Books for Psychology Optional For UPSC Mains Exam

Psychology is the study of behaviour of human beings and animals and application of it for the benefit of mankind. In a nutshell, wherever there is human involvement, psychology as a study of behaviour and mental processes has a role to play.

Psychology is widely preferred as an optional subject for civil services examination. The usual reasons for the same include- it is an easy subject, it is a safe subject, it is considered a scoring subject etc. It is equally favourite among all streams of students irrespective of their background to appear in the Civil Services Main Examination. Besides being interesting in nature its simplicity and more marks fetching character attracts the students.

Books for Psychology Optional For UPSC – English

• Psychology by Robert Baron
• Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology
• Introduction to Psychology by Clifford Morgan and Richard King
• Psychology by Saundra K. Ciccarelli
• Applied Psychology by IRS Smarak Swain

Books for Psychology Optional For UPSC – Hindi

• Psychology – Basics in Hindi
• Manovigyan by Robert Barron in Hindi
• Ucchatar Samanya Manovigyan
• Manovigyan, Samajshastra tatha Shiksha main Shodh Vidhiyan

Why One Should Choose Psychology Optional

• GS paper – IV syllabus talks about Attitude, Emotional Intelligence, and Aptitude which are straight out of the syllabus of Psychology.
• Psychology aids in the understanding of social issues like Communal violence, Juvenile delinquency, Violence of all forms against women to name a few.
• Very very interesting subject to study. Everyone I have come across finds this optional interesting without fail.
• Direct application of lot of concepts paper 1 in paper 2 reduces the amount of mugging required.
• From stress management to effective parenting, the subject has lots to offer for implementation in everyday life too.

Point of Caution

• Psychology like public administration is going through a rough patch and marks awarded are usually very low.
• One possible reason being the open ended Paper – 2 of this subject. There is no standard textbook from which you can prepare this topic.
• Moreover, nowadays you get marks only when your stands out among the usual run of the mill answers.
• Note [arr] I would request you to give NCERT a read before you take up psychology. If you like the subject then it will be a piece of cake for you.