What is Psychology? – Class 11 Psychology Chapter 1 Notes & NCERT PDF

Class 11PsychologyChapter 1NCERT book: Introduction to Psychology - Psychology Class 11

Notes and a simple summary of Chapter 1 of the NCERT Class 11 Psychology book, with the official chapter PDF, flashcards, an MCQ quiz and an AI tutor for your doubts.

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Chapter 1: What is Psychology?

Introduction

Why do people go out of their way to help others, or beat each other up? Why do we dream? What made Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia, paralysed waist down after a war injury, climb Mt. Everest? Chapter 1 opens with such questions to show that psychology deals with human nature itself. Like all knowledge, psychological knowledge is meant to contribute to human well-being. Its most striking feature, unlike other sciences, is that it studies processes that are largely internal and available for observation within ourselves.

"The growth of the human mind is still high adventure, in many ways the highest adventure on earth." — Norman Cousins

Key Concepts

1. What is Psychology?

The word comes from two Greek words: psyche (soul) and logos (science or study). Psychology was once "the study of the soul or mind".

Today it is formally defined as a science which studies mental processes, experiences and behaviour in different contexts, using methods of biological and social sciences to obtain data systematically.

It studies phenomena at several levels — individual, dyadic (two-person), group and organisational — with both biological and social bases.

The three terms in the definition:

Mental processes — remembering, learning, knowing, perceiving, feeling, problem solving. Brain activity reflects them (seen through brain imaging), but mind and brain are not identical: mental and neural activities overlap but the mind has no physical structure or location. Mental activity continues even in sleep — we dream and may even learn and remember.

Experiences — subjective; only the experiencing person is aware of them. Examples: pain of terminally ill patients, grief in bereavement, a Yogi's altered state in meditation. Experience depends on internal and external conditions — a crowded, hot bus feels less uncomfortable when you travel with friends to a picnic.

Behaviours — responses or activities. They may be simple or complex, short or enduring, overt (observable, e.g., blinking) or covert (internal, e.g., hand muscles twitching while planning a chess move). Some psychologists study behaviour as an association between a stimulus (S) and a response (R), both of which may be internal or external.

2. Psychology as a Discipline

Psychology is an old knowledge discipline but a young science, counted from the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig (1879). It has two parallel streams:

Psychology as a Natural Science

Influenced by Descartes and physics; follows the hypothetico-deductive model: theory → hypothesis → testing with empirical data → revise theory if needed.

A theory is a set of interrelated statements explaining a complex phenomenon; a hypothesis is a tentative explanation derived from it.

Aims at cause–effect relations for prediction and control. Also influenced by the evolutionary approach (e.g., explaining attachment and aggression).

Linked to Neuroscience (fMRI, EEG) and Computer Science (human–computer interaction, artificial intelligence).

Psychology as a Social Science

Studies behaviour in its socio-cultural context; humans are shaped by, and also create, their contexts. Each behaviour has multiple causes.

Ranjita and Shabnam — very different girls (an outgoing athlete from a farming joint family; a shy artist whose father worked in a nearby town) became close friends when floods brought Shabnam's family to Ranjita's house. Communities often help in crises, but not every villager was equally helpful, and some communities turn to looting — behaviour must be understood in context.

3. Understanding Mind and Behaviour

The "mind" returned to psychology thanks to neuroscientists like Sperry and physicists like Penrose.

Mind cannot exist without the brain, but it is a separate entity: patients whose occipital lobes were removed still responded to visual cues; an athlete who lost his arm felt a "phantom arm" reaching for coffee; a brain-injured man believed his parents were "duplicates".

Affective neuroscience shows a link between mind and body: Ornish's patients with blocked arteries used positive visualisation and got significant relief. Mental imagery is used to treat phobias. A new discipline, Psychoneuroimmunology, studies the mind's role in strengthening immunity.

4. Popular Notions vs Scientific Psychology

Common-sense explanations are based on hindsight — "Out of sight, out of mind" and "Distance makes the heart grow fonder" are opposite, and we pick one only after the behaviour happens. Science looks for predictable patterns.

Dweck (1975): two groups trained for 25 days on maths problems. The group that only ever solved easy problems gave up faster on failure than the group given mixed easy/hard problems and taught to attribute failure to lack of effort — against common sense.

Studies show beliefs such as "men are more intelligent than women" or "women cause more accidents" are untrue; with good practice, the presence of others can improve performance.

Psychologists differ from astrologers, tantriks and palm readers because they test propositions systematically with data.

5. Evolution of Psychology (schools of thought)

Structuralism — Wilhelm Wundt, first laboratory at Leipzig, Germany, 1879; studied the building blocks of conscious experience through introspection (subjects describe their own mental processes). Criticised because reports could not be verified by outside observers.

Functionalism — William James (laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts): study what the mind does and how behaviour helps people deal with the environment; consciousness as an ongoing stream. John Dewey used it to argue humans adapt to function effectively.

Gestalt psychology — early 20th century, Germany: perception is more than the sum of its parts; experience is holistic (e.g., flashing bulbs are seen as moving light; a film is rapid still pictures).

Behaviourism — John Watson, around 1910, influenced by Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning; rejected mind and consciousness; study only observable, measurable behaviour. Popularised by B.F. Skinner.

Psychoanalysis — Sigmund Freud: behaviour as a dynamic expression of unconscious desires and conflicts; a system to understand and cure psychological disorders.

Humanistic perspective — Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow: free will and natural striving to grow and unfold inner potential; criticised behaviourism as mechanistic.

Cognitive perspective — combined aspects of Gestalt and structuralism; cognition is the process of knowing (thinking, perceiving, memorising, problem solving). Some view the mind as an information-processing system like a computer. Constructivism: people actively construct their minds — Piaget (children construct their own minds) vs Vygotsky (mind is a joint cultural construction through adult–child interaction).

6. Development of Psychology in India

Rich philosophical tradition (consciousness, self, mind–body), but modern Indian psychology remained dominated by Western psychology.

Calcutta University: first experimental psychology syllabus and laboratory (1915), first Department of Psychology (1916), Applied Psychology department (1938). Influenced by Dr N.N. Sengupta (trained in Wundt's experimental tradition) and Prof. G. Bose (Freudian psychoanalysis; founded the Indian Psychoanalytical Association, 1922).

Durganand Sinha (Psychology in a Third World Country: The Indian Experience, 1986) described four phases: (1) till independence — Western-style experimental, psychoanalytic and testing research; (2) till the 1960s — expansion into branches, linking Western ideas to India; (3) post-1960s — problem-oriented research for Indian society; (4) late 1970s onward — indigenisation, culturally relevant frameworks and traditional Indian psychology.

UGC centres of excellence: Utkal University and University of Allahabad; about 70 universities offer psychology.

7. Branches of Psychology

Cognitive; Biological (with Neuropsychology — using EEG, PET, fMRI); Developmental; Social; Cross-cultural and Cultural; Environmental; Health; Clinical and Counselling; Industrial/Organisational; Educational (and School); Sports; plus emerging fields — aviation, space, military, forensic, rural, engineering, managerial, community, political psychology and psychology of women.

Clinical psychologist vs psychiatrist: a clinical psychologist has a psychology degree with training in treating disorders; a psychiatrist has a medical degree and can prescribe medicines and give electroshock treatment.

8. Psychology and Other Disciplines

Philosophy; Medicine; Economics, Political Science and Sociology (Nobel laureates H. Simon, D. Kahneman, T. Schelling); Computer Science; Law and Criminology (witness memory, jury decisions); Mass Communication; Music and Fine Arts (music therapy using ragas — efficacy yet to be proven); Architecture and Engineering.

9. Psychology in Everyday Life

Psychologists work in schools, hospitals, industries, prisons, business, military and private practice. Personally, psychology helps you develop good study habits, improve learning and memory, solve interpersonal problems, reduce exam stress and build a positive and balanced self-understanding (avoiding both defensive behaviour and running yourself down).

Examples & Activities from the Text

Activity 1.1 — name three psychological processes in situations like writing an essay, playing chess or appearing in an exam.

Activity 1.2 — ask students what psychology is and compare with the textbook.

Activity 1.3 — rank 11 branches by interest; revisit after the course.

Key-Facts Sheet

Psyche = soul; logos = study.

1879 — Wundt, Leipzig, first laboratory.

1890 — William James publishes Principles of Psychology.

1916 — first Psychology Department, Calcutta University.

1924 — Watson publishes Behaviourism (Box 1.1).

1955 — NIMHANS established at Bangalore; 1997 — NBRC at Gurgaon.

Nobel Prizes linked to psychology: Pavlov (1904), Lorenz & Tinbergen (1973), Simon (1978), Hubel & Wiesel and Sperry (1981), Kahneman (2002), Schelling (2005).

Exam Focus

Q. What is behaviour? Give examples of overt and covert behaviour.

Behaviour = responses/activities triggered by internal or external stimuli.

Overt: blinking when something is thrown, choosing a movie. Covert: heart pounding in an exam, muscle twitching while planning a chess move.

Q. Differentiate a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

Degree (psychology vs medicine), training, right to prescribe medication/electroshock.

Q. Give a brief account of the evolution of psychology.

Wundt → James → Gestalt → Watson/Skinner → Freud → Rogers/Maslow → cognitive and constructivist views (Piaget, Vygotsky), each reacting to the earlier one.

Key Terms

Psychology (मनोविज्ञान), Behaviour (व्यवहार), Mind (मन), Consciousness (चेतना), Introspection (अंतर्निरीक्षण), Structuralism (संरचनावाद), Functionalism (प्रकार्यवाद), Behaviourism (व्यवहारवाद), Psychoanalysis (मनोविश्लेषण), Gestalt (समग्राकृति), Cognition (संज्ञान), Constructivism (रचनावाद), Stimulus (उद्दीपक), Hypothesis (परिकल्पना), Humanistic approach (मानवतावादी उपागम)

Common Mistakes

Saying mind and brain are the same — the book says they are interdependent but not identical.

Mixing up Wundt (structure, introspection) and James (function, stream of consciousness).

Calling common-sense sayings "psychological laws" — they rest on hindsight.

Confusing the Leipzig (1879) lab with the Calcutta (1915) lab or the first Calcutta department (1916).

Stating that clinical psychologists prescribe medicines — only psychiatrists can.

💡 Key Learning Points

✓Psychology is the science of mental processes, experiences and behaviour in different contexts, using both biological and social science methods.
✓Psychology works as a natural science (hypothetico-deductive, cause–effect) and as a social science (behaviour in socio-cultural context).
✓Mind and brain are interdependent but not identical, as shown by phantom-limb and visualisation studies.
✓Modern psychology evolved through structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt, behaviourism, psychoanalysis, humanistic and cognitive perspectives.
✓Psychology in India grew from Calcutta University (1915–16) through four phases described by Durganand Sinha, ending in indigenisation.

👨‍🏫 Teaching Tips

→Start with Activity 1.1: let students list mental processes in everyday situations like playing chess or writing an essay.
→Contrast the two sayings 'Out of sight, out of mind' and 'Distance makes the heart grow fonder' to show why common sense relies on hindsight.
→Build a class timeline wall from Box 1.1, marking Indian landmarks in a different colour.
→Role-play Wundt, James, Watson, Freud and Rogers in a mock debate on what psychology should study.
→Use the Ranjita–Shabnam story to discuss how context shapes behaviour during a crisis.
→Run Activity 1.2 as a mini-survey and compare student beliefs with the textbook definition.
→Invite students to interview a psychologist (Project Idea 1) and present career paths.

📋 Assessment Questions

Can the student define psychology and explain mental processes, experience and behaviour with examples?
Can the student distinguish psychology as a natural science from psychology as a social science?
Can the student match each school of thought with its founder and main idea?
Can the student differentiate a clinical psychologist from a psychiatrist and a counsellor?
Can the student describe Durganand Sinha's four phases of psychology in India?

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Next: Chapter 2 →Methods of Enquiry in Psychology