NCERT Books Class 11 Psychology: Every Chapter, Figure and PDF

NCERT Books Class 11 Psychology: the official textbook is Introduction to Psychology — 8 chapters across 137 printed pages — and the official NCERT PDF for every chapter is linked on this page, straight from ncert.nic.in.

The PDF is the quick answer. What this page adds is a chapter-by-chapter account of what is actually inside the book: each chapter’s topics, printed activities, numbered figures and end-of-chapter questions, measured from the textbook itself and maintained for the 2026-27 session.

Download the official NCERT Books Class 11 Psychology PDFs

These are NCERT’s own files, hosted on ncert.nic.in — the official source — and free to download. The table above links all eight chapter PDFs directly, so you can open any chapter without hunting across third-party sites.

Three of the eight chapters are the ones students usually ask for by name:

• If you only need the opening chapter, Chapter 1, What is Psychology? explains the discipline, its evolution and its branches — start there when you want the book’s frame before its details.
• The figure-heavy perception chapter, with 14 of the book’s 30 verified figures and the illusion demonstrations, is Chapter 4, Sensory, Attentional and Perceptual Processes.
• For the shortest chapter in the book, Chapter 8, Motivation and Emotion closes the volume with Maslow’s hierarchy and the emotion sketches.

The Class 11 Psychology book, measured

These totals come straight from the chapter directory below; every count on this page is a count of what the textbook actually prints.

• 8 chapters, from What is Psychology? to Motivation and Emotion
• 137 printed pages
• 28 printed activities
• 30 verified numbered figures indexed from the textbook
• 71 end-of-chapter review questions

What is inside each chapter of the Class 11 Psychology book

In the directory below, a figure is a numbered figure indexed from the textbook, an activity is a printed Activity box, and a question is an end-of-chapter exercise. The counts are read from the book itself, so what you see is what the chapters actually carry.

In the NCERT textbook itself, chapters are organised under descriptive topic headings — “Classical Conditioning” in the Learning chapter, “Experimental Method” in Methods of Enquiry in Psychology, “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” in Motivation and Emotion — rather than numbered decimal sections of the kind “5.3”. The chapter notes on this page therefore follow the book’s own headings and page numbers.

The chapter-by-chapter notes on this page follow the same order as the textbook itself, so you can read them alongside each NCERT chapter and find each topic where it appears in the book.

Chapter 1: What is Psychology? (pp. 1–18)

Psychology as a discipline — the study of mind and behaviour — sits between the natural and social sciences, and this opening chapter fixes that position before anything else. It separates the field from popular notions about what psychologists do, traces the evolution of psychology and its development in India, and ends by mapping the branches of psychology that later chapters assume.

1. Psychology as a Discipline
2. Psychology as a Natural Science
3. Psychology as a Social Science
4. Understanding Mind And Behaviour
5. Activity 1.1
6. Popular Notions About The Discipline Of Psychology
7. Evolution Of Psychology
8. Development Of Psychology In India
9. Branches Of Psychology
10. Psychology And Other Disciplines

The chapter’s only indexed figure, “Psychology and Other Disciplines” (Fig. 1.1, p. 15), shows where the subject sits among the fields it touches. With 3 activities, 1 indexed figure and 8 review questions, this is a definition-heavy opener that sets up the vocabulary every later chapter assumes.

Chapter 2: Methods of Enquiry in Psychology (pp. 19–39)

This is the book’s methods chapter: what psychologists want to find out, and how they find it out. It opens on the goals of psychological enquiry, walks through the steps in conducting scientific research, introduces alternative paradigms and the nature of psychological data, then works through the observational method and the experimental method in turn.

1. Goals Of Psychological Enquiry
2. Steps in Conducting Scientific Research
3. Alternative Paradigms of Research
4. Nature Of Psychological Data
5. Some Important Methods In Psychology
6. Observational Method
7. Types of Observation
8. Box 2.1 Example of an Experiment
9. Activity 2.1
10. Experimental Method

Fig. 2.1, “Steps in Conducting Scientific Enquiry” (p. 21), is the chapter’s single indexed figure and maps the research sequence the chapter teaches. With 5 activities, 1 indexed figure and 12 review questions, Chapter 2 carries the book’s largest question load — 12 of the 71 questions in the volume.

Chapter 3: Human Development (pp. 40–59)

This chapter treats development as a lifetime process rather than a school-age one. It opens on the meaning of development and the life-span perspective, names the factors that influence development and the contexts that shape it — Bronfenbrenner’s model — then runs through the developmental stages from the prenatal stage onward and ends on the challenges of adolescence.

1. Meaning Of Development
2. Life-Span Perspective on Development
3. Box 3.1 Growth, Development, Maturation, and Evolution
4. Factors Influencing Development
5. Context Of Development
6. Activity 3.1
7. Overview Of Developmental Stages
8. Prenatal Stage
9. Box 3.2 Gender and Sex Roles
10. Challenges Of Adolescence

“Bronfenbrenner’s Contextual View of Development” (Fig. 3.1, p. 44) is the chapter’s only indexed figure and carries its one major visual idea: the contexts of development. With 5 activities (tied with Chapter 2 for the book’s highest count), 1 indexed figure and 10 review questions, this chapter’s load sits in its stage-by-stage account rather than in visual material.

Chapter 4: Sensory, Attentional and Perceptual Processes (pp. 60–76)

This chapter explains how the world reaches us: through stimuli and sense modalities, and within the functional limitations of the sense organs. It then turns to selective attention — its factors and theories — and to the perceptual organisation behind what we see, including illusions.

1. Knowing The World
2. Nature And Varieties Of Stimulus
3. Sense Modalities
4. Functional Limitations of Sense Organs
5. Activity 4.1
6. Attentional Processes
7. Selective Attention
8. Factors Affecting Selective Attention
9. Theories of Selective Attention
10. Box 4.1 Divided Attention

This is the figure chapter. Rubin’s Vase (Fig. 4.3, p. 69) and the Muller-Lyer Illusion (Fig. 4.13, p. 74) are the two most recognisable figures; the rest illustrate sub-processes of perception, principles such as proximity, similarity and continuity, monocular cues and the vertical-horizontal illusion. With 3 activities, 14 indexed figures and 8 review questions, Chapter 4 carries nearly half of the book’s 30 verified figures.

Chapter 5: Learning (pp. 77–94)

This chapter covers the two classic learning paradigms. It opens on the nature and features of learning, then works through classical conditioning and its determinants — Pavlov’s dog — and operant conditioning and its determinants — the Skinner box — before closing on types of reinforcement.

1. Nature Of Learning
2. Features of Learning
3. Paradigms Of Learning
4. Classical Conditioning
5. Determinants of Classical Conditioning
6. Activity 5.1
7. Operant/Instrumental Conditioning
8. Determinants of Operant Conditioning
9. Types of Reinforcement
10. Number of Reinforcement and other Features

The chapter’s three indexed figures are the classic ones: a dog in Pavlovian harness (Fig. 5.1, p. 80), the Skinner box (Fig. 5.2, p. 82) and the phenomenon of spontaneous recovery (Fig. 5.3, p. 85). With 3 activities, 3 indexed figures and 11 review questions, Chapter 5 carries the book’s second-highest question load — 11 of the 71, behind only Chapter 2’s 12.

Chapter 6: Human Memory (pp. 95–108)

This chapter is about how information is held and retrieved. It opens on the nature of memory, presents the information-processing stage model, separates sensory, short-term and long-term memory, introduces levels of processing, and closes on the types of long-term memory — with working memory treated inside Box 6.1.

1. Nature Of Memory
2. Information Processing Approach: The Stage Model
3. Memory Systems: Sensory, Short-Term And Long-Term Memories
4. Sensory Memory
5. Short-term Memory
6. Long-term Memory
7. Box 6.1 Working Memory
8. Activity 6.1
9. Levels Of Processing
10. Types Of Long-Term Memory

The chapter’s two indexed figures, “The Stage Model of Memory” (Fig. 6.1, p. 97) and “Ebbinghaus’s Curve of Forgetting” (Fig. 6.2, p. 103), anchor its two core visual ideas. With 4 activities, 2 indexed figures and 7 review questions across 14 pages, Chapter 6 is the second-shortest chapter in the book.

Chapter 7: Thinking (pp. 109–125)

This chapter treats thinking as a skill to study, not a knack. It opens on the nature of thinking and its building blocks — including the mental image — moves through the processes of thinking, devotes its core to problem solving and the obstacles that block it, above all mental set, and touches on divergent thinking.

1. Nature Of Thinking
2. Building Blocks of Thought
3. Mental Image
4. Activity 7.1
5. The Processes Of Thinking
6. Box 7.1 Culture and Thinking
7. Problem Solving
8. Obstacles to Solving Problems
9. Mental Set
10. Problem 1

Five indexed figures carry the visual load: a girl forming a mental image (Fig. 7.1, p. 111), a map showing places (Fig. 7.2a, p. 111), a blank map upside down (Fig. 7.2b, p. 112), the reasoning puzzle of the mouse and its conclusion (Fig. 7.3, p. 115), and “Thinking Divergently” (Fig. 7.4, p. 117).

With 3 activities, 5 indexed figures and 9 review questions, Chapter 7 is the book’s second most visual chapter, after Chapter 4’s 14.

Chapter 8: Motivation and Emotion (pp. 126–137)

The closing chapter explains why behaviour starts — motives — and what behaviour feels like — emotion. It opens on the nature of motivation and the motivational cycle, separates biological from psychosocial motives, presents Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and ends on emotion with the facial-expression sketches.

1. Nature Of Motivation
2. The Motivational Cycle
3. Types Of Motives
4. Biological Motives
5. Psychosocial Motives
6. Need for Affiliation
7. Need for Power
8. Need for Achievement
9. Curiosity and Exploration
10. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The chapter’s three indexed figures — “Types of Motives” (Fig. 8.2, p. 128), “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” (Fig. 8.3, p. 131) and “Sketches of Facial Expressions of Emotions” (Fig. 8.4, p. 132) — cover its three core visuals. With 2 activities, 3 indexed figures and 6 review questions, Chapter 8 has the lightest question load in the book — 6 of 71 — and at 12 pages it is the shortest chapter in the volume.

All 30 verified figures in the Class 11 Psychology book

All 30 verified numbered figures indexed from the textbook are listed below with their NCERT captions and page numbers. The captions are quoted verbatim from the printed book, including the printed asterisks on “Texture Gradient*” and “Thinking Divergently*”.

Study pages for the 8 Class 11 Psychology chapters

This site builds a dedicated study page for each chapter as it goes; the status below comes from the live index, so it matches what is actually published here.

How to use the Class 11 Psychology book

A workable order for a first read of this book:

1. Chapter 1 first — it fixes what psychology is before any method or evidence makes sense.
2. Chapter 2 second — its methods are assumed by the evidence-based chapters that follow.
3. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 next — learning, memory and thinking all apply the enquiry methods Chapter 2 sets out.
4. Chapter 4 on its own — the perception material is visual and can be studied separately; it holds 14 of the book’s 30 verified figures.
5. Chapter 3 anywhere — the development account stands alone as a stage-by-stage narrative.

If you are revising by topic rather than chapter, use this lookup:

One caution: textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus before deciding what to revise. The NCERT books directory on this site lists the books we index, organised by class.

Related NCERT book pages

• All Class 11 NCERT books — the hub listing every Class 11 textbook this site indexes.
• All NCERT books by class — the root directory to jump across classes.

Sources and data verification

• The figure numbers, activity and question counts, and page references listed here are taken directly from NCERT’s Class 11 Psychology textbook, Introduction to Psychology, chapter by chapter.
• This page covers the chapters whose English body text passed verification — it is not a claim about every subject or about the full CBSE scheme of studies.
• This listing is maintained for the current session using the NCERT information available to us.
• NCERT settles textbook editions and official PDFs; CBSE settles curriculum, syllabus and examinations. For anything about the examinable syllabus, check CBSE’s current official documents.

Reference: NCERT Class 11 Psychology textbook, official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.

Frequently asked questions about the Class 11 Psychology book

How many chapters are in the NCERT Class 11 Psychology book?

Eight. The official textbook, Introduction to Psychology, runs from Chapter 1, What is Psychology? (pp. 1–18), to Chapter 8, Motivation and Emotion (pp. 126–137) — 8 chapters across 137 printed pages.

Is the Class 11 Psychology book PDF official and free?

Yes. The PDFs linked on this page are NCERT’s own files, hosted on ncert.nic.in and free to download — the same files the official NCERT site serves for every chapter.

Which chapter covers perception and illusions?

Chapter 4, Sensory, Attentional and Perceptual Processes (pp. 60–76). Its 14 indexed figures include Rubin’s Vase (Fig. 4.3, p. 69), the Muller-Lyer Illusion (Fig. 4.13, p. 74) and the Vertical-Horizontal Illusion (Fig. 4.14, p. 74).

Which chapters cover conditioning, memory and thinking?

Learning is Chapter 5 (pp. 77–94) — classical and operant conditioning. Memory is Chapter 6 (pp. 95–108), and thinking is Chapter 7 (pp. 109–125), which covers problem solving and mental set.

How many activities and review questions does the Class 11 Psychology book have?

28 printed activities and 71 end-of-chapter review questions across the 8 chapters. The heaviest question loads sit in Chapter 2 (12 questions) and Chapter 5 (11 questions).