The course will familiarize students with the basic psychological processes and the relating factors which influence them. It will also focus on some important application areas of Psychology.
Introduction: Definition and goals of Psychology; Approaches: Biological, Psychodynamic, Behaviorist, Cognitive, Methods: Experimental, Observation and Case study; Fields of application.
Sensory-Perceptual Processes: Attention : Nature of Attention and its determinants; Perception: Perceptual organization - Perceptual Constancy, Determinants of perception; Types of perception - Form, Space, Depth.
Learning : Definition; Classical and Operant Conditioning; Verbal Learning, Observational Learning and Application of Learning Principles.
Memory and Forgetting : Process of Memory: Encoding, Storage, Retrieval; Stages of Memory: Sensory, Short term and Long term. Improving Memory; Constructive Memory; Forgetting; Theories of Forgetting.
Thinking and Reasoning : Concepts, Categories and Cognitive Maps; Inductive and Deductive Reasoning, Problem Solving Approaches, Solution Strategies and Mental Sets.