Hello Aspirant,

Psychology is one of the optional subjects offered by the UPSC for the civil services mains examination.

If you have studied this particular subject in detail or in a way that is very similar to the syllabus given for this psychology subject, you could definitely take it as your optional subject. Check and go through the syllabus given at the official website of UPSC and study for all the common things and articles that you have had already studied during your BA degree.

The tricky thing about psychology is that it is considered to be a natural science, a social science and also a life science subject. So, you need to be very specific and profile towards the way you study it. Some tips for you are -

Stick to a minimum number of books for this optional which covers about 95% of the syllabus. Do not try to read ten different books and get overwhelmed.

Some answers in this optional can be written using your intuition also.

NCERTs are very important for this subject, especially if you are learning psychology for the first time.