The teaching staff of psychology department is yet to finalise the syllabus for the four-year undergraduate degree course even as Delhi University announced to start the course.
The teachers are caught in a dilemma, as whether to merge psychology and applied psychology under the discipline course.
Earlier, psychology and applied psychology were treated as two separate subjects in B.A. Honours course. But for the newly-introduced four-year course, the teachers were directed by the university to merge the two into one psychology course.
College professors have written a letter to the vice-chancellor expressing their discontent against the decision of merging the two disciplines.
There is no logistic balance. The university is giving applied psychology in the fourth year, which will not bring any benefit to students. Psychology is a purely theory, analysis and research based subject; it brings solution to a problem. But applied psychology is purely practical,” said Abhinash Kumar, teacher in-charge, department of psychology, South Campus.
Another psychology professor, who did not want to be named, said, “The two disciplines have been given separate codes. By merging the two, and including applied psychology only in the last two semesters, the university will be giving minority treatment of this subject.”
The psychology department is yet to come out with a syllabus for the new four-year undergraduate course. The department will hold a meeting in the coming week to discuss the problem and come up with a solution.
The basic premise of applied psychology is the use of psychological principles and theories to overcome problems in real life situations.