Syllabus for M.

Phil in Clinical Psychology Entrance Examination

Sl Marks
Subject & Syllabus
No. Allotted

1. Abnormal Psychology 40

Understanding abnormality, definition and criteria of

abnormality, classification (latest edition of DSM & ICD),
Clinical Assessment, Diathesis Stress Model, Theoretical
Perspectives: Psychoanalytical, Behavioural, Cognitive,
Humanistic, Existential, Interpersonal; and Casual Factors:
Biological, Psychosocial, Socio-cultural

Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders -

Dementia, Organic amnesic syndrome, Delirium, Other
mental disorders due to brain damage and dysfunction and
to physical disease, Personality and behavioural disorder due
to brain disease, damage and
Dysfunction

Substance related disorders and eating disorders. Mental

and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance
use, Substance-Related Disorder: Alcohol abuse and Drug
abuse, opioids, cannabinoids, sedatives or hypnotics,
cocaine, stimulants, including Caffeine, hallucinogens,
volatile solvents

Schizophrenia: Clinical features, etiological factors -

biological and psychosocial theories and subtypes,
management

Mood Disorders: Clinical Picture, causal factors - biological

and psychosocial theories and subtypes; management,
Suicide

Anxiety disorders – Panic disorder, Phobias, Obsessive 1

Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder,
Somatoform Disorders, Dissociative Disorders, clinical
features, etiological factors, Management

Behavioural syndromes associated with physiological

disturbances and physical factors - Eating disorder: Anorexia
Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, Nonorganic sleep disorders,
Sexual dysfunction, not caused by organic disorder or disease
Sexual response cycle, Sexual dysfunctions, Gender Identity
Disorder, Sexual deviations: Paraphilia - Pedophilia,
Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Sexual Masochism, Sexual Sadism,
clinical features, etiology and management

Personality Disorders: Schizoid, Paranoid, Schizotypal,

Antisocial, Emotionally Unstable, Histrionic, Narcissistic,
Anxious Avoidant, Dependant, Obsessive Compulsive,
etiology and management

Developmental Disorders: Mental Retardation, Autism,

ADHD, and Learning Disabilities, communication disorders,
tic disorders, elimination disorders, clinical features, etiology
and management

References:

Ahuja, A. A Short Textbook of Psychiatry VI Edition. Jaypee.

Carson, R.C., Butcher, J.N.,Mineka,S.& Hooley,J.M. (2008).

Abnormal Psychology. New Delhi: Pearson.

Kaplan, H. & Sandock, B . J (1998). Synopsis of Psychiatry 10th

ed. New Delhi: B.I. Waverly

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2. Psychological Testing

Introduction: Definition of psychological test, Uses of tests,

Characteristics of tests, Types of tests- Speed test, power
test, Individual test, group test, Aptitude tests, achievement
tests, Projective tests. Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio scales

Steps in test construction: Scaling Methods, Constructing the

Items- Meaning and types of items, Guidelines for item
writing, Item Analysis- Item difficulty, Item discriminability,
Revising the Test, Publishing the Test, Tests and decisions:
Decision outcomes, base rate, selection ratio, incremental
validity

Reliability and Validity: Reliability: Meaning and significance,

Types of reliability- Test retest, Alternate forms, Split half,
Inter- scorer reliabilities, Standard error of measurement.
Factors influencing reliability. Validity: Content, Criterion- 15
Predictive and concurrent, Construct- Convergent and
Discriminant. Validity coefficient and standard error of
estimate, Factors influencing validity.

Norm: Development of norms- Steps- Defining target

population, selecting sample, standardizing conditions for
implementation. Types of norms- Age equivalent norms,
grade equivalent norms, Percentile norms. Norm-referenced
and Criterion referenced Tests. Standard score norms,
Normalised standard scores- T score, stanine score, deviation
IQ, Sten. Test Manual- Use, Information to be contained in
the manual- Dissemination of information, Interpretation,
validity, reliability, Administration and scoring, Scales and
norms.

Application of Tests: Testing in Clinical settings- Intelligence

tests, neuro psychological assessment, Behavioural
assessment, Career assessment, Computer-assisted

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 psychological assessment, Ethical and social considerations
in psychological testing – User qualification and professional
competence, Protection of Privacy, Test related factors,

References:

Anasthasi, A. (1997). Psychological testing. Mac Millan and

Co, New York.

Kaplan, R. M., and Sacuzzo, D. P () Psychological testing (3rd

edition). California: Brooks/ Cole publishing company.

Murphy, K. R., & Davidshofer, C. O. (1994). Psychological

testing - Principles and applications. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall.

Singh, A. K. (2002). Tests, measurements and research

methods in behavioural sciences. Patna: Bharati Bhawan
Publishers.

3. Statistics and Research Methodology 15

Introduction to Statistics-Levels of Measurement: Nominal,

Ordinal, Interval and Ratio. Collection of data-primary and
secondary, census and sampling, classification and
tabulation. Graphic Representation of Data: The Histogram;
The Frequency Polygon; The Bar Diagram; The Pie Chart; The
Cumulative Frequency Graph; Factors Affecting the Shape of
Graphs.

Variables, Operationally defining variables, types of

variables, controlling variables. Hypothesis - Formulation,
types

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Experimental designs: One group, Two group and Factorial
designs, Within subject and between subject designs.

Normal distribution vs. binomial distribution. Measures of

central tendency- mean, median, standard error, confidence
intervals, skewness, kurtosis. Measures of dispersion-Range,
quartile deviation

Probability & Sampling. Different methods of sampling.

Requisites of a good sampling method. Advantages of
sampling methods. Simple random sampling, Stratified
sampling. Systematic sampling.

Normal Distribution- Parameter, Statistic, Level of

significance, one tailed and two tailed tests, Parametric tests-
‘t’ test, F test, Karl pearson coefficient of correlation, Non
parametric tests- Chi square test, Mann –Whitney U test,
Kruskal Wallis test. Choosing appropriate statistics

Correlation, Rank correlation, Correlation and Causation,

Coefficient of Correlation; Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient,
Spearman’s Rank-Order Correlation Coefficient, Score
Transformations, Correlation and Regression.

Testing of hypothesis, tests of significance- parametric &

non-parametric, one-way analysis of variance, repeated
measures analysis of variance, correlation and regression-
linear and multiple regression.

Research methodology, Research study designs,

epidemiology and methods-descriptive & analytical,
multivariate analysis

Qualitative analysis of data: Content analysis of text, b)

narrative analysis, c) conversation analysis, d) discourse
analysis, e) visual interpretation, f) semiotic, structural and

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 post structural analyses. Grounded theory approach

Quantitative analysis of the data : purpose, conditions and

interpretation of major parametric and non parametric
statistical techniques using SPSS

References:

Kothari, C. R. (1998). Research Methods and techniques. New

Delhi: Wiley Eastern.

N.K. Chadha (1991) Statistics for Behavioral and Social

Sciences. Reliance Pub. House: New Delhi

Mangal, S. K. (2002). Statistics in Psychology and Education.

(2nded).
New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited. (ISBN: 978-
81-
203-8).

4. General Psychology 10

Introduction: What is psychology? Evolution and schools of

psychology. Perspectives on behaviour methods of
psychology (special emphasis on experimentation); branches
of psychology, evolution of psychology in India

Sensation, Attention and Perception: Sense modalities,

Attentional processes. Theories of attention. Perceptual
processing, Role of attention in perception, Perceptual
organization, Perceptual sets, Perceptual constancies, depth
perception, distance and movement; Illusions. Socio-cultural
factors influencing perception

Thinking and Language: mental imagery, concepts. Processes

of thinking – problem solving, reasoning, decision making;

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Creative thinking. Nature of language, language
development.

Learning and Motivation: Principles and applications of

Classical conditioning and its determinants, operant
conditioning, reinforcement, generalization, extinction, and
observational learning; Social and cognitive theories of
learning. Factors facilitating learning. Applications of learning
principles. Perspectives on motivation, types of motivation,
motivational conflict. Process and content theories of
motivation

Memory: Memory systems, Models of memory: Levels of

processing, Parallel Distributed Processing model,
Information processing model. Types of long term memory.
Forgetting, Improving memory.

Emotions: Components, theories - Theories of emotion:

Canon-Bard, James-Lange, Arousal-interpretation theory:
Schachter & Singer, Cognitive appraisal theory: Lazarus,
Smith& Kirby. Culture and emotional expression

Personality: Nature of personality; Concept of self. Biological

foundations of personality; Culture, gender and personality;
Perspectives on personality: Psychodynamic, Neo-freudian
approaches, Phenomenological, behavioral, humanistic, Trait
and type. Other theories of personality development.
Personality assessment –Objective and projective

Intelligence: Concept of intelligence: Psychometric and

cognitive approaches to intelligence; Theories of Intelligence,
Heredity, environment and intelligence; Group differences in
intelligence; Extremes of intelligence. Emotional intelligence.
Intelligence testing, Intellectual disability

Developmental Psychology: Concept of Human development;

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 overview of developmental stages, Theories of development,
Domains of Human Development , Periods of Life Span
Development , Socio-Cultural Contexts for Human
Development

References:

Weiten, W. (2002).Psychology: Themes and variations, 5th ed.

New York: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.

Baron, R. A. & Misra, G. (2014).Psychology, 5th ed. New Delhi:

Pearson Education

Morgan, C. T., King, R. A., Weisz, J. R., & Schopler, J.

(1993).Introduction to psychology, 7thed. New Delhi: Tata
McGraw Hill.

Munn, N. L., Fernald, L. D., & Fernald, P. S.

(1972).Introduction to Psychology, 3rded. New Delhi: Oxford
& IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.

5. Physiological Psychology 10

Genetics, Mutations and Genetic disorders: modern concept

of gene and gene action, sex - linked, sex – limited, sex-
influenced characters. Gene mutation-Kinds of mutation,
classification, Gene mutation disorders, Sex chromosomal
anomalies.

Endocrine System: Structure, functions and abnormalities of

major glands: thyroid, adrenal, gonads, pituitary, pancreas
and pineal. Physiological basis of sexual behavior, hunger
and thirst: defining sexual behavior, dynamics, hormones
and its impact, external cues, the brain and sexual behavior.
Role of hypothalamus and amygdale (Physiological motives

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and emotion, fear and anger)

Physiology of Stress: Stress response, indicators of stress

(hormonal, anatomical, and physiological), stress and
disease. Stress, emotionality and endorphins.

Physiology of sleep and arousal: Arousal, Sleep and Circadian

Rhythms- Physiological measures of alertness and arousal-
EEG. Physiological conceptions of wakefulness and sleep.
Conceptions of sleep. Circadian rhythms and biological clock.

Neuropsychology, blood brain barrier. Cellular organization

of nervous system - structure and background of neurons,
neural impulse, types of neurons, neurotransmitters, central
nervous system, peripheral nervous system, limbic system,
neurohistology techniques – stain techniques, radiological
procedures, electrophysiological procedures, Imaging of
brain metabolism, cerebrospinal fluid studies, behavioural
examination, New advances in imaging techniques – brain
mapping, functional MRI

Neuropsychology – Basic Concepts Neuropsychological

syndromes and Functional systems Brain plasticity, cerebral
dominance, lateralization of function, Functional Aspects of
lobes (Frontal, temporal, parietal & Occipital)

References:

Darby, D., & Walsh, K. (2005). Neuropsychology. A Clinical

Approach, Fifth edition. UK:Elsevier.

Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of Human

Neuropsychology, Fifth edition.

Schneider, A. M., & Tarshis, B. (1986). Introduction to

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 Physiological Psychology, Third edition. New York: Random
House

Leukal, F. (1985).An Introduction to Physiological Psychology.

(1sted.). New Delhi: CBS Publishers and Distributors.

Levinthal, C.F. (1996). Introduction to Physiological

Psychology (3rd Ed.)Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd.

6. Social Psychology 10

Introduction to Social Psychology: Social Psychology

(Definition). Focus of social psychology. Research methods in
Social Psychology (very briefly) – Systematic observation,
Survey, Correlation, Experimental method, Field experiment,
Sociometry.

Social Cognition: Automatic thinking, Schemas, Self-fulfilling

prophecy, Priming, Heuristics, Cultural differences

Social Perception: Nonverbal communication, Implicit

personality theories, Attribution process and its theories –
Covarition model, Fundamental attribution error, Self serving
attribution, Bias blind spot

Attitudes and Attitude change: Origin of attitudes, Types of

attitudes, Persuasion, Emotion and Attitude change,
Predicting behavior

Conformity: Conformity and social approval- Asch line study,

Social impact theory, Compliance, Obedience

Group processes: Purpose of groups, group formation, Social

loafing, de-individuation, Mob mentality, Groupthink, Group
polarization, Leadership in groups, Contingency theory,
Conflicts, Cooperation

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Pro-social behavior: Motives of prosocial behavior, Altruism,
Kin Selection, Norms of reciprocity, Social exchange,
Empathy, Personality and altruistic behavior, Situational
determinants, by-stander effect, Diffusion of responsibility,
Pluralistic ignorance,

Aggression: Types, Gender and cultural influences,

Physiological influences, Frustration and aggression,
Provocation and reciprocation, Social learning theory,
Violence and media, Ways to reduce aggression.

Prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination: Components of

prejudice, Causes of prejudice, Normative conformity,
implicit prejudice, Stereotypes, Illusory correlation,
Emotions: the affective component, Discrimination, Effect of
prejudice, Social categorization, Realistic conflict theory,
Scapegoating, The contact hypothesis, Mutual
Interdependence

References:

Baron, R. A., Branscombe, N. R., Byrne, D., & Bhardwaj, G.

(2010). Social Psychology.Delhi: Pearson.

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2013). Social

Psychology. Eighth Edition. Pearson

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