Class 11 Education Chapter 6 — Bases and Direction of Human Behaviour
Welcome to HSLC Guru’s complete answer key for Class 11 Education Chapter 6 — Bases and Direction of Human Behaviour, prepared strictly to the ASSEB / AHSEC HS First Year syllabus. This chapter explores what makes a human being act the way he or she acts — the innate biological bases (instincts, reflexes, drives, needs), the psychological direction-givers (motivation, emotion, attitude, interest), and the way teachers can use these forces to guide children toward desirable learning. The notes below cover every textbook question, plus extra short questions, long-answer essays, MCQs and clean comparison tables for Maslow’s hierarchy, McDougall’s fourteen instincts and the two classical theories of emotion.
Summary
Human behaviour is the total of all observable (overt) and unobservable (covert) reactions an individual makes to the environment. Psychology — established as an independent science by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 and re-defined as the “science of behaviour” by J. B. Watson in 1913 — studies these reactions. Every act of behaviour springs from two kinds of base: innate / biological bases (reflexes, instincts, drives and needs) and acquired / psychological directions (motivation, emotion, attitude, interest and habit). A reflex is a simple, automatic, inherited muscular or glandular response to a sensory stimulus — blinking, sneezing, salivating; it is fixed and cannot be modified by training. An instinct, defined by William McDougall as “an inherited or innate psycho-physical disposition which determines its possessor to perceive, and to pay attention to, objects of a certain class, to experience an emotional excitement of a particular quality upon perceiving such an object, and to act in regard to it in a particular manner,” is more complex: it has a cognitive, an affective and a conative aspect. McDougall listed fourteen primary instincts — flight (fear), pugnacity (anger), repulsion (disgust), curiosity (wonder), parental (tenderness), construction (creativeness), acquisition (ownership), appeal (helplessness), pairing/mating (lust), submission (subjection), assertion/self-assertion (elation), gregarious/social (loneliness), laughter (amusement) and food-seeking (appetite). Instincts can be modified through disuse, freedom, repression, catharsis, sublimation and substitution. Drives are internal psycho-physical forces — hunger, thirst, sex, sleep, escape — which arise when a need is unfulfilled and push the organism toward action. Needs are conditions of deficiency that demand satisfaction; Abraham Maslow arranged them in a five-step pyramid — physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation — where higher needs become active only after lower ones are reasonably met. Motivation is the general name for the whole process by which needs and drives energise, direct and sustain behaviour; it may be intrinsic (rising from the activity itself) or extrinsic (rising from external rewards), and is also classified as biological, social and personal. In the classroom the teacher motivates pupils through praise, marks, success, rivalry, co-operation, knowledge of results, attractive teaching aids and the satisfaction of curiosity. Emotion is “a stirred-up state of the organism” — an unlearned reaction-pattern rich in feeling, accompanied by visible bodily changes (faster heart-beat, rapid breathing, sweating, gland secretion). The James-Lange theory says that the bodily change comes first and the felt emotion is the perception of those changes — “we feel sorry because we cry.” The Cannon-Bard theory rejects this and says the thalamus relays the stimulus to cortex and viscera simultaneously, so the felt emotion and the bodily change occur together. In education the teacher must channel the pupil’s emotions through sublimation — the diversion of crude impulses (anger, sex, aggression) into socially valuable outlets such as games, art, music, social service and creative writing. Closely connected with motivation and emotion are attitudes (lasting positive or negative tendencies toward an object) and interests (selective attention with pleasure toward an activity); both are learned, both colour learning and both must be cultivated by skilful teaching. Reflexes, instincts, drives, needs, motives, emotions, attitudes and interests together form the bases and directions of all human behaviour, and a teacher who understands them can guide the child toward all-round development.
সাৰাংশ
মানৱ আচৰণ হৈছে এজন ব্যক্তিয়ে পৰিবেশৰ প্ৰতি দেখুওৱা সকলো প্ৰত্যক্ষ (overt) আৰু পৰোক্ষ (covert) প্ৰতিক্ৰিয়াৰ সমষ্টি। ১৮৭৯ চনত উইলহেলম ৱুণ্ডেৰ মনোবিজ্ঞানক স্বতন্ত্ৰ বিজ্ঞান হিচাপে প্ৰতিষ্ঠা কৰে, আৰু ১৯১৩ চনত জে. বি. ৱাটছনে ইয়াক “আচৰণৰ বিজ্ঞান” বুলি পুনৰ্নিৰ্ধাৰণ কৰে। প্ৰতিটো আচৰণৰ পিছত দুটা ভিত্তি থাকে — সহজাত ভিত্তি (প্ৰতিবৰ্তিকা, প্ৰৱৃত্তি, তাড়না আৰু প্ৰয়োজন) আৰু অৰ্জিত দিশনিৰ্দেশ (অভিপ্ৰেৰণা, আবেগ, মনোভাৱ, ৰুচি আৰু অভ্যাস)। প্ৰতিবৰ্তিকা হৈছে এক সহজাত, স্বয়ংক্ৰিয়, অপৰিৱৰ্তনীয় প্ৰতিক্ৰিয়া — চকু পিচৰা, হাঁচি, লেলাউতি ক্ষৰণ আদি। প্ৰৱৃত্তি হৈছে ইয়াতকৈ জটিল — মেক্ডুগেলে চৌদ্ধটা মূল প্ৰৱৃত্তিৰ তালিকা প্ৰস্তুত কৰিছিল, যেনে পলায়ন (ভয়), যুদ্ধ (ক্ৰোধ), বিকৰ্ষণ (ঘৃণা), কৌতূহল (বিস্ময়), পিতৃ-মাতৃ স্নেহ, নিৰ্মাণ, সঞ্চয়, অনুনয়, যৌন, আত্মসমৰ্পণ, আত্ম-প্ৰকাশ, সামাজিক, হাঁহি আৰু আহাৰ-সন্ধান। প্ৰৱৃত্তিক অপ্ৰয়োগ, স্বাধীনতা, দমন, নিৰ্গমন, উৎসৰ্গীকৰণ আৰু প্ৰতিস্থাপনৰ দ্বাৰা পৰিৱৰ্তন কৰিব পাৰি। তাড়না হৈছে ভিতৰৰ মনো-শাৰীৰিক শক্তি যিয়ে প্ৰয়োজন পূৰণৰ বাবে কাৰ্যলৈ ঠেলি দিয়ে; প্ৰয়োজন হৈছে অভাৱজনিত অৱস্থা। আব্ৰাহাম মাছ্লোৱে প্ৰয়োজনসমূহক পাঁচটা স্তৰৰ পিৰামিডত সজাইছিল — শাৰীৰিক, সুৰক্ষা, প্ৰেম-অন্তৰ্ভুক্তি, সন্মান আৰু আত্ম-বাস্তৱায়ন; তলৰ স্তৰ পূৰণ নহ’লে ওপৰৰটো সক্ৰিয় নহয়। অভিপ্ৰেৰণা হৈছে গোটেই প্ৰক্ৰিয়াটোৰ সাধাৰণ নাম যাৰ দ্বাৰা প্ৰয়োজন আৰু তাড়নাই আচৰণক শক্তি যোগায় আৰু দিশ দিয়ে; ই অন্তঃৰ্ভৱ বা বহিঃৰ্ভৱ, জৈৱিক, সামাজিক বা ব্যক্তিগত হ’ব পাৰে। শ্ৰেণীকোঠাত শিক্ষকে প্ৰশংসা, নম্বৰ, সাফল্য, প্ৰতিদ্বন্দ্বিতা, সহযোগিতা, ফলৰ জ্ঞান আৰু আকৰ্ষণীয় শিক্ষণ-উপকৰণৰ দ্বাৰা ছাত্ৰক অভিপ্ৰেৰণা দিয়ে। আবেগ হৈছে “জীৱৰ এক উদ্দীপ্ত অৱস্থা” — অশিক্ষিত, অনুভৱ-পূৰ্ণ প্ৰতিক্ৰিয়া যাৰ লগত হৃদ্স্পন্দন বৃদ্ধি, শ্বাস-প্ৰশ্বাস বৃদ্ধি, ঘাম, গ্ৰন্থি ক্ষৰণ আদি শাৰীৰিক পৰিৱৰ্তন আহে। জেমচ্-লাং তত্ত্বই কয় — শাৰীৰিক পৰিৱৰ্তন আগত হয় আৰু আবেগ সেই পৰিৱৰ্তনৰ অনুভৱ; কেননে-বাৰ্ড তত্ত্বই কয় — থেলাময়ৰ যোগেৰে আবেগ আৰু শাৰীৰিক পৰিৱৰ্তন একেলগে ঘটে। শিক্ষাত শিক্ষকে উৎসৰ্গীকৰণৰ দ্বাৰা ছাত্ৰৰ ক্ৰোধ, যৌন-প্ৰৱণতা আদিক খেল, কলা, সংগীত, সমাজসেৱা আদি সামাজিকভাৱে গ্ৰহণযোগ্য পথত পৰিচালিত কৰে। মনোভাৱ আৰু ৰুচিও অভিপ্ৰেৰণা আৰু আবেগৰ লগত ঘনিষ্ঠভাৱে জড়িত। সকলো মিলি — প্ৰতিবৰ্তিকা, প্ৰৱৃত্তি, তাড়না, প্ৰয়োজন, অভিপ্ৰেৰণা, আবেগ, মনোভাৱ আৰু ৰুচি — মানৱ আচৰণৰ ভিত্তি আৰু দিশনিৰ্দেশ গঠন কৰে।
Textbook Question Answers
A. Very Short Answer Questions (1 mark)
1. What is psychology?
Answer: Psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour and mental processes.
2. Who established psychology as an independent science and in which year?
Answer: Wilhelm Wundt established psychology as an independent and experimental science in 1879 at Leipzig, Germany.
3. Who is the founder of behaviourism?
Answer: J. B. Watson (John Broadus Watson) is the founder of the behaviourist school of psychology (1913).
4. What are the two main dimensions of behaviour?
Answer: The two main dimensions of behaviour are overt behaviour (observable from outside) and covert behaviour (internal, unobservable mental activity).
5. Define reflex action.
Answer: A reflex action is a simple, automatic and fixed muscular or glandular response to a sensory stimulus, e.g., blinking of the eye, sneezing, salivation, knee-jerk.
6. Define instinct.
Answer: According to William McDougall, an instinct is “an inherited or innate psycho-physical disposition which determines its possessor to perceive and pay attention to an object of a certain class, to experience an emotional excitement of a particular quality and to act in regard to it in a particular manner.”
7. What is a drive?
Answer: A drive is a strong internal stimulus or psycho-physical force which arises out of a need and impels the organism toward goal-directed action — e.g., hunger drive, thirst drive, sex drive.
8. What is a need?
Answer: A need is a condition of lack or deficiency in the organism that requires satisfaction; needs may be physical (food, water) or psychological (love, recognition).
9. Who proposed the hierarchy of needs?
Answer: The American humanistic psychologist Abraham H. Maslow proposed the hierarchy of needs in 1943.
10. Mention the five levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Answer: (i) Physiological needs, (ii) Safety needs, (iii) Love and belonging needs, (iv) Esteem needs, (v) Self-actualisation needs.
11. Who is the author of the fourteen-instinct theory?
Answer: William McDougall, in his book Introduction to Social Psychology (1908, revised 1932).
12. Define motivation.
Answer: Motivation is the inner condition or state of an organism that arouses, directs and sustains its behaviour toward a goal.
13. Define emotion.
Answer: Emotion is a stirred-up state of the organism — an unlearned, complex psycho-physical reaction rich in feeling and accompanied by characteristic bodily changes.
14. Who proposed the James-Lange theory of emotion?
Answer: The American psychologist William James (1884) and the Danish physiologist Carl Lange (1885) independently proposed it; hence the joint name.
15. Who proposed the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion?
Answer: The American physiologists Walter B. Cannon (1927) and his student Philip Bard (1934).
16. What is sublimation?
Answer: Sublimation is the diversion of crude or unacceptable impulses (anger, sex, aggression) into socially valuable and acceptable outlets such as art, music, sport, social service or creative work.
17. Define attitude.
Answer: Attitude is a learned, lasting positive or negative tendency to respond consistently in a particular way to a person, object, idea or situation.
18. Define interest.
Answer: Interest is a selective attention accompanied by feelings of pleasure that draws an individual toward certain objects, ideas or activities.
B. Short Answer Questions (2-3 marks)
1. Distinguish between overt and covert behaviour.
Answer: Overt behaviour is outwardly observable activity such as walking, talking, writing or playing; it can be seen and measured directly. Covert behaviour is internal, mental or physiological activity such as thinking, feeling, remembering or imagining; it cannot be observed directly and must be inferred from external cues.
2. Mention any four characteristics of an instinct.
Answer: (i) It is innate, inherited and not learned. (ii) It is universal — found in every member of the species. (iii) It is a complex psycho-physical reaction with cognitive, affective and conative aspects. (iv) It has a definite period of appearance, maturation and decline.
3. Mention any four ways in which instincts can be modified.
Answer: (i) Disuse — denying expression so the tendency weakens. (ii) Repression — pushing the impulse into the unconscious (not always healthy). (iii) Sublimation — diverting it into a socially acceptable channel. (iv) Substitution — replacing the original goal with another suitable goal (e.g., parental instinct directed toward pets).
4. What is the difference between reflex action and instinct?
Answer: A reflex is a simple, fixed and unmodifiable response of a single organ to a definite stimulus (e.g., blinking). An instinct is a complex, organism-wide pattern that has cognitive, emotional and motor parts and can be modified by training, sublimation or substitution.
5. State any three differences between need and drive.
Answer: (i) A need is a state of deficiency; a drive is the force created by that deficiency. (ii) A need is the cause; a drive is the effect that pushes the organism into action. (iii) Needs may exist without strong drives (mild hunger), but a drive always points to some unmet need.
6. State the meaning of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Answer: Intrinsic motivation arises from within the activity itself — a child reads a story because reading gives him pleasure. Extrinsic motivation arises from external rewards or punishments — a child reads to get good marks, prizes or parental praise.
7. Mention any four classroom techniques of motivation.
Answer: (i) Praise and blame. (ii) Reward and punishment / marks and grades. (iii) Knowledge of results (feedback). (iv) Healthy rivalry and co-operation. (v) Use of attractive teaching aids and arousal of curiosity.
8. Mention any four characteristics of emotion.
Answer: (i) Emotions are universal and innate. (ii) They are accompanied by visible bodily changes — quickened pulse, flushed face, sweating. (iii) They are aroused even by slight stimuli and may persist for some time. (iv) Strong emotions disturb thinking, judgement and motor control.
9. Distinguish between emotion and instinct.
Answer: An instinct is essentially a tendency toward action; emotion is essentially a feeling state. Every instinct, when aroused, is accompanied by a typical emotion (e.g., flight-instinct → fear), but an emotion may also occur without a clear instinct, especially in adult life.
10. Write a short note on the role of emotion in education.
Answer: Emotion is the spring of all learning. Pleasant emotions — joy, curiosity, love, interest — make pupils attentive and retentive; unpleasant emotions — fear, anger, jealousy — destroy concentration. The teacher must therefore create a warm, friendly, fear-free classroom, sublimate negative emotions through games and creative activity, and use positive emotions as motivators.
11. What do you mean by sublimation? Give two educational examples.
Answer: Sublimation is redirecting socially unacceptable impulses into socially valuable activity. Examples — (a) a quarrelsome boy’s pugnacity is sublimated through boxing or debate; (b) an over-active sex impulse in adolescence is sublimated through sports, art, music and social service.
12. Mention any three educational implications of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Answer: (i) The teacher must first ensure that pupils are not hungry, thirsty or tired before expecting learning. (ii) A safe, fear-free classroom satisfies safety needs and prepares the child for higher learning. (iii) Praise, recognition and meaningful work satisfy esteem and self-actualisation needs and produce lifelong learners.
13. Distinguish between attitude and interest.
Answer: Attitude is a relatively stable mental tendency to favour or oppose something (an attitude toward democracy, toward science). Interest is selective attention with pleasure toward an activity (interest in cricket, in music). Attitude is broader and evaluative; interest is narrower and pleasure-bound.
14. State the educational importance of interest.
Answer: Where there is interest there is no labour. Interest fixes attention, increases retention, reduces fatigue and turns learning into self-activity. The teacher must therefore link new lessons with the child’s existing interests and create new interests through varied, life-related teaching.
15. Mention three differences between James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories.
Answer: (i) Sequence — James-Lange: stimulus → bodily change → emotion; Cannon-Bard: stimulus → simultaneous bodily change and emotion. (ii) Centre — James-Lange stresses peripheral (visceral) changes; Cannon-Bard stresses the thalamus and hypothalamus. (iii) Famous example — James: “We feel sorry because we cry”; Cannon: we cry and feel sorry at the same time.
C. Long Answer Questions (5-8 marks)
1. What are the innate bases of human behaviour? Discuss any two of them.
Answer: The innate or biological bases of human behaviour are those forces with which a person is born; they do not have to be learned. Four of them are usually recognised — reflexes, instincts, drives and needs.
(a) Reflex action. A reflex is a simple, automatic, inherited muscular or glandular response to a definite sensory stimulus. Examples are blinking of the eyelid when a particle touches it, salivation at the smell of food, knee-jerk and the sucking reflex of a new-born baby. Reflexes are not under conscious control, are uniform across the species and cannot ordinarily be modified by training. They protect the organism (closing the eye, withdrawing the hand from fire) and form the building-blocks of more complex actions.
(b) Instinct. An instinct, defined by McDougall, is “an inherited psycho-physical disposition” that has three aspects — cognitive (perceiving the object), affective (a typical emotion) and conative (a tendency to act). Unlike a reflex an instinct is complex and engages the whole organism. McDougall identified fourteen primary instincts (flight, pugnacity, repulsion, curiosity, parental, etc.). Instincts can be modified by repression, sublimation, substitution, disuse and catharsis. The teacher’s task is to channel them through proper education so that they serve individual and social welfare.
Drives and needs (the other two innate bases) keep this innate machinery running by signalling deficiency and pushing the organism toward action. Together these four innate bases supply the raw material on which the acquired directions — motivation, emotion, attitude, interest — operate.
2. Describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and state its educational implications.
Answer: Abraham H. Maslow (1943, in his paper A Theory of Human Motivation) arranged human needs in a five-level pyramid. Lower needs are deficiency needs and must be reasonably satisfied before the higher growth need of self-actualisation can become active.
(i) Physiological needs — food, water, air, sleep, shelter, sex, body temperature. They are the strongest because survival depends on them. (ii) Safety needs — physical security, freedom from fear, stable family, predictable environment, protection from accident and disease. (iii) Love and belonging needs — affection from parents, friendship, group membership, acceptance by classmates. (iv) Esteem needs — self-respect, achievement, competence, recognition, status, prestige. (v) Self-actualisation needs — the desire to become everything one is capable of becoming, to realise one’s full potential, to create, to seek truth and beauty.
Educational implications. (1) The school must arrange mid-day meals, clean drinking water, ventilated classrooms, rest periods and toilet facilities — without these, learning cannot begin. (2) A non-threatening, well-disciplined, fear-free school satisfies safety needs and removes anxiety. (3) Group work, co-curricular clubs, friendly teachers and house-systems satisfy love and belonging needs. (4) Praise, marks, prizes, leadership opportunities and meaningful responsibility satisfy esteem needs. (5) Open-ended projects, creative writing, art, science fairs and self-study allow self-actualisation. A teacher who keeps Maslow’s pyramid in mind moves the child step by step toward complete development.
3. Describe McDougall’s theory of instincts. Mention any eight of his fourteen instincts with their associated emotions.
Answer: William McDougall, in An Introduction to Social Psychology (1908), held that all human behaviour is ultimately driven by inherited instincts. Each instinct has three aspects — a cognitive aspect (the organism perceives the stimulus), an affective aspect (it experiences a typical emotion), and a conative aspect (it shows a corresponding tendency to act). McDougall originally listed fourteen primary instincts; later writers added a few more (food-seeking, rest, migration). Each instinct is paired with a particular emotion.
Eight important instincts and their emotions are — (i) Flight / Escape — Fear, (ii) Pugnacity / Combat — Anger, (iii) Repulsion — Disgust, (iv) Curiosity — Wonder, (v) Parental — Tenderness / Love, (vi) Self-assertion — Elation / Pride, (vii) Submission — Subjection / Humility, (viii) Gregarious / Social — Loneliness. The remaining six are construction (creativeness), acquisition (ownership feeling), appeal (helplessness), pairing (lust), laughter (amusement) and food-seeking (appetite).
Educational use. Instincts cannot be destroyed but can be re-channelled. Curiosity can be exploited through enquiry-based teaching; pugnacity through sport and debate; gregariousness through group work; construction through craft and project methods; parental tenderness through caring for younger pupils, plants or pets. Through such sublimation, the school turns innate forces into civilised behaviour.
4. What is motivation? Explain its types and importance in the classroom.
Answer: Motivation is the general name for those inner processes that arouse, sustain and direct behaviour toward a goal. Woodworth defined it as “the state of the individual which disposes him to certain behaviour for seeking certain goals.” Motivation is the master-key of learning — without it no teaching can succeed.
Types. (a) Biological / Physiological motives — hunger, thirst, sleep, sex, pain-avoidance; rooted in body needs. (b) Social motives — need for affiliation, approval, status, achievement, power; learned in interaction with others. (c) Personal motives — habits, interests, attitudes, ideals, life-goals peculiar to the individual. Cutting across these is the distinction between intrinsic motivation (the activity itself is rewarding — a child loves to read) and extrinsic motivation (external rewards — marks, prizes, fear of punishment). Intrinsic motivation produces deeper, longer-lasting learning.
Importance in the classroom. (i) It energises pupils and turns passive listeners into active learners. (ii) It directs attention and persistence — a motivated pupil keeps trying. (iii) It improves retention and recall. (iv) It controls discipline — a motivated class is rarely a problem class. (v) It develops interest, attitude and character. The teacher motivates pupils through praise, knowledge of results, success experience, healthy rivalry, attractive teaching aids, life-related lessons, novelty, group work and the satisfaction of curiosity.
5. Explain the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories of emotion.
Answer: Theories of emotion try to explain how a felt emotion (fear, anger, joy) and the bodily changes that accompany it (racing heart, sweating, flushed face) are related.
(a) James-Lange theory (1884-85). William James and Carl Lange, working independently, argued that the bodily change comes first and the felt emotion is nothing but our perception of those bodily changes. The classical formulation is — “We do not run because we are afraid; we are afraid because we run.” Sequence: Stimulus → Bodily change (visceral, glandular, muscular) → Emotion felt. The theory therefore stresses the role of the autonomic nervous system and the viscera (heart, lungs, glands).
(b) Cannon-Bard theory (1927-1934). Walter Cannon and Philip Bard rejected the James-Lange view. They showed that visceral changes are too slow and too similar across different emotions to cause emotions; cutting visceral nerves in animals did not abolish emotional reactions. Cannon-Bard proposed that the thalamus in the brain receives the stimulus and simultaneously sends impulses upward to the cortex (producing the felt emotion) and downward to the viscera (producing bodily changes). Sequence: Stimulus → Thalamus → Emotion + Bodily change occur together. Hence we do not feel afraid because we run; we feel afraid and we run, both at the same moment.
Conclusion. Modern research (Schachter-Singer, etc.) accepts that both peripheral feedback and central processing contribute to emotion, but Cannon-Bard remains closer to physiological evidence than the older James-Lange view.
6. What is emotion? Discuss its characteristics and educational importance.
Answer: Emotion is “a stirred-up state of the organism” — Woodworth. It is an unlearned, complex, psycho-physical reaction rich in feeling and accompanied by visible bodily changes. Common emotions are fear, anger, joy, sorrow, love, hatred, jealousy, surprise.
Characteristics. (i) Innate and universal — found in every culture. (ii) Accompanied by bodily changes — pulse, breathing, perspiration, glandular secretion, posture, facial expression. (iii) Aroused easily and may be intense and short-lived or mild and prolonged (mood). (iv) Coloured by individual experience and cultural training — what amuses one may anger another. (v) Strong emotions interfere with thinking, attention, memory and motor control. (vi) Linked with instincts — every primary instinct has a typical emotion attached.
Educational importance. (1) Pleasant emotions — joy, interest, love of subject — make learning easy and lasting. (2) Negative emotions — fear, shame, anger — must be removed from the classroom. (3) Emotions can be sublimated — anger into sport, sex into art, jealousy into healthy competition. (4) Emotional maturity is itself a goal of education — the aim is a balanced personality, not just an informed mind. (5) Co-curricular activities, drama, music, scouting and excursions train the emotions. (6) The teacher’s own emotional control is a model for pupils.
7. Discuss the role of attitude and interest in learning.
Answer: Attitudes and interests are acquired directions of behaviour that decide what a person will attend to, enjoy and pursue. Both are learned, both are emotional in colour and both deeply influence learning.
Attitude. Attitude is a learned, relatively lasting tendency to react favourably or unfavourably toward an object, idea or situation. It has three components — cognitive (belief), affective (feeling) and conative (action tendency). A child’s attitude toward a teacher, a subject or the school as a whole determines how much he learns from it. Attitudes are formed through imitation, reward and punishment, group influence and direct experience; they can be changed by new information, persuasion and emotional appeal.
Interest. Interest is selective attention plus pleasure. Where there is interest, attention is automatic, fatigue is reduced, retention is high and learning becomes self-activity. Interests grow out of needs and abilities; they widen with age and experience. The teacher creates interest by linking lessons with the pupil’s life, using attractive aids, varying methods, giving suitable challenges and praising success.
Educational role. (i) Positive attitudes toward school, teacher and subject double the rate of learning. (ii) Interest converts compulsion into willing effort. (iii) Both are central to lifelong learning — knowledge fades, but a curious attitude and varied interests carry a person forward. (iv) Vocational guidance is built on the discovery of interests. (v) Character itself is a system of stable attitudes.
8. What is sublimation? Why is it important in education?
Answer: Sublimation is the redirection of crude, primitive or socially unacceptable impulses (anger, aggression, sex, jealousy) into socially valuable, refined channels — art, music, sport, social service, science, creative writing. The term comes from chemistry where a solid changes directly into vapour; psychologically it means a low impulse becoming a high activity.
Importance in education — (i) Energy is conserved, not lost; the same drive that might lead to delinquency now produces a poem, a goal or a relief team. (ii) It prevents repression and the mental conflicts that follow. (iii) It develops talent — many great artists, athletes and reformers are products of sublimation. (iv) It helps the adolescent in particular to handle awakening emotions in healthy ways. (v) The school becomes a workshop of sublimation through games, art, music, scouting, NCC, NSS, debates, science clubs and creative projects. The teacher who provides such outlets shapes both behaviour and character.
9. Describe a Maslow-type pyramid of needs in words (the diagram description).
Answer: Imagine a triangle (pyramid) divided horizontally into five layers, each smaller than the one below, expressing the idea that lower needs are wider, more basic and must be filled before higher ones become active.
From bottom to top the layers are: (1) Physiological — air, water, food, sleep, shelter, sex (the broadest base). (2) Safety — security, order, stability, protection from harm. (3) Love and Belonging — family, friendship, intimacy, group membership. (4) Esteem — self-respect, recognition, status, achievement. (5) Self-actualisation — the apex — realising one’s full potential, creativity, truth, beauty, meaning. The first four are deficiency needs (D-needs), the apex is the growth need (B-need or “being-need”). Maslow later added cognitive (knowledge) and aesthetic needs between esteem and self-actualisation, and some accounts add transcendence above self-actualisation.
Comparison Tables
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
| Level | Need (English) | Need (Assamese) | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 (Top) | Self-actualisation | আত্ম-বাস্তৱায়ন | Creativity, realising full potential, truth, beauty |
| 4 | Esteem | সন্মান | Self-respect, recognition, status, achievement |
| 3 | Love and Belonging | প্ৰেম আৰু অন্তৰ্ভুক্তি | Family, friendship, group membership |
| 2 | Safety | সুৰক্ষা | Security, order, freedom from fear, stability |
| 1 (Base) | Physiological | শাৰীৰিক | Food, water, air, sleep, shelter, sex |
McDougall’s Fourteen Primary Instincts
| No. | Instinct | Associated Emotion | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flight / Escape | Fear | Running away from a snake |
| 2 | Pugnacity / Combat | Anger | Fighting back when attacked |
| 3 | Repulsion | Disgust | Rejecting foul food |
| 4 | Curiosity | Wonder | Exploring a new gadget |
| 5 | Parental | Tenderness / Love | Mother caring for child |
| 6 | Self-assertion | Elation / Pride | Showing off success |
| 7 | Submission | Subjection / Humility | Yielding to a superior |
| 8 | Gregarious / Social | Loneliness | Seeking company |
| 9 | Construction | Creativeness | Building, designing |
| 10 | Acquisition | Ownership / Possessiveness | Collecting, hoarding |
| 11 | Appeal | Helplessness / Distress | Crying for help |
| 12 | Pairing / Mating | Sex Feeling (Lust) | Mate-seeking |
| 13 | Laughter | Amusement | Laughing at a joke |
| 14 | Food-seeking | Appetite / Hunger | Searching for food |
Theories of Emotion — James-Lange vs Cannon-Bard
| Point | James-Lange Theory (1884-85) | Cannon-Bard Theory (1927-1934) |
|---|---|---|
| Proposed by | William James & Carl Lange | Walter B. Cannon & Philip Bard |
| Sequence | Stimulus → Bodily change → Emotion | Stimulus → Thalamus → Emotion & Bodily change simultaneously |
| Centre stressed | Peripheral / visceral (heart, glands) | Central — thalamus and hypothalamus |
| Famous example | “We feel sorry because we cry” | We cry and feel sorry at the same moment |
| Cause of emotion | Awareness of bodily changes | Brain activity in thalamus |
| Modern status | Largely outdated; partly revived as facial-feedback hypothesis | Better supported by physiological evidence |
| Bodily change & feeling | Bodily change first, feeling second | Both occur together |
Additional Short Questions
1. Who wrote the book “An Introduction to Social Psychology”?
Answer: William McDougall (first published 1908).
2. In which year did Maslow propose the hierarchy of needs?
Answer: 1943, in his paper A Theory of Human Motivation.
3. What are deficiency needs?
Answer: The first four levels of Maslow’s pyramid — physiological, safety, love and belonging, and esteem — are called deficiency needs (D-needs) because they arise from a state of lack and motivate the person until satisfied.
4. What is a growth need?
Answer: Self-actualisation, at the apex of Maslow’s pyramid, is a growth or being need (B-need) because it does not arise from lack but from the desire to grow toward one’s full potential.
5. Mention any two physiological needs.
Answer: Hunger (need for food) and thirst (need for water).
6. Mention any two psychological / social needs.
Answer: Need for affection (love and belonging) and need for recognition (esteem).
7. State the three aspects of an instinct as analysed by McDougall.
Answer: Cognitive (perceiving the object), affective (the typical emotion), and conative (the tendency to act).
8. What instinct is associated with the emotion of wonder?
Answer: The instinct of curiosity.
9. Which instinct is associated with the emotion of fear?
Answer: The flight or escape instinct.
10. What is catharsis?
Answer: Catharsis is the free emotional release of pent-up impulses (through play, art, talking, crying), which prevents repression and complexes.
11. What is repression?
Answer: Repression is the unconscious pushing-down of unacceptable impulses below awareness; if prolonged it leads to mental conflict and neurosis.
12. Mention one biological motive and one social motive.
Answer: Biological — hunger; Social — need for achievement.
13. State two characteristics of motivation.
Answer: (i) It energises behaviour. (ii) It directs and sustains behaviour toward a goal.
14. Mention any two devices a teacher uses to motivate learners.
Answer: Praise / encouragement and immediate knowledge of results (feedback).
15. What part of the brain plays the central role in the Cannon-Bard theory?
Answer: The thalamus (with hypothalamus and limbic system).
16. State two bodily changes that accompany strong emotion.
Answer: Increased heart rate and rapid breathing; also sweating, dilation of pupils, dryness of mouth.
17. Give one example of sublimation.
Answer: A boy with a strong combative impulse becomes a successful boxer or debater.
18. Mention any two methods to develop interest in learners.
Answer: Linking lessons with daily life and using attractive teaching aids / activities.
19. State two differences between attitude and interest.
Answer: Attitude is broader and evaluative (favour / disfavour); interest is narrower and pleasure-bound. Attitude need not be pleasurable, but interest always carries pleasure.
20. Why is fear a poor motivator in the classroom?
Answer: Fear narrows attention, blocks thinking, reduces creativity, lowers self-esteem and produces dislike of school; learning under fear is shallow and short-lived.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. Psychology was established as an independent science in —
(a) 1859 (b) 1879 (c) 1908 (d) 1913
Answer: (b) 1879.
2. The founder of behaviourism is —
(a) Wilhelm Wundt (b) William James (c) J. B. Watson (d) Sigmund Freud
Answer: (c) J. B. Watson.
3. The two main dimensions of behaviour are —
(a) Mental and physical (b) Conscious and unconscious (c) Overt and covert (d) Innate and acquired
Answer: (c) Overt and covert.
4. Blinking of the eye when a particle approaches it is an example of —
(a) Instinct (b) Reflex action (c) Drive (d) Habit
Answer: (b) Reflex action.
5. The instinct of flight is associated with the emotion of —
(a) Anger (b) Fear (c) Wonder (d) Disgust
Answer: (b) Fear.
6. The instinct of pugnacity is associated with the emotion of —
(a) Wonder (b) Fear (c) Anger (d) Tenderness
Answer: (c) Anger.
7. McDougall listed how many primary instincts?
(a) 10 (b) 12 (c) 14 (d) 16
Answer: (c) 14.
8. The hierarchy of needs was proposed by —
(a) Freud (b) Maslow (c) Skinner (d) Bandura
Answer: (b) Maslow.
9. Which is the lowest level in Maslow’s hierarchy?
(a) Safety (b) Esteem (c) Physiological (d) Love and belonging
Answer: (c) Physiological.
10. The highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy is —
(a) Esteem (b) Love (c) Safety (d) Self-actualisation
Answer: (d) Self-actualisation.
11. Need for food is a —
(a) Social need (b) Esteem need (c) Physiological need (d) Cognitive need
Answer: (c) Physiological need.
12. A drive that arises out of an internal physiological imbalance is called —
(a) Social drive (b) Biological drive (c) Personal drive (d) Acquired drive
Answer: (b) Biological drive.
13. Motivation that arises from the activity itself is called —
(a) Extrinsic (b) Intrinsic (c) Negative (d) Social
Answer: (b) Intrinsic.
14. Marks, prizes and rewards are examples of —
(a) Intrinsic motivation (b) Extrinsic motivation (c) Drive (d) Need
Answer: (b) Extrinsic motivation.
15. “We feel sorry because we cry” is the central idea of —
(a) Cannon-Bard theory (b) Schachter theory (c) James-Lange theory (d) Freud’s theory
Answer: (c) James-Lange theory.
16. The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion stresses the role of —
(a) Heart and lungs (b) Adrenal glands (c) Thalamus (d) Spinal cord
Answer: (c) Thalamus.
17. The diversion of socially unacceptable impulses into useful activities is called —
(a) Repression (b) Sublimation (c) Projection (d) Regression
Answer: (b) Sublimation.
18. A learned, lasting tendency to favour or oppose something is called —
(a) Interest (b) Attitude (c) Reflex (d) Drive
Answer: (b) Attitude.
19. Selective attention with pleasure toward an object or activity is called —
(a) Drive (b) Need (c) Interest (d) Reflex
Answer: (c) Interest.
20. The instinct of curiosity is associated with the emotion of —
(a) Wonder (b) Fear (c) Disgust (d) Tenderness
Answer: (a) Wonder.
21. The instinct of repulsion is associated with the emotion of —
(a) Anger (b) Disgust (c) Fear (d) Joy
Answer: (b) Disgust.
22. The first four levels of Maslow’s hierarchy together are called —
(a) Growth needs (b) Being needs (c) Deficiency needs (d) Aesthetic needs
Answer: (c) Deficiency needs.
23. Which one is NOT a characteristic of an instinct?
(a) Innate (b) Universal (c) Acquired through training (d) Has cognitive, affective and conative aspects
Answer: (c) Acquired through training.
24. Which is the strongest classroom motivator according to most modern educators?
(a) Fear of failure (b) Corporal punishment (c) Success and praise (d) Long lectures
Answer: (c) Success and praise.
25. The teacher arranges games, art and music chiefly to —
(a) Pass time (b) Sublimate the emotional energy of pupils (c) Reduce the syllabus (d) Replace academic work
Answer: (b) Sublimate the emotional energy of pupils.
Prepared for ASSEB / AHSEC Class 11 Education students. Cross-referenced with devlibrary.in, onlinefreenotes.com, domicileeducationcentre.com, dailyassam.com and dynamictutorialsandservices.org. — HSLC Guru.