CBSE Question Paper 2018

Class 12 Psychology (Theory)

Time allowed : 3 hours

Maximum Marks : 70

General Instructions :

1. All questions are compulsory.

2. Marks for each question are indicated against it.
3. Answers should be brief and to the point.
4. Questions no. 1 – 10 in Part A has Learning Checks (very short answer type) questions
carrying 1 mark each. You are required to answer them as directed.
5. Questions no. 11 – 16 in Part B are Very Short Answer type questions carrying 2 marks
each. Answer to each question should not exceed 30 words.
6. Questions no. 17 – 20 in Part C are Short Answer Type-I questions carrying 3 marks each.
Answer to each question should not exceed 60 words.
7. Questions no. 21 – 26 in Part D are Short Answer Type-II questions carrying 4 marks each.
Answer to each question should not exceed 100 words.
8. Questions no. 27 and 28 in Part E are Long Answer Type questions carrying 6 marks each.
Answer to each question should not exceed 200 words.

PART A

1. Emotional competence refers to

a. Self-monitoring of emotions
b. Self-competence to handle behaviour
c. Discrimination of behaviour
d. Persistence in behaviour

Ans. Self - monitoring of emotions

2. _________ is a way of reducing anxiety by distorting reality.

Ans. Defence Mechanism

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 3. Frustration is one of the sources of psychological stress. (True/False)
Ans. True
4. Extreme pain without any identifiable biological symptom is an example of ________
disorder.
Ans. Pain / Somatoform
5. A dream-like state separating self from reality is known as ________.
Ans. Depersonalisation / Dissociative Disorder
6. Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is a form of bio-medical therapy. (True/False)
Ans. True
7. The process of assigning causes to the behaviour shown in specific social situations
is known as __________.
Ans. Attribution / causal attribution / attribution of causality
8. Extreme cohesiveness in groups results in ________.
Ans. Groupthink
9. _________ perspective suggests that physical environment exists mainly for use by
human beings for their comfort.
Ans. Instrumental
10. Interpersonal communication involves communicating with two persons.
(True/False)
Ans. English version of the question is ambiguous, both answers, True/False are correct.
Hindi version is correctly worded

PART B

11. What do you understand by Type-C personality?

Ans. Type - B Personality
absence of Type - A traits / opposite of Type A traits
which are high motivation, impatient, in a hurry, feels burdened with work, feels
short of time, not relaxed

OR

Low motivation, has patience, not in a hurry, does not feel burdened with work, does not
feel short of time, feel relaxed

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12. Explain the behavioural effects of stress.
Ans. Emotion - oriented coping strategy:
a. efforts to maintain hope and to control one’s emotions
b. involves in venting feelings of anger and frustration
c. deciding that nothing can be done to change things
d. support answer with any relevant and appropriate example
13. What is substance dependence?
Ans. Interactional approach to psychological disorders
a. bio-psycho - social approach
b. all three factors i.e. biological, psychological and social play important roles in
influencing the expression and outcome of psychological disorders
14. Explain separation anxiety disorder (SAD).
Ans. Separation – anxiety disorder – an internalising / behavioural disorder unique to
children

OR

Symptoms – prominent symptom is excessive anxiety/ panic experienced by children at

being separated from their parents
and

1. Difficulty being in a room by themselves

2. Going to school alone
3. Fearful of entering new situations and clings to and shadow their parents’ every move
4. To avoid separation, children with SAD may fuss, scream, throw severe tantrums or
make suicidal gestures
15. Explain discrimination in the context of poverty.
Ans. Poverty cycle:
poverty begets poverty
low income and lack of resources
the poor go through low health and nutrition
lack of education
lack of skills

This leads to low employment opportunities and again causes poverty

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16. What is paraphrasing ?
Ans. Intrapersonal communication – involves communicating with yourself
activities as thought processes
personal decision making
focusing on self

PART C

17. Explain the interactional approach to understand personality.

Ans. Self Control
Psychological techniques of self control are:
Observation of own behaviour
Self instruction
Self reinforcement

Brief explanation of each

18. What is social facilitation?

Ans. Fundamental Attribution Error:
Gives greater weightage to internal or dispositional factors, than to external or
situational factors.
Generally success is attributed to internal factors and failure is attributed to
external factors.
It varies from culture to culture
19. State any three causes of aggression.
Ans. Effects of Watching TV:
TV provides a large amount of information, entertainment in the visual mode a
powerful mode of education but reduces habit of reading & writing and outdoor
activities.
Affects children’s ability to concentrate on one target, creativity and ability to
understand & also social interaction.
TV watching also develops a consumerist attitude.
Studies suggest that watching violence on TV is linked to greater aggressiveness in
viewers, on the other hand it may reduce natural aggressive tendency through
catharsis.

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 Any three
20. Explain the role of culture in listening.

OR

Explain non-verbal communication.

Ans. Role of Culture in listening:
Silent communication by listening.
Controlling attention, mindfulness
Listening, keeping in mind the speaker’s culture

OR

Components of human communication

involves (source) the sender & the receiver.
sender encodes getting an idea, giving some meaning, framing in message form
and sending it)
receiver decodes (translating the message in understandable form).
message is influenced by noise, length of material, artifacts, channel etc.
it includes verbal and non-verbal language.

OR

speaking with the use of language.

Effective communicator must know how to use correct language appropriately
within a relevant context and avoid slang.
Listening is an important skill. It may appear passive as it involves silence though
it is an active process involving patience & being non-judgemental yet having the
capacity to analyse & respond.
It includes various aspects of listening like reception, attention, assigning
meaning, role and listeners response to message. Marks to be given for both the
process and components

PART D

21. Explain Emotional Intelligence. State any two characteristics of emotionally

intelligent persons.

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 Ans. Contextual Intelligence:
It is a component of Sternberg’s triarchic theory, also known as practical
intelligence.
Involves the ability to deal with environmental demands encountered on a daily
basis.
It may be called ‘street smartness’ or ‘business sense’.
Persons high on this aspect easily adapt to their present environment or select a
more favourable environment than the existing one.
Modify the environment to fit their need and hence turn out to be successful in
life.
22. Describe the key features of self-report measures used in personality assessment.
Ans. Part of ‘PASS’ model
Simultaneous processing:
1. - takes place when we perceive the relations among various concepts and
integrate them into a meaningful pattern for comprehension
2. - in RPM test, by grasping the meaning and relationship between the given
option of designs and the given abstract figure, the correct option is chosen.
Simultaneous processing of all given figures helps in choosing the correct
option
Successive processing:
1. - takes place when all the information is remembered serially so that recall of
one leads to the recall of another, e.g. learning of digits, alphabet,
multiplication tables etc.
23. Explain briefly four factors which facilitate development of positive health.
Ans. Effects of stress on psychological functioning
Emotional - Experience mood swings and show erratic behaviour that alienates
them from family and friends. E.g. feeling 'of anxiety and depression, increased
physical tension, increased psychological tension and mood swings.
Physiological - Increased physical or psychological stress increases the production
of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones produce marked
changes in heart beats, blood pressure levels, metabolism and physical activities
e.g. release of epinephrine and nor epinephrine, slow down of the digestive
system, expansion of air passages in the lungs etc.

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 Cognitive - Continued pressure due to stress may cause mental overload. This may
make the sufferer loose his ability to make sound decisions. Poor concentration
and reduced short term memory capacity
Behavioural - Stress affects our behavior in the form of eating less nutritional
food, increasing intake of stimulants such as caffeine, excessive consumption of
cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs. Disruptive sleep pattern increased
absenteeism and reduced work performance
24. Explain mental disorders from a cognitive perspective.
Ans. Forms of Eating disorders – Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa and Binge eating.
Anorexia nervosa - The individual has a distorted body image that leads her/him to see
herself/ himself as overweight. Often refusing to eat in front of others. The anorexic may
lose large amount of weight and even starve herself/himself to death.
Bulimia nervosa - the individual may eat excessive amounts of food, then purge her/his
body of food by using medicines such as laxatives or diuretics or by vomiting. The person
often feels disgusted and ashamed when s/he binges and is relieved of tension and
negative emotion after purging.
Binge eating - there are frequent episodes of out - of - control eating
25. Describe the relationship between attitude and behaviour with the help of suitable
examples.
Ans. usually behaviour follows logically from attitude but sometimes actual behaviour
may be contrary of ones attitude towards an object/topic.
There would be consistency between attitudes and behaviour.
the attitude is strong and occupies a central place in the attitude system.
the person is aware of her/his attitude.
there is very little or no external pressure for the person to behave in a particular
way.
e.g. when there is no group pressure to follow, a particular norm.
the persons behaviour is not being watched or evaluated by others.
the person thinks that the behaviour would have a positive consequence and
therefore intends to engage in that behavour.
any relevant example or Richard La Piere study on a Chinese couple travelling in
the USA
26. Discuss the main propositions of the humanistic approach to personality.

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 OR

Describe any two procedures of behavioural analysis.

Ans. Humanistic approach to personality:

Rogers believed that all human beings are fully - functional beings and feeling of
fulfillment is the main motivational force.
Basic Assumptions:

Behaviour is goal directed and worthwhile.

All human beings have an innate tendency to choose adaptive and self actualizing
behaviours.
According to Rogers there are two types of self:
Real Self - What I am
Ideal Self - What I want to be
Congruence between the two leads to development of balanced integrated personality.
Unconditional positive regard develops adaptive behaviour which enhances self
esteem and self efficacy to self actualize.
According to Maslow everybody wants to self actualize and attain their highest
potential.
Focus on survival needs reduces him/her to the level of animals and focus on
higher needs leads to self actualization.

OR

According to behaviourists, the structural unit of personality is the response.

Personality can be best understood as a response of an individual to the
environment.
Theories of classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning and observational
learning view learning and maintenance of behaviour differently and explain
development of personality from different perspectives.
If a particular response is positively reinforced or rewarded then we repeat it
again in similar situations and this results in a habit.
Observational learning theory emphasizes social learning.
Behaviourists believe in data which they feel are definable, observable and

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 measurable.

PART E

27. Explain the causes of group conflict. Discuss any three strategies for resolving
conflicts.

OR

Explain group polarisation. Give reasons for occurrence of group polarisation.

Ans. Social loafing - is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task
i.e. in which outputs are pooled with those of other group members.
Example – Tug of war or Latane’s clapping experiment Group polarization –
strengthening of the group’s initial position as a result of group interaction and
discussion.
Groups may take extreme decisions i.e. from very weak to very strong decisions.
Reasons:
Like – minded people will favour your view points.
Bandwagon effect – one view is validated by public
People having similar views are perceived as ingroup.
Explanation of group – polarization with a relevant example.

OR

Inter group conflict – a process in which either an individual or a group perceives that
others have opposing interests, try to contradict each other. Intense feeling of ‘we’ and
‘other’/ ‘they’.
A. Reasons:
Lack of communication/ faulty communication
Relative deprivation.
One party’s belief that it is better than the other.
A feeling that the other group does not respect the norms of my group.
Desire for retaliation
Biased perceptions
When acting in groups, people are more competitive as well as aggressive.
Perceived inequity

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 Gardner Murphy’s explanation
Listing of any six points or brief explanation of any three points.
B. Strategies for conflict resolution
Introduction of super ordinate goals
Altering perceptions
Increasing intergroup contacts
Redrawing group – boundaries
Negotiations
Structural solutions
Respect for other group’s norms
Listing of any six points and brief explanation of any three points

28. Explain the importance of therapeutic relationship in psychotherapy.State the

ethical standards in psychotherapy.

OR

A person has a phobia of cockroaches. Explain this phobia from the social learning
perspective and psychoanalyst viewpoint giving examples.
Ans. Different types of psychotheraphy are
Psycho dynamic uses methods of free association and dream interpretation to
illicit intra psychic conflicts.
Behavioural identifies faulty conditioning patterns and sets up alternate
behavioural contingencies to improve behaviour. This therapy uses different
techniques to treat different disorders.
Cognitive
Negative thinking, irrational beliefs and faulty generalization are the cause of all
disorders e.g RET. Beck’s cognitive therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy..
Humanistic- Existential.
Inability to find meaning in life and personal growth
Bio-medical:
Disorders are treated using drugs. In case they fail ECT is given.
Alternative Therapies
When conventional therapies are not helping then alternate methods such as Yoga
and meditation are used.

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Principles of Humanistic – Existential theory
Inability to find meaning and fulfilment in life.
Curbing of growth needs by society and family leads to psychological distress.
Therapist as facilitator and guide provides therapy in permissive, non judgmental
and accepting environment.
Aim of therapy is to expand the client’s awareness.

OR

A phobia is an irrational fear

Specific phobias are the most commonly occurring type of phobia. It includes
irrational fears such as intense fear of a certain type of animal or of being in an
enclosed space.
It is explained differently by the social learning theorists and the psycho analysts.
According to social learning perspective the observer/individual acquires
behaviour/ knowledge by observing and imitating the model’s behaviour, but
performance is influenced by model’s behaviour being reinforced (rewarded or
punished).
Example - a child sees the mother shouting and screaming when she sees a
cockroach and the child reacts in the same manner in a similar situation.
According to the Psychoanalysts unfulfilled desires of childhood and unresolved
childhood fears lead to intrapsychic conflicts and cause fixation
Example a cockroach may have fallen on a child leading to screaming & jumping
by him/her or people around and it was not resolved adequately at that stage due
to which repression took place leading to phobia.
Give due weightage to the therapy if mentioned.

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