General English Second Semester

Unit: 1

1.What I Believe
2.Tryst with Destiny  
3.The Cabuliwallah 

Types of Inflation

There are several types of inflation's observable in an economy. These can be classified as under: 

1. Creeping, walking, running, and galloping inflation:

This classification is made on the basis of the” speed” with which the prices increase in the economy.

Inflation

The term ’inflation’ is used in many senses and it is difficult to give a generally accepted, precise and scientific definition of the term. Popularly inflation refers to a rise in price-level or fall in the value of money. Kemmerer states that,” inflation is too much currency in relation to the physical volume of business being done”.

Coulburn defines inflation as, “too much money chasing too few goods”. The implication in these definitions is that prices rise due to an increase in the volume of money as compared to the supply of goods. They seek to establish cause and effect relationship between supply of money and the price-level. 

Phases of Business Cycle

A typical or standard business cycle is characterized by: 

1. Recovery 

2. Prosperity 

3 Recession 

4. Depression 

Business Cycles

An important feature of the working of a capitalist economy is the existence of alternating periods of prosperity and depression generally referred to as a ‘business cycle’ or ‘trade cycle’. In a business cycles there are wave like fluctuations in aggregate employment income, output and price-level. The term business cycle has been defined in various ways by different economists. 

• Prof Haberler’s definition is very simple, he says,” The business cycle in the general sense maybe defined as an alternation of periods of prosperity and depression of good and bad trade.” 

Rational Expectation Theory (RATEX)

Meaning:

New classical economics based on rational expectation hypothesis was put forward by Robert Lucas of the University of Chicago. Rational Expectation theory which is the corner stone of recently developed macro-economic theory, popularly called new classical macroeconomics. Friedman’s adaptive expectation theory assumes nominal wages lag behind changes in the price level. This lag in the adjustment of nominal wages to the price-level brings about rising business profits which induces the firms to expand output and employment in the short run, and leads to the reduction in unemployment rate. But according to the Ratex theory, there is no lag in the adjustment of nominal wages consequent to rise in price level. The advocates of this theory further argue that nominal wages are quickly adjusted to any expected changes in the price level. According to the Ratex theory, as a result of increasing aggregate demand, there is no reduction in unemployment rate, the rate of inflation resulting from increasing aggregate demand is fully and correctly anticipated by workers and business firms and get completely and quickly incorporated into the wage agreement resulting in higher prices of products.

Supply Side Economics

The problem of stagflation encountered by USA and UK during the seventies and early eighties when both high inflation and high unemployment prevailed simultaneously did not admit for easy solution through the Keynesian demand management policies, it only worsened the situation.

Against this backdrop, the alternative school of thought, about macroeconomics laid stress on Supply Side of macroeconomic equilibrium, that is, it focused on shift in the aggregate supply curve to the right rather than causing the shift in the aggregate demand curve. Thus Supply side economics prefers to solve the problem of stagflation through the management of aggregate Supply rather than the management of aggregate demand. Further Supply Sides economics stresses the determinants of long run growth instead of causes of short run cyclical movement in the economy. Supply Side economists laid emphasis on the factors that determine the incentives to work, save and invest, which ultimately determine the aggregate supply of the output of the economy. 

Memory Improvement Strategies

We are aware that our memory is perfect when we encode the information by understanding the meaning and try to develop rich elaborate encoding.  Apart from this there are several other techniques which are responsible for improving our memory. They are:

Mnemonics

The term ‘Mnemonics’ is derived from the Greek Goddess of memory Mnemosyne.

Broadly speaking mnemonics are a group of memory techniques, or mental ‘slights of hand’ that together facilitate the quick and easy assimilation of information of all kinds.

Facts, figures, names, faces and events, all can be learned and recalled far easier by using mnemonics, than by using the conventional means of rote learning and repetition.

Mnemonics is a strategy which helps to improve memory it includes 

a) Visual imagery 

b) Method of Loci 

c) Organization 

Abnormal Forgetting

Abnormal forgetting not due to any one of the causes mentioned with reference to normal forgetting. It is mostly of recall amnesia type hence retention will be intact to a large extent. Due to certain unusual and motivating causes recalling is completely blocked. Anyway it was not due to self-consciousness or stage fright. The causes are: 

a) Exogenic or external factors 

b) Endogenic or internal factors 

Exogenic or External Factors: 

As said above, if the cause is an external one, it is said to be exogenic. For example, a severe injury to the brain like a shock resulting from a fall or a hit on the head will disturb the memory process badly. If the injury is severe and if affect the cortex, forgetting is more a retention amnesia than recall amnesia. But usually amnesia resulting from a shock is of recall type. 

Normal Forgetting

Forgetting (retention loss) refers to the apparent loss information already encoded and stored in an individual’s long term memory. Forgetting is not really all that bad, and s actually, a pretty natural phenomenon. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage. It is subject to delicately balanced optimization that ensures that relevant memories are recalled. Forgetting can be reduced by the repetition and / or more elaborate cognitive processing of information. Reviewing information in ways that involve active retrieval seems to slow the rate of forgetting. In ability to remember what was happened during an exciting or disturbing event is in fact due to inattention. This type of memory loss is knows as ‘anterograde amnesia’. In contrast forgetting of things happened before the disturbing event is known as ‘retrograde amnesia’. Even without emotional disturbance and extinction. The actual learning is forgotten either partly or wholly. Such forgotten is due to the following reasons: 

Long Term Memory (LMG)

Long term memory has a large capacity and contains memories that are decades old, in addition to memories that arrives several minutes ago. Atkinson & Shifrrin proposed that information in LTM is encoded semantically, ie: in terms of its meaning. Memories in LTM are relatively permanent and are not likely to be lost. 

The accuracy of LTM is influence by a number of factors. Some of the important factors among them are: 

a) Context 

b) Explicit vs implicit measure of memory 

c) Mood 

d) Expertise 

Short Term Memory (STM)

Short term memory was description by Atkinson & Shiffin in their modal model of memory in which they explained that information in STM lasts only for a very limited that is for about 15-30 seconds. In order to explain the methodology of STM, Brown/ Peterson & Peterson have conducted a study in which participants were asked to study 3 letters. Then they were asked to count backward by 3’s. eg: 100, 97, 94, 91, 88… for short period of time and later were asked to recall the letters they had originally seen. The result revealed for the 1st few trials show that people recalled most of the letters, however after several trials, the previous learnt letters produce interference and thus recall was poor. More ever after 5 seconds delay, people forgot approximately half of what they had seen.

Other techniques also have been used to examine short term memory. One among it is people were asked to study a long list of items such a many words as possible. The result reveled that there existed relationship between the position of the word presented and the probability of recalling the word which was termed as serial position curve/ effect. 

Eg: recalling is accurate for the beginning & end words where as it was poor recall for the middle words some researches views that people were able to recall last words more accurately because the words were still in the STM at the time of recalling.

The size of STM 

One way of measuring the size of STM is to count the no of word accurately recalled at eh end of the list typically the size of STM is estimated to be 2-7 items when the serial – position curve method is used. 

STM size is measured in terms if memory span or the number if items in a row that can be correctly recalled. However, some researches view that pronunciation time is an important determination of STM. More over factors such as anxiety also influences the number of items that could be held in temporary storage. 

Meaning of memory:

Memory is a critical part of all the cognitive processes. It involves maintaining information over time. The information could be maintained for less than a second or as long as a life time.

It is even said that memory involves both remembering and forgetting, which forms the two faces of the same coin, though they are opposed to each other by nature, they play a very significant role in the life of an individual. Eg: remembering a pleasant moment of life makes a man very happy where as remembering an unpleasant moment makes his life miserable. Thus, forgetting that unpleasant moment is very essential. Remembering and forgetting act as tools to maintain physiological or physical homeostasis. The homeostasis is maintained by certain nerve cells of the brain which undergo changes and help to retain what is learned in the form od memory traces and any unpleasant experience will be ejected by the cells such that forgetting occurs. Memory can also be defined as organism’s ability to store, retain, recall information and experiences.

            This process of remembering and forgetting is sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious. Some studies have revealed that this process is bases upon 3 laws named as:

1)      Law of contiguity

2)      Law of similarity

3)      Law of contrast

Economics Second Semester Syllabus

Unit-1: Introduction to Macro economics 

• Macro Economics: Meaning and Definitions
• Macro Economics: Nature
• Macro Economics: Types
• Macro Economics: Subject Matter and Central Issues 
• Macro Economics: Scope and Importance
• Macro Economics: Limitations 
• Basic Concepts: Stock, Flow Equilibrium, Short and Long Term
• Concepts of National Income: (GNP, NNP, GDP, NDP, NI, PI, DI)
• Maintenance of National Income
• Importance of National Income Analysis
• Methods of Measuring National Income
• Difficulties in Measuring National Income (Simple Calculation) 

Unit-2: Classical Theory of Employment

• Say's Laws of Markets
• Wage-price Flexibility
• Criticisms of the Classical Theory

Unit-3: Keynesian Theory of Employment

• Concept of Effective Demand and its Determinants 
• Equilibrium Level of Income and Employment
• Conception Function APC, MPC
• Factors Effecting the Conception Function 
• Investment Function 
• Marginal Efficiency of Capital
• Factors Effecting Investment Function
• Multiplier Effect
• Criticism of Keynesian Theory of Employment

Unit-4: New Classical Macroeconomics

• New Classical Macroeconomics
• Supply Side Economics and its Theoretical Proposition  
• Rational Expectation and Policy Calculation

Unit-5: Macro Economic Policy

• Business Cycles and Role of Macro Economic Policy
• Business Cycles: (Meaning and Types)
• Phases of Business Cycles
• Meaning of Inflation
• Types of Inflation
• Causes of Inflation
• Control of Inflation
• Effects of Inflation
• Inflationary Gap
• Meaning of Deflation
• Effects of Deflation
• Monetary Policy
• Fiscal Policy

Psychology

Psychology Second Semester Syllabus 

Unit 01: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

• Nature of Cognitive Psychology 
• Scope of Cognitive Psychology
• Current Status of Cognitive Psychology
• Attention: Meaning and Theories
• Pattern Recognition: Meaning and Theories

Unit 02: Learning

• Definition
• Theories Classical Conditioning 
• Theories: Operent Conditioning
• Theories: Trail and Error
• Theories: Insight
• Theories: Imitation
• Theories: of Learning
• Effective Methods of Learning

Unit 03: Language

• Basic Principles of Language Development 
• Relationship between Language and Thought
• Contributions of Noam Chomsky

Unit 04: Memory and Forgetting

• Memory: Meaning 
• Memory: Short Term Memory (STM)
• Memory: Long Term Memory (LTM)
• Forgetting: Normal Forgetting
• Abnormal Normal Forgetting 
• Causes of Forgetting
• Techniques of Improving Memory

Unit 05: Intelligence

• Nature and Determinants
• Concepts of IQ
• Distribution of Intelligence
• Intelligence Tests:bal, Verbal, Non-verbal and Performance
• Mental Exercise for Better Cognitive Health

Unit 06: Practicals

• Bileteral Transfer of Trainaning
• Insight on Motor Learning
• Distribution of Learning Periods
• Determine the Effect of Set on Attention
• Meaning of Retention

Sociology

Auguste Comte

• Introduction
• Law of three Stages
• Religion of Humanity 
• Social Static and Dynamic

The Rocking Horse Winner

Paul, the protagonist of this haunting story, is a sensitive boy who would do anything to gain and keep his mother’s love. Though she is beautiful, talented, well-bred, and blessed with three lovely children, she is preoccupied by her lack of luck. Luck, to the mother, is what brings you money. Father is not lucky, for the family does not have the means to live in style. The anxious children, especially the morbidly perceptive Paul, hear their house whisper, “There must be more money.”

Paul longs to silence the house and his mother’s creditors. After discussing racetrack lore with the family gardener, Paul furiously rides his rocking-horse. During the wild, rhythmic plunging, the nearly hypnotized Paul “knows” the name of the horse that will win big at the next race. With the trustworthy gardener to place his bets, Paul rapidly accumulates a heady sum.

With his uncle’s help, Paul arranges a birthday surprise for his mother--one thousand pounds annually for the next five years. He eagerly watches his mother open her mail only to find that she wants, and gains, all five thousand pounds at once. The voices of the house go mad as the mother redecorates, fills the rooms with flowers and the nursery with new toys. “There must be more money” becomes a scream, not a whisper.

Paul returns to his frantic late-night rides. He feels that he must “know” for the Derby because his mother, still cool, remote, and dissatisfied, longs to live in greater style. Even she realizes that something is wrong with Paul, who has grown overwrought and feverish. Entering his room late at night, she hears the rhythmic plunge of the rocking-horse. Paul collapses in a brain fever as he mutters over and over “Malabar,” the name of the horse to win the Derby. The gardener bets Paul’s money as planned; his mother is 80,000 pounds to the good. “I am lucky,” are Paul’s dying words.