
UPPSC Psychology Syllabus & Exam Pattern: Download PDF Here!
The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission, a state authority every two year conducts an exam to recruit the eligible graduate candidates as Administrative officers in the various government departments. Unlike every time, candidates must begin preparing themselves for a beautiful journey of becoming a successful officer.
Candidates prepare fully for all the three tiers of the exam: Prelims, Mains and Interview. Also candidates must focus importantly on the eight papers of the Mains exam. Marks in these are subjected for merit calculation so it is important to focus on them!
This article is completely centered on the latest exam pattern, Psychology Syllabus, and every detail about the UPPSC exam & the Optional Subjects. Candidates who are to appear for the mains exam must check out the detailed UPPSC syllabus and exam pattern.
UPPSC Psychology Syllabus
Psychology is a quite interesting subject among all. For best preparation strategies for cracking the exam it is best for the candidates to get a hold of the UPPSC Psychology Syllabus. For reference, the syllabus of Psychology is given:
Paper 1- Psychology Paper (Basic Psychological Processes) | |
Psychology | Introduction: Overview of the subject matter, Place of psychology in science,Theoretical approaches: SR humanisitic, Cognitive, information processing, |
Methods | Methods of data collection Natural observation, Interview, Case study, Tests, scales and Questionnaires. |
Biological bases of behavior | Outline of central, peripheral and autonomic nervous systems, Localization of functions in the brain, hemispheric specificity, nerve impulse and its conduction, receptor system, Endocrine system and its role in physical growth and personality makeup. |
Origin and development of behavior | Genetic bases, Evironmental factors, child rearing, deprivation, cultural factors, Motor and skill development, language development. |
Attention and Perceptual Processes | Classical psychophysics and signal detection theory. Attentional processes, selective Attention and sustained attention, Perceptual organization, Perception of form, colour and depth. Perceptual- constancy, the stability- instability paradox, Perceptual sensitivity and perceptual defense. |
Learning Processes | Conditioning: Classical instrumental and observational, Verbal learning, Methods and Processes, extinction, discrimination and generalization. |
Memory | Encoding; structural, phonological and semantic dual encoding, Sensory memory, STM, LTM including episodic, semantic and procedural , Constructive Memory, Theories of forgetting. |
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Thinking: | Essential and trace elements in biological processes, Metalloporphyrins with special reference to hemoglobin and myoglobin, Biological role of alkali and alkaline earth metal ions with special reference to calcium ions. |
Emotions | Nature and development, Theories of emotion; physiological, cognitive and opponent- process, Indicators of emotion, recognition of emotion. |
Motivation | Criteria of motivated Behavior, Motivation: Processes and Types, Measurement of motivation, Extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation. |
Individual differences in psychological functions: | General mental ability, theoretical approaches: Spearman, Thurstone, Guilford, Jensen, Vernon, Sternberg, J.P Das and Piaget, Creativity and creative thinking |
Paper Il : Psychology Paper (Psychology In the Applied Settings) | |
Part A | |
Psychology as an Applied Science: | Applied versus basic science, Nature and fields of psychology, social community, industry, school, health and environment. |
Individual Differences and Measurement | Nature and sources of individual differences, Psychological scaling, test construction and standardization, Reliability and validity, Norms, Cross-Validation. |
Assessment of Personality: | Issues in personality assessment, self-report measures projective techniques, response styles; familiarity with important personality measures like TAT, Rorschach and MMPl. |
Psychological Disorders and Mental Health | Classification of Psychological disorders (DSM-IV), symptoms and etiology of psychoneurotic, psychotic and psychosomatic disorders; coping with stress and mental health. |
Social Problems and Psychology
| Attitude and Prejudice, Cognitive and Motivational Roots, Reducing Social Prejudice, Social Conflicts; Causes and Resolution. |
Social Influence | Influence, control and power, Basis of influence; Social facilitation, Leadership in group, Group factors in performance. |
Psychology in Industry and Organization | Personnel selection, Training and Performance Appraisal, job attitudes and job behavior, Motivational patterns in organizations, Organizational communication, organizational effectiveness. |
Psychology In School Setting | School as an agent to socialization; learning; motivational and emotional problems of school children, factors influencing academic achievement; interventions for improving school performance, Education of specific categories of children. |
Psychology In the Clinical setting | Nature and goals of Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic persenscentered therapy, group and behavior therapies, community mental health, Illness prevention and Health promotion . |
Environmental Psychology | Role of environment in behavior, personal space, effects of noise pollution, crowd and atmospheric pollution , Interventions for reducing adverse impacts |
Download the PDF format of the UPPSC Psychology Syllabus here!
Go through the complete syllabus of the Psychology subject and focus on your learning.

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UPPSC Psychology Exam Pattern
The Prelims Exam is mere qualifying in nature. For the main exam, all the papers are important and conducted in descriptive mode. Total of 8 eight papers out of two are optional. Check the exam pattern below:-
- There will be two optional papers- Psychology.
- Paper 1 – Psychology Paper
- Paper 2- Psychology Paper
- Both of these optional papers will be of the maximum marks of 200 marks each with a duration of 3 hours each and subjective in nature.
As you now have a brief idea of both the marking scheme, exam pattern & the syllabus it is the right time to start preparing precisely. Do check out the UPPSC Civil Services exam pattern for more information.

How to prepare for the UPSC Psychology Optional Subject?
The UP PCS exam is a dream of many and candidates work day and night to make sure that they can grab the opportunity and get a government job. To help you with the same, we have decide to guide you throughout the journey.
Since, the exam pattern clearly suggests that Optional Subject is important because it is different for everyone and will have a major impact on the final merit. Candidates are recommended to go through the detailed previous year papers PDF to get a hold of the real exam. To understand the exam pattern, syllabus & question trends and practice accordingly. Solving them will help you get an idea of the real exam.
This helps you to get acquainted with the subject thoroughly and makes everything easy to interpret and ultimately helps to score better marks. It is recommended to solve the UPPSC Psychology Optional Question Paper and analyze your performance.
Previous Years Question Papers for UPPSC Psychology Optional Subject
Since you have understood the importance of the Optional Subject and how decisive it can be for the candidates. It is best to have a better understanding of the topics and going through Previous year papers will help! We have already provided links to some of the Previous year questions papers. Download them for free today!
UPPSC Psychology PYPs | ||
Year | Paper I | Paper II |
2014 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
2015 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
2016 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
2017 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
2018 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
2019 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
2020 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
2021 | UPPSC Psychology Paper – I | UPPSC Psychology Paper – II |
For a wide range of the UPPSC study materials for optional subjects, previous year papers,mock tests, test series, practice sets and many others you can download our mobile application Testbook App.
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