Kerala Plus Two Psychology (DHSE) study plan

Define personality and list the five main approaches (trait, psychodynamic, behavioural, cultural, humanistic) with one key theorist and one core concept for each

Distinguish Type A and Type B personality patterns and describe how each is assessed

Compare Freud's id, ego and superego and explain the role of defence mechanisms with three named examples

Explain Allport's trait theory, Cattell's 16PF and the Big Five (OCEAN) and state one similarity and one difference between them

Classify psychological disorders as given in the DSM-IV-TR/ICD-10 frameworks used in the textbook: anxiety, mood, somatoform, dissociative, schizophrenia and personality disorders

Describe the clinical features, causes and treatment outline of generalised anxiety disorder, phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Explain the symptoms of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, including the manic triad

Outline the positive, negative and psychomotor symptoms of schizophrenia and distinguish its subtypes

Describe dissociative identity disorder and dissociative amnesia and explain how they differ from somatoform disorders

Explain the concepts of self, self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control and relate each to an everyday example

Evaluate the influence of culture on the expression of disorders and on the development of self-concept

Define intelligence and distinguish psychometric from information-processing and multiple-intelligences approaches

Explain Spearman's g, Thurstone's primary abilities, Gardner's multiple intelligences and Sternberg's triarchic theory

Describe the assessment of intelligence: verbal, non-verbal and performance tests, and the meaning of IQ, mental age and chronological age

Explain the normal distribution of IQ scores and the interpretation of deviation IQ

Discuss the role of heredity and environment in intelligence, including adoption and twin study evidence

Identify the sources and consequences of stress and distinguish eustress from distress

Explain the general adaptation syndrome (alarm, resistance, exhaustion) and the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis

Describe appraisal, coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused) and stress-management techniques such as relaxation and cognitive restructuring

Distinguish the four main therapeutic approaches: psychodynamic, behaviour, cognitive and humanistic

Explain the techniques of psychoanalysis including free association, dream analysis and transference

Describe behaviour therapy techniques: systematic desensitisation, aversive conditioning, token economy and modelling

Describe client-centred therapy (unconditional positive regard, empathy, genuineness) and REBT

Explain cognitive therapy for depression and the role of negative automatic thoughts

Describe biomedical treatment: antipsychotics, antidepressants, anxiolytics and mood stabilisers, with one indication and one side effect for each

Explain the concept of attitude, its components (cognitive, affective, behavioural) and the ABC model

Describe attitude formation, attitude change and the Yale communication model of persuasion (source, message, audience)

Explain cognitive dissonance and how it produces attitude change

Distinguish stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination and outline strategies for reducing prejudice

Explain social cognition: schemas, heuristics, attribution and the fundamental attribution error

Describe impression formation and the primacy and recency effects

Define prosocial behaviour and explain the bystander effect and the conditions for helping

Explain social influence: conformity (Asch), compliance techniques and obedience to authority (Milgram)

Distinguish groups from collectives and describe group formation, group norms, roles and cohesiveness

Explain group performance phenomena: social facilitation, social loafing, group polarisation and groupthink, and describe conflict-resolution strategies

Describe the relationship between psychology and health, including lifestyle, stress and illness, and the biopsychosocial model

Explain environmental psychology concepts: crowding, personal space and noise

Describe the skills of a psychological counsellor: listening, empathy, questioning, paraphrasing and reflecting

Explain the stages of the counselling process: rapport building, assessment, goal setting and intervention

Revise the assessment of psychological attributes: interviews, observation, psychological tests, and the concepts of reliability and validity

Distinguish aptitude, achievement and interest tests

Revise all nine domains using your own summary sheets, spending proportionally more time on domains 2 and 4

Solve two full-length practice papers under timed conditions and mark them strictly

Analyse every wrong answer and trace it to the specific concept or definition you misread

Re-learn the weakest three concepts and write them out from memory

Practise five long-answer questions requiring evaluation, not just recall