NCERT Solutions Class 11 Psychology Chapter 1 What is Psychology

NCERT Solutions Class 11 Psychology What is Psychology. The NCERT solutions for Class 11 Psychology book have been made by Psychology teacher of one of the best CBSE school in India. Psychology in Class 11 is an important and easy to score subject for Class 11 students. These NCERT solutions have been made to give detailed answers and explanations which can be easily understood by the students. You can download the NCERT solutions for free in pdf format. Refer to other links also to download Class 11 Psychology NCERT solutions, worksheets, sample papers and test papers.

Question 1. What is behaviour? Give examples of overt and covert behaviour?

Answer: Behaviour refers to any response of an organism that can be measured. Any covert or overt action/reaction a person does that can be observed in some ways. A person running to catch train is an example of overt behaviour. The working of human memory or problem solving might be thought of as behaviour, even though they cannot be observed directly but must be inferred from their product.

Question 2. How can you distinguish scientific psychology from the popular notions about the discipline of Psychology?

Answer: The popular theories of human behaviour are based on common sense and may or may not be true if investigated scientifically.

 Common sense based on hind sight. Psychology as a science looks for patterns of behaviour which can be predicted and not explained after the behaviour occurs.

 Dweck’s study on children (who gave up too easily when faced with difficult problems or failures) is worth mentioning here.

 Common sense tells us to give them easy problems, first in order to increase their success rate so that their confidence goes up.

 Dweck found that children who had always succeeded because they were given easy problems could not cope up with difficult problems and gave up faster in comparison to those who had experience of both success and failure and were taught to put more effort to deal with difficult problems. Such studies prove that predictions based on empirical studies are reliable and valid.

Question 3. Give a brief account of the evolution of psychology.

Answer: Psychology as a modem discipline has a short history but a long past. It grew out of ancient philosophy. It emerges as a scientific discipline in the following phases:

1. Structuralism: It is the oldest school/approach to psychology, and it was proposed by William Wundt. Structuralists were interested in analysis of human mind and its structure.

 They were interested in conscious experience and wanted to study the building blocks of mind.

 They used introspective method to study mental processes and experiences.

2. Functionalism: It is an approach to psychology, developed by an American Psychologist William James. 

 They (Functionalists) emphasised on what the mind does and the function of consciousness in adjustment to the environment

 According to them consciousness is an on-going stream of mental process, it can’t be broken down into parts.

 They also used introspective method to study mental processes and experiences.

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