Psychology Optional PYQs – Topic-wise (1995–2026)

Psychology Optional PYQs Topic-wise for UPSC Mains (1995–2026) are listed below unit by unit, in the order of the official syllabus – 1528 questions in all. Click any unit to open all its previous year questions, arranged topic-wise with the latest first.

Want full papers instead? Open the Psychology Optional year-wise question papers for Paper I and Paper II.

Paper I

Unit	Topic (click to open PYQs)	Sub-topics	Questions	Link
1	Introduction	4	51	Click here →
2	Methods of Psychology	4	44	Click here →
3	Research Methods	6	45	Click here →
4	Development of Human Behaviour	4	57	Click here →
5	Sensation, Attention and Perception	9	65	Click here →
6	Learning	6	60	Click here →
7	Memory	7	65	Click here →
8	Thinking and Problem Solving	8	53	Click here →
9	Motivation and Emotion	5	54	Click here →
10	Intelligence and Aptitude	6	55	Click here →
11	Personality	5	53	Click here →
12	Attitudes, Values and Interests	7	64	Click here →
13	Language and Communication	4	45	Click here →
14	Issues and Perspectives in Modern Contemporary Psychology	4	44	Click here →

Trend: Paper 1 spreads its marks almost evenly: every unit carries 6–9% over 2013–2026, so none can be left out. Memory, Attitudes and Sensation–Perception have been the heaviest overall. In 2022–2026 Perception, Learning, Intelligence and Thinking have gained (8–8.5% each), while Development of Human Behaviour (7.1% → 5.0%) and Attitudes (8.4% → 6.5%) have eased. The most-asked topics are consciousness (sleep, dreams, meditation), the basis of motivation and emotion, theories of personality, experimental designs and statistics.

Paper II

Unit	Topic (click to open PYQs)	Sub-topics	Questions	Link
1	Psychological Measurement of Individual Differences	5	56	Click here →
2	Psychological Well Being and Mental Disorders	4	63	Click here →
3	Therapeutic Approaches	7	78	Click here →
4	Work Psychology and Organisational Behaviour	10	74	Click here →
5	Application of Psychology to Educational Field	8	53	Click here →
6	Community Psychology	5	44	Click here →
7	Rehabilitation Psychology	5	50	Click here →
8	Application of Psychology to Disadvantaged Groups	4	51	Click here →
9	Psychological Problem of Social Integration	5	69	Click here →
10	Application of Psychology in Information Technology and Mass Media	5	43	Click here →
11	Psychology and Economic Development	5	53	Click here →
12	Application of Psychology to Environment and Related Fields	4	52	Click here →
13	Application of Psychology in Other Fields	4	56	Click here →
14	Psychology of Gender	5	31	Click here →

Trend: Paper 2 is also evenly spread, but two units stand out: Therapeutic Approaches (9.2% over 2013–2026, rising to 10.2% in the last five years) and Work Psychology and Organisational Behaviour (8.9%, easing to 7.8%). Rehabilitation Psychology has risen (6.6% → 8.2%), and Application of Psychology in other fields (military, sports, media, terrorism) stays at about 8%. Application of Psychology to the educational field (6.4% → 5.2%) and Social Integration (8.0% → 6.8%) have declined. The most-asked topics are mental disorders and their causal factors, construction of psychological tests, educating and motivating the disadvantaged, and the psychological effects of recent information technology; effects of noise, pollution and crowding and gender discrimination have come up strongly in 2022–2026.

More questions

Other questions (outside the present syllabus) – 8 questions

How this collection is organised

Considering the changing exam pattern and syllabus over three decades, we felt it necessary to declare some practices we’ve adopted in this collection.

1. Some old questions (for example on socialisation, crowds or communication in Paper 2, or on military psychology and purely neural topics in Paper 1) are not part of the present syllabus of that paper, but we’ve decided to keep them. They are placed under “Other Questions (Outside the Present Syllabus)” at the end of the paper concerned. Students should not worry about such questions being asked in exams.

2. Some questions cover more than one topic. We’ve kept such questions in each topic of relevance. Topics that the syllabus does not name separately are placed in the nearest topic: for example, theories of emotion and Maslow’s need hierarchy under the basis of motivation and emotion; Erikson, Kohlberg and attachment under life span development; conformity, obedience and social influence under changing other’s behaviour; reliability and validity of tests under test construction; and stress outside the workplace under factors influencing positive health in Paper 2.

3. Units are numbered exactly as in the official syllabus: Paper 1 – units 1–14 (Foundations of Psychology); Paper 2 – units 1–14 (Psychology: Issues and Applications). Where a unit has many questions, they are further divided by the topics of that unit.

4. Graphs at the start of each paper show the weightage of every unit in that paper, and graphs for the six heaviest units of each paper show the weightage of their topics. Weightage is the share of marks asked from a unit or topic, compared for 2013–2026 (white bars) and the last five years, 2022–2026 (black bars). A question placed under two topics has its marks split equally between them.

5. Each of the topicwise question is suffixed by a question code like this [2024/10m/150w/5e]. This code indicates a) year in which the question was asked, b) maximum marks the question carried, c) prescribed word limit and, d) the question number in actual paper, in given order. Where UPSC prescribed no word limit, that field is skipped.

6. Until 2012, each paper carried 300 marks (60 marks per question); since 2013 each paper carries 250 marks. For 1995–2003, 2006 and 2007 the marks were not printed against each question in available sources, so codes follow the standard pattern of those papers: 20 marks for each part of Q1 and Q5 (any three) and 60 marks for every other question.

7. Where a part of a short-answer question is a statement without a directive word, it is shown as “Comment on: …”, as the question paper asks. The wording of the questions is otherwise as printed.

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Last updated: 30 October 2026