RBSE SS Psychology cheat sheet

Intelligence is the global capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use resources effectively when faced with challenges.

Spearman's two-factor theory: every task taps a general factor g plus a task-specific factor s; g accounts for positive correlations among all cognitive tests.

Thurstone proposed seven primary mental abilities: verbal comprehension, numerical ability, spatial relations, perceptual speed, word fluency, memory, and reasoning.

Gardner's multiple intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic; each is relatively independent.

Sternberg's triarchic theory: componential (analytical), experiential (creative), and contextual (practical) intelligence; conventional tests mostly measure the componential part.

Passi's Indian model adds spiritual and social intelligence to the Western list, reflecting abilities valued in the Indian socio-cultural context.

IQ formula (ratio): IQ = (mental age / chronological age) x 100; deviation IQ compares a person's score with age-group norms (mean 100, SD 15 on Wechsler scales).

Wechsler scales (WISC, WAIS) yield verbal and performance scores plus a full-scale IQ; they are individually administered, unlike group tests.

Reliability = consistency of scores on repetition; validity = whether a test measures what it claims; a test can be reliable without being valid, not the reverse.

Self-concept is the totality of a person's thoughts and feelings about the self; self-esteem is the evaluative component of that concept.

Personal identity refers to attributes unique to the individual; social identity refers to attributes shared with group members (caste, religion, gender, nationality).

Freud's id operates on the pleasure principle, the ego on the reality principle, and the superego on the morality principle.

Psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital; fixation at a stage is said to shape adult personality traits.

Defence mechanisms are unconscious distortions of reality: repression, projection, displacement, reaction formation, rationalisation, denial, sublimation.

Trait approaches: Allport's cardinal, central and secondary traits; Cattell's 16PF; Eysenck's extraversion-introversion, neuroticism-stability, psychoticism; the Big Five (OCEAN).

Big Five factors: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (emotional stability).

Bandura's social learning view: personality is shaped by observation, imitation and self-efficacy rather than only by inner traits.

Assessment tools: MMPI-2 and 16PF are self-report inventories; Rorschach and TAT are projective tests scored for interpretation of ambiguous stimuli.

Stress is the pattern of responses an organism makes to a stimulus event that disturbs equilibrium and exceeds its ability to cope.

Lazarus's appraisal theory: primary appraisal judges whether an event is a threat, harm or challenge; secondary appraisal judges whether coping resources suffice.

Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome has three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion; prolonged stress leads to exhaustion-stage breakdown.

Sources of stress: life events (Holmes-Rahe scale), daily hassles, traumatic events, and chronic occupational or interpersonal strains.

Coping is effortful; it may be problem-focused (altering the stressor) or emotion-focused (regulating the distress), and avoidance coping usually worsens outcomes.

Stress effects: increased cortisol and sympathetic arousal, suppressed immunity, and greater risk of hypertension, coronary disease and burnout.

Hardiness (Kobasa) has three components: commitment, control, and challenge; hardy people appraise stressors as challenges rather than threats.

Stress-management techniques include relaxation training, meditation, biofeedback, cognitive restructuring, and time management; social support buffers stress.

Abnormality is judged by deviation from social norms, maladaptive behaviour, personal distress, and statistical rarity; no single criterion suffices.

DSM-5 and ICD-10 are the major classification systems; they organise disorders by clusters of signs (observed) and symptoms (reported).

Anxiety disorders include generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder; fear is disproportionate to the actual threat.

Mood disorders: major depressive disorder involves persistent low mood and loss of interest for at least two weeks; bipolar disorder alternates depressive and manic episodes.

Schizophrenia symptoms divide into positive (delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech) and negative (flat affect, alogia, avolition); onset is typically late adolescence or early adulthood.

Delusion = false belief resistant to contrary evidence; hallucination = false sensory perception without external stimulus; both are positive symptoms.

Somatoform and dissociative disorders involve physical symptoms or identity/memory disruption without a demonstrable organic cause.

Substance-use disorders are defined by dependence (tolerance, withdrawal) and harmful use, not merely by any use of a substance.

Diathesis-stress model: a genetic or biological vulnerability plus environmental stress triggers disorder; neither alone is sufficient.

Psychoanalysis (Freud): free association, dream analysis, and transference bring unconscious conflicts to awareness; interpretation and resistance work are central.

Client-centred therapy (Rogers): unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence create a climate for self-actualisation; the therapist is non-directive.

Behaviour therapy applies classical and operant conditioning: systematic desensitisation pairs relaxation with a feared hierarchy; aversion therapy pairs a noxious stimulus with the target behaviour.

Token economy uses secondary reinforcers (tokens) exchangeable for privileges to shape behaviour in institutional settings.

Cognitive therapy (Beck, Ellis) targets irrational beliefs and automatic negative thoughts; Ellis's ABC model links Activating event, Belief, and emotional Consequence.

Cognitive-behaviour therapy combines cognitive restructuring with behavioural tasks such as exposure and homework; it is structured and time-limited.

Biomedical therapies: antipsychotics reduce positive psychotic symptoms; antidepressants elevate mood; lithium stabilises bipolar mood; anxiolytics reduce anxiety; ECT is used in severe, treatment-resistant depression.

Ethical requirements for therapy: informed consent, confidentiality, competence, and avoidance of harm; confidentiality has legal limits such as risk of serious harm.

Attitude has three components: cognitive (beliefs), affective (feelings), and behavioural (action tendency); they are usually, but not always, consistent.

Attitudes are learned through classical and operant conditioning, observational learning, and group and cultural influence.

Festinger's cognitive dissonance: holding conflicting cognitions produces discomfort, motivating attitude change or behaviour change to restore consistency.

Persuasion factors: source credibility and attractiveness, message content and one-sided vs two-sided arguments, medium, and receiver characteristics.

Halo effect: one salient positive attribute (e.g., attractiveness) spreads to unrelated judgements of competence or honesty.

Attribution biases: fundamental attribution error overweights dispositional causes for others' behaviour; actor-observer bias explains own behaviour situationally; self-serving bias credits success to self.

Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a group; discrimination is the behavioural expression; stereotypes are generalised cognitive categories.

Pro-social behaviour is helped by empathy, modelling, and clarity of the situation; the bystander effect predicts less help as the number of onlookers rises.

Conformity (Asch): individuals shift judgements toward a unanimous group even when the group is clearly wrong; unanimity and group size raise conformity.

Obedience (Milgram): proximity of authority, legitimacy of the authority, and absence of a dissenting peer increase obedience to harmful commands.

Compliance techniques: foot-in-the-door uses a small request first; door-in-the-face starts large then retreats; low-ball secures agreement then raises the cost.

Group norms are shared expectations; roles are the behaviour expected of a person occupying a position; status is the prestige attached to a position.

Social facilitation: performance improves on simple or well-learned tasks before an audience but worsens on complex or novel tasks (social inhibition).

Social loafing: individual effort decreases in larger groups when contributions are not identifiable; making output individually accountable reduces it.

Group polarisation shifts group decisions toward the initially dominant tendency; groupthink (Janis) is defective decision-making under high cohesiveness and pressure to agree.

Intergroup conflict is reduced by superordinate goals (Sherif's Robbers Cave), cooperative interdependence, and intergroup contact under supportive norms.

Environmental psychology studies the interaction of people with the built and natural environment, including crowding, noise, and personal space.

Crowding is a subjective feeling of insufficient space; high density does not always produce crowding, since appraisal matters.

Noise above about 80-90 dB, especially unpredictable noise, impairs concentration and raises physiological arousal.

Personal space is the invisible boundary around a person; it varies with culture, gender, relationship and situation.

Health psychology applies psychological principles to health promotion, illness prevention, and adherence to treatment.

Positive psychology (Seligman) studies strengths and well-being: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.

Psychological resilience is the capacity to maintain or regain functioning after adversity; social support and optimism are protective factors.

Psychology is applied in education, health, industry, sports and the criminal justice system, linking research to real-world settings.

Core counselling skills: active listening, empathy, questioning, paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, and summarising.

Observation is systematic: note verbal content, paralanguage, and non-verbal cues such as posture, eye contact and facial expression.

Open questions invite elaboration; closed questions yield specific facts; leading questions bias the response and should be avoided.

Empathy is understanding the client's frame of reference and communicating it; sympathy is feeling for the person and is not the therapeutic stance.

Confidentiality is a professional obligation with exceptions: risk of harm to self or others, and legal requirements.

The helping relationship proceeds through rapport building, problem identification, goal setting, intervention, and termination or referral.

Interview types: structured (fixed questions, comparable data), unstructured (flexible, exploratory), and semi-structured (both).

Ethical safeguards include informed consent, avoiding dual relationships, recognising the limits of one's competence, and referring when needed.