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IAS Mains Psychology 2017

Expected Questions- Examrace
Examrace
15-19 minutes

1. Critically evaluate stage Vs process models of memory

with relevant examples.
2. Describe the interacting systems of memory in information
processing approach.
3. Is forgetting a necessary aspect of learning process?
Justify with relevant examples.
4. Elaborate on role of extinction in long term memory.
5. How does behavioristic interpretation of problem solving
differ from gestalt view?
6. Describe facilitative and fixating effects of set in problem
solving.
7. Enumerate different strategies of concept formation in
children.
8. Differentiate between inductive and deductive reasoning.
Why do scientists prefer inductive reasoning?
9. Compare model of fluid and crystalized intelligence with
Spearman’s 2 factor theory.
10. Compare ‘multi factor’ theory of intelligence with that of
‘multiple intelligence’ theory
11. Describe PASS model of intelligence and show the grounds
on which it has challenged the ‘g’ theory
12. What specific role does social intelligence play in human
resource management
13. How is intelligence different from aptitude?
14. What is emotional intelligence? What are its applications in

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our day to day life?

15. How are intelligence and creativity interrelated?
16. Which concept is more relevant in explaining individual
differences – IQ or EQ? Substantiate your answer with
relevant examples.
17. Write briefly the nature and development of intelligence.
18. Describe various patterns of attribution used by an
individual in his social interaction.
19. Can attitude be changed? Enumerate the factors that
enhance or inhibit this process
20. Explain the role of dissonance arousal in prejudice.
21. What do you understand by attitudes, values and interests?
Trace the link between them with examples.
22. Explain the characteristics of the source of message that
strongly affects ones response to an attempt at changing
attitudes.
23. Explain the role of mental set and heuristics in attitude
formation and attitude change.
24. Analyse the process of communication and discuss the
various strategies for making communication more
effective.
25. Describe the main factors responsible for effective
persuasive communication.
26. Describe various ways in which one can use IT and mass
media to inculcate the values of hygiene and swatch
bharat.
27. What do you understand by information overload? Discuss
various psychological factors involved in information
management
28. Discuss the role of mass media in affecting the psyche of
people. Give examples to support your ans.
29. Explain w.r.t deprivation, nature vs nurture theory?(200
words)
30. What is reminiscence? Is it a fact or misnomer? Support
your Ans with case studies.(250 words)
31. Discuss level of processing information for long term
usage?(200 words)
32. Critically examine distance education in light of mass

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media and IT. Comment on role of psychologists in this

regard.
33. Discuss the psychological consequences of recent
developments in IT, wrt social and cognitive development
34. Pathology of prejudice is just a small part of story of
prejudice. Comment.
35. Discuss major steps to achieve social integration.
36. What are the psychological concepts associated with self-
fulfilling prophecy?
37. Write a short note on the role of community psychology in
bringing about a social change and foster communal
harmony in India.
38. Show conceptual relationship between social change and
organizational change.
39. What is interaction process analysis? How does it measure
group behaviour?
40. What are the implications of organizational and humanistic
man models for behavior change?
41. Behaviorism was a necessary protest, but it hit beyond the
mark. Discuss.
42. Explain the factorial approach to study personality.
43. citing relevant examples, describe extra sensory perception
44. What is the difference b/w altered state of consciousness
through meditation and hypnotic trance?
45. What is the basic difference b/w experimental and
correlational methods of psychology?
46. Analyze salient features of a laboratory experiment design.
47. Describe case history method and its importance in clinical
diagnosis.
48. Explain the usefulness of interview as a method of data
collection. State precautions that you would take for its
effective use
49. What can be done to move from correlational inferences to
causal inferences?
50. Explain theory testing vs. theory developing research
51. What do you understand by national character and how is it
developed? Is it a valid concept? Examine. (200 words)

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52. Suggest some rehabilitation methods for the people who

are victim of Natural disasters (flood, earthquake etc.)?
(250 words)
53. Attitude can be changed but values are permanent.
Comment. (250 Words)
54. What is perception? Is it critical variable in human
interaction? Illustrate your answer. (250 Words)
55. What is signal detection theory (SDT)? How it differs from
psycho physics? Discuss. (250 Words)
56. Biological and cultural transmission goes hand in hand in
determining human behavior. Comment (200 words)
57. How to identify gifted and mentally retarded students?
Should they be taught in same mainstream school?
Discuss (250 words)
58. Explain what do you mean by psychological warfare ?(200
words)
59. What is the Binary Gender System? Discuss the
Challenges of managing Gender bias in India?
60. Explain what do you mean by Abnormal Psychology?
61. Evaluate the foundations of Indian psychology?
62. How is psychology used in understanding political
behaviors? Discuss (250 Words)
63. Evaluate the contribution of forensic psychology? (250
Words)
64. What is EQ? Discuss its applications and method used to
determine it?
65. Sensation, attention and perception are different elements
of same process called cognition. Comment
66. You are the principal of a school. You want to improve your
college reputation. What psychological measures will you
undertake?
67. Evaluate how Hormones determine human behavior? (250
Words)
68. How does brain meditate between phenotype and
genotype for psychological characteristics? (250 Words)
69. What is Psycho pharmacology? Discuss its applications.
(250 Words)
70. Write a short note (150 words)

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1. Extrasensory perception
2. Subliminal perception
71. Explain w.r.t deprivation, nature vs nurture theory?(200
words)
72. What is reminiscence? Is it a fact or misnomer? Support
your Ans with case studies.(250 words)
73. Discuss level of processing information for long term
usage?(200 words)
74. Thought is must if language is to be understood. Comment
(200 words)
75. How emotion and motivation control human behavior?
Explain (250 words)
76. Creativity and Intelligence go hand in hand. Comment (200
words)
77. How fluid intelligence differ from crystallized intelligence?
Discuss. (200 Words)
78. Compare and contrast Piaget and Vygotsky’s approaches
to cognitive development and evaluate their significance in
the field of education.
79. Intelligence increases with age but IQ remains constant.
Discuss.
80. What is prejudice? How personality is related to it?
Discuss.
81. What is man-machine system in the context of human
engineering? Highlight the applications of human
engineering in defense with reference to equipment
design?
82. Which psychological measures can be used to reduce
terrorism?
83. “It’s not always easy to distinguish between punishment
and negative reinforcement”. Comment
84. What is achievement motivation? Create achievement
motivation plan for rural people. (150 Words)
85. How psychological principles can be used to conserve
electricity? Develop a plan. (150 Words)
86. Is personality consistent? Support by relevant studies.
87. Describe the specific sociocultural deprivation of tribal’s in
India as socially and culturally disadvantage group? How

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can psychology help them?

88. Discuss the Psychological Consequences of recent
developments in IT.
89. Explain Plasticity of perception.
90. Evaluate the applications of psychology to societal
problems?(250 words)
91. How will you select and train psychology professionals in
the field of I.T and Mass media? Make a plan (250 words)
92. From psychological perspective, discuss the impact of
scientific and technological growth on environment?(200
words)
93. Discuss what do you mean by evolutionary psychology and
its present relevance. (250 Words)
94. Everything psychological is, ultimately biological. Comment
(250 Words)
95. Can Attitude be called “Energy Saving devices?” Explain.
(150 words)
96. Discuss the parts of brain involve in storing and recalling
information. (250 Words)
97. Emotion is cognitive interpretation of psychological
response. Comment (250 Words)
98. Discuss the role of heuristics in reasoning. (150 words)
99. Discuss the concept of N-Ach and different methods which
have been used to measure it. (200 words)
100. What is REM sleep and how is it related to dreaming ?(150
words)
101. He History of psychology show ‘mind-body’ approach as
one of the popular ways of explaining behavior. Discuss
how this is being revisited in modern psychology.(200
words)
102. What, in your view, are the psychological problems that
physically challenge people are more prone to? (200
words)
103. Innate and experience factors play crucial role in
perception. Comment. (150 words)
104. What is person perception and perceptual defense? Is it a
critical variable in human interaction? Illustrate(200 words)
105. What is consciousness? Discuss the altered states of

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consciousness which are produce by hypnosis, drug and

meditation? (250 words)
106. Discuss the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive,
affective and behavioral dimensions.(200 words)
107. “Dream is guardian of sleep”. Comment (150 words)
108. Evaluate the efficacy of behavior therapy in the treatment
of alcoholism and drug addiction (150 words)
109. In the long run, EQ (emotional quotient) trumps IQ
(intelligence quotient). Comment (150 words)
110. Discuss the ways in which Psychology can help us to Live
a Better Life. (150 words)
111. Drug addiction is claimed as a threat to our country. State
its cause and remedy (200 words)
112. The multifarious problems of aged persons have posed a
great challenge to the society and our country. Suggest a
program for their all-round rehabilitation. (200 words)
113. Victims of anxieties and depressions do present a common
sight to everyday life. Point out the difference in them and
elucidate their etiology and the remedial measures to be
adopted to treat these two maladies. (200 words)
114. Discuss the relationship between Culture and Personality?
(150 words)
115. Critically examine the effect of Communication on the
people of rural India. (200 words)
116. Positive mental health serves as a powerful factor against
mental illness. Discuss (150 words)
117. Explain the relationship between homelessness and mental
illness?(150 words)
118. Discuss the relation between priming and procedural
memory? (150 words)
119. How the Schedules of reinforcement determine human
behaviour? Explain. (200 words)
120. ‘An individual is the product of heredity interacting with
cooperating environment operating at the appropriate time
of maturation.’ Discuss this statement, quoting the findings
of some experimental studies in this area. (200 words)
121. ‘We perceive what we want, and not what it is’ Examine the
truth of this statement, pointing out especially the
motivational factors determining perception and

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substantiating your answer with some research findings.

(200 words)
122. Do you agree with the view that mal-adjustment to home is
the single major factor for juvenile delinquency? Cite
supporting evidence. Suggest treatment and remedial
measures of juvenile delinquency. (200 words)
123. How do you genetically explain the differences among
children of even same parents?(150 Words)
124. Must all tests be valid? Explain the conditions in which a
test could have low validity without prejudice to its utility
.(200 Words)
125. Discuss the role of Psychology in personnel selection in
industry. Does proper selection ensure productivity as well
as job satisfaction of the workers? (200 Words)
126. Explain Guildford’s model of human intellect and point out
its contribution to our understanding of creativity (200
Words)
127. Modern Psychology has outlived the schools’ Explain with
reference to the current trends in modern psychological
research and the recent counterparts of the schools in
psychological theory and applications. (200 Words)
128. ‘Modem community psychiatry emphasizes the importance
of the social environment in determining and changing
human behaviour.’ Explain with reference to current trends
in preventive psychiatric treatment. (200 Words)
129. There is no single theory of vision which attempts to
account for all the visual phenomena-Discuss with
experimental evidence (200 Words)
130. Current trends in family therapy, group therapy and the
encounter movement have opened up new horizons in
community psychiatry. Comment. (200 Words)
131. Elucidating the concepts of need, drive and incentive,
discuss the problems involved in measuring motives in
human beings (200 Words)
132. ‘We see things as we are, not as things are.’ Elaborate the
various implications of this statement. (200 Words)
133. Describe the problem of learning disabilities of socially
disadvantaged children. What concrete steps can
psychology provide? (200 Words)
134. It is suggested that the biological requirements of man are

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of much less importance in behavior than are his

psychological needs. Examine this point of view. Describe
the various psychological needs. (200 Words)
135. Make as exhaustive a list as possible of current
psychotherapeutic techniques. Evaluate Gestalt therapy.
(200 Words)
136. Freudians and the neo-Freudians are similar in approach
but differ in points of emphasis. Discuss (200 Words)
137. Discuss whether mental health is to be considered only as
an absence of mental disease. In this context, explain with
suitable examples what is meant by psychosomatic
diseases. (250 Words)
138. What can we inherit? Discuss the various difficulties in
isolating the hereditary characteristics from the acquired
ones, in some crucial cognitive and personality structures?
(200 Words)
139. What do you mean by organizational climate? Is it a unitary
or multidimensional concept? How far does the theory of
open system help our understanding of organizational
climate? (250 Words)
140. Discuss the nature and complexities of altered states of
consciousness which are produced by hypnosis, drug use
and meditation (200 Words)
141. Just putting the test questions in an objective form does not
necessarily render the test scientific. Comment, and
elucidate the characteristics of a good psychological test.
(200 Words)
142. Point out the main differences in the approaches of
Western and Vedantic theories of personality (150 Words)
143. The same fire which melts butter hardens steel! Explain
this phenomenon in the Context of frustration and stress
resolution in personality development with examples (200
Words)
144. Discuss on spiritual psychology?(200 Words)
145. Analyze the effect of religion on health and wellbeing? (200
Words)
146. Parents matter less than you think and peers matter more.
Critically examine (200 Words)
147. Explain psychology of emotions w.r.t cultural perspective
(200 Words)

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148. What is Autism? Discuss the Psychological Problems face

by People have Autism Disorder? (200 words)
149. “Poverty and economic achievement as a social problem
can only be explained from people’s perspective” comment
with relevant research studies (250 Words)
150. Differences between reinforcement and punishment (200
Words)
151. Is Pavlov’s classical conditioning a S-R or S-S approach?
Explain(150 Words)
152. What psychological concepts explain the increasing
communal riots in India? (250 Words)
153. Explain psychological basis for aggression or violence, with
suitable examples. (250 Words)
154. Comment on the impact of continuous and partial
reinforcement schedule. (100 Words)
155. ‘Pituitary gland is the master gland’. What are the functions
of pituitary gland? Examine Wirth respect of given
statement. (200 Words)
156. How far is meditation useful today for therapeutic purpose?
Comment. (200 Words)

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