map on an illuminated tracing table or by tracing the area onto the square sheet. The total number of ‘whole squares’ are summed up, together with ‘partial squares’. The area is then determined by a simple equation:

2. By using Polar Planimeter: In this instrument, a measure is made of the movement of a rod whose locus is constrained by having one end fixed to a radial arc. The area to be measured is traced along its perimeter in a clockwise direction with an index mark, starting from one convenient point to which the index of the tracing arm must exactly return. Reading on the dial, before and after the tracing of area’s perimeter, will give a value in instrumental units. These readings are multiplied by the same constant for the particular instrument to convert into areas in square inches or centimetres.

Q3.Explain in detail about cultural maps.
Answer:
Cultural Maps: Cultural maps show man-made features. These include a variety of maps showing population distribution and growth, sex and age, social and religious composition, literacy, levels of educational attainment, occupational structure, location of settlements, facilities and services, transportation lines and production, distribution and flow of different commodities.

• Political Maps: These maps show the administrative divisions of an area such as country, state or district. These maps facilitate the administrative machinery in planning and management of the concerned administrative unit.
• Population Maps: The population maps are drawn to show the distribution, density and growth of population, age and sex composition, distribution of religious, linguistic and social groups, occupational structure of the population, etc.
• Economic Maps: Economic maps depict production and distribution of different types of crops and minerals, location of industries and markets, routes for trade and flow of commodities.
• Transportation Maps: These maps show roads, railway lines and the location of railway stations and airports.

In This Post we are  providing Chapter- 6 CASH FLOW STATEMENT NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS for Class 12 ACCOUNTANCY which will be beneficial for students. These solutions are updated according to 2021-22 syllabus. These MCQS  can be really helpful in the preparation of Board exams and will provide you with a brief knowledge of the chapter

NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ON CASH FLOW STATEMENT

1.Cash Flow Statement Cash flow statement is a statement showing the changes in financial position of a business concern during different intervals of time in terms of cash and cash equivalents.
The Revised Accounting Standard-3 has made it mandatory for all listed companies to prepare and present a cash flow statement along with other financial statements on annual basis.

2.Cash Flows Cash flows are inflows and outflows of cash and cash equivalent. It implies movement-in and movement-out of cash and cash equivalents. Receipt of cash from a non-cash item is termed as ‘cash inflow’, while cash payment in respect of such item is termed as ‘cash outflow’.
Cash Cash comprises of cash in hand and demand deposits with the bank.
Cash Equivalents Cash equivalents are ‘short-term highly liquid investments that are  readily convertible into known amount of cash and which are subjected to an insignificant risk of change in value’.

3.Objectives of Cash Flow Statement
(i)Useful in short-term financial planning.
(ii)Useful in efficient cash management.
(iii)Helpful in formulation of business policies.
(iv)Assists in preparation of cash budget.
(v)Used for assessment of cash flow from various activities, viz operating, investing and financing activities.

4.Limitations of Cash Flow Statement
(i)Based on historical cost principle.
(ii)Based on secondary data.
(iii)Ignores non-cash transactions.
(iv)No adherence of basic accounting principles.
(v)Cash flow statement is not a substitute for income statement.

5.Classification of Business Activities Accounting Standard-3 (Revised) requires that the changes resulting in inflows and outflows of cash and cash equivalents will be classified into following three activities:
(i) Cash flow from operating activities.
(ii)Cash flow from investing activities.
(iii)Cash flow from financing activities.

6.Cash Flow from Operating Activities Operating activities are the principal revenue producing activities of the enterprise and other activities that are not investing or financing activities.

For a Finance Company
(v)Cash received for interest and dividends (vi) Cash paid for interest
(vi)Sale of securities (vii) Purchase of securities
For an Insurance Company
(vii)Premiums and claims received (viii) Premiums and claims paid
For a Real Estate (Infrastructure) Company
(viii) Rent received      (ix) Rent paid

7.Cash Flow from Investing Activities As per AS-3, investing activities are the acquisition and disposal of the long-term assets and other investments, not included in cash equivalents.
Cash flow from investing activities are exhibited as follows:
h

8.Cash Flow from Financing Activities Financing activities are the activities which result in change in the size and composition of the owner’s capital (including preference share capital) and borrowings (including debentures) of the enterprise from other sources.
Cash flow arising from financing activities are exhibited as follows:

9.Format of Cash Flow Statement

10.Why is specific disclosure of cash flow from financing activities important while preparing cash flow statement?    
Ans. Separate disclosure of cash flows arising from financing activities is important because it is useful in predicting claims on future cash flows by providers of funds (both capital and borrowings) to the enterprise.