Course Title: Psychopathology

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Psychopathology

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

BESC1423

Bundoora Campus

Undergraduate

150H Health Sciences

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2007,
Sem 2 2008,
Sem 2 2009,
Sem 2 2010,
Sem 2 2011,
Sem 2 2012,
Sem 2 2013,
Sem 2 2014,
Sem 2 2015

BESC1423

Bundoora Campus

Undergraduate

173H School of Health and Biomed

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2017,
Sem 2 2018,
Sem 2 2019,
Sem 2 2020,
Sem 2 2021,
Sem 2 2022

BESC1424

Bundoora Campus

Postgraduate

150H Health Sciences

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2007,
Sem 2 2008,
Sem 2 2009,
Sem 2 2010,
Sem 2 2011,
Sem 2 2012,
Sem 2 2013,
Sem 2 2014

Course Coordinator: Dr Nikos Thomacos

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 0288

Course Coordinator Email: nikos.thomacos@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 12.07.16

Course Coordinator Availability: Via appointment


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None


Course Description

The course is designed to examine the lives and psychological needs, wants, and challenges when working with range of different communities as well as psychological work in a range of settings. Both theory and evidence will be used to examine and understand how psychology and psychologists can effectively respond to the opportunities and challenges inherent in working with these communities and in such settings. As part of this course students will participate in several practical sessions focusing on counselling, self-care, and health communication and literacy.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course contributes to the development of the Program Learning Outcomes:

  • PLO 1:  Understand appropriate and relevant fundamental and applied evidence-based knowledge and undertake lifelong learning to improve personal and professional practice 
  • PLO 2: Demonstrate a capacity to employ a variety of approaches and procedures to research to permit judgements and decisions to be supported by appropriate evidence that places practice within a global and local context.
  • PLO 3:  Applies knowledge to diagnose and solve problems in a wide range of diverse situations, with an ability to work independently or with others and incorporate the analysis of evidence based scientific literature to solve psychological problems.
  • PLO 4: Engage in dialogue with a diverse range of people and communicate in a broad range of forms (written, electronic, graphic, oral) to meet the circumstances of the situation and the capabilities of the audience.
  • PLO 5: Maintains tolerance and respect for individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds, holding diverse values, adhering to professional expectations and demonstrating ethical behaviour.


On successful completion of this course you should be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an organised and coherent knowledge of the psychological profession informed by reading and discussion.
  2. Consider the impact of psychological problems on the individual, communities, and the wider social context.
  3. Provide examples of the applied implications of existing research on the topics covered to domains where psychologists work.
  4. Critically analyse different counselling orientations in terms of their similarities, differences, and applications.
  5. Demonstrate and understand a selection of counselling micro-skills.
  6. Critically analyse research literature in areas of psychology relevant to these topics.


Overview of Learning Activities

You will be actively engaged in a range of learning activities such as lectorials, tutorials, practicals, laboratories, seminars, project work, class discussion, individual and group activities. Delivery may be face to face, online or a mix of both.

You are encouraged to be proactive and self-directed in your learning, asking questions of your lecturer and/or peers and seeking out information as required, especially from the numerous sources available through the RMIT library, and through links and material specific to this course that is available through myRMIT Studies Course.


Overview of Learning Resources

RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through myRMIT Studies Course.

There are services available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the myRMIT student portal.


Overview of Assessment

The assessment associated with this course will comprise formative and summative assessment.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task 1: Counselling Skills Reflection
Weighting 40%
This assessment task supports CLOs 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6

Assessment Task 2: Community Program Design
Weighting 40%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1, 2, 3, & 6

Assessment Task 3: Quiz
Weighting 20%
This assessment task supports CLOs 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6

These assessments may include use of online technology and are designed to require students to demonstrate a critical analysis of the core principles presented in the course.

If you have a long-term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or Equitable Learning Services if you would like to find out more.