PSEB SS Psychology study guide
PSEB SS Psychology · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
PSEB Senior Secondary (Class XII) Psychology is the Punjab School Education Board's Class 12 psychology paper, sat as a board-set written theory examination with descriptive answers rather than objective-only items. It is taken by regular Class XII students of PSEB-affiliated schools and, through the Board's private candidate route, by reappear, compartment, additional-subject and division-improvement candidates. The PSEB SS Psychology study guide has 12 sections and about 3,969 words.
01Introduction to Psychology: Nature, Scope and Schools of Thought
Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes - behaviour being observable action, mental processes being internal events such as thinking, memory and emotion. It counts as a science because it relies on systematic observation, testable hypotheses and replicable methods, not on intuition or common sense.
341 words, about 2 min02Methods of Enquiry in Psychology
This domain tests whether you can design and criticise a study: choosing a design, naming variables, defining them operationally and respecting ethical safeguards. Every study moves from problem formulation to hypothesis, operational definitions, sampling, data collection, analysis and interpretation.
360 words, about 2 min03Biological Bases of Behaviour
This domain tests how nervous and endocrine activity produces behaviour, with heavy emphasis on neuron parts, brain structures and their functions. The neuron's dendrites receive signals, the soma integrates them, the axon conducts the impulse, the myelin sheath speeds it up, and terminal buttons release neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft.
347 words, about 2 min04Learning
This domain tests conditioning processes and the schedules and contingencies that strengthen or weaken behaviour, plus observational and cognitive accounts. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience.
339 words, about 2 min05Memory and Forgetting
This domain tests the structure of memory stores, the types of memory, and the specific mechanisms that explain why material is lost. Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed three stores.
341 words, about 2 min06Thinking, Problem Solving and Language
This domain tests reasoning, problem-solving strategies and their obstacles, creativity, and the structural units of language. Thinking is the manipulation of mental representations.
332 words, about 2 min07Motivation, Emotion and Intelligence
This domain tests theories of why behaviour is energised, how emotion arises, and how intelligence is defined and measured. Motivation energises and directs behaviour.
333 words, about 2 min08Personality
This domain tests the major personality theories, their key terms, and the strengths and weaknesses of personality assessment. Personality is the relatively stable and distinctive pattern of behaviour, thought and emotion that distinguishes one person from another.
316 words, about 2 min09Stress and Coping
This domain tests how stress is appraised, the body's stress response, and the difference between adaptive and maladaptive coping. Stress is the response to demands appraised as exceeding one's resources.
316 words, about 2 min10Social Behaviour
This domain tests how people explain others' actions, yield to social pressure, behave in groups and decide whether to help. Attribution explains behaviour as internal (dispositional) or external (situational).
348 words, about 2 min11Psychology and Life
This domain tests whether you can connect psychological findings to real settings - health, education, work and well-being - and evaluate such applications sensibly. Psychological knowledge is applied across settings rather than confined to laboratories.
298 words, about 1 min12Environmental Psychology
This domain tests the two-way relation between people and their physical surroundings, and the concepts used to describe and change that relation. Personal space: the adjustable bubble a person keeps around the body; its size varies with culture, relationship, gender and setting.
298 words, about 1 min