PSYC100 to PSYC421
PSYC100 Psychology A
10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week of lectures and 2 hours per week in laboratory for 12 weeks or equivalent.
This unit will introduce students to psychology through a study of both the history and the current organisation of the discipline. Topics will include biological bases of behaviour, sensation and perception, lifespan development, learning and memory. The statistics component of this unit will introduce students to methods of studying behaviour, principles of measurement, scales of measurement, methods of organizing data, as well as introductory descriptive statistics. There will also be a laboratory program, which will focus on selected theoretical issues from the unit content.
PSYC101 Psychology B
10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week of lectures and 2 hours per week in laboratory for 12 weeks or equivalent.
This unit will introduce students to theories and principles of intelligence, motivation, personality, cross-cultural/Indigenous psychology, stress/health, abnormal and social psychology. The statistics component of this unit will cover an introduction to sampling, probability, inferential statistics and elementary techniques of hypothesis testing, eg t-tests. There will also be a laboratory program, which will focus on selected theoretical issues from the unit content.
PSYC200 Lifespan Development
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC101 Psychology B
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week of lectures, 1 hour per week of statistics tutorials; 2 hours per week in laboratory.
This unit will focus on the main areas of developmental psychology taking a lifespan perspective. It will consider aspects of physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, and attention will also be paid to research methods and contemporary issues in the field. The statistics component introduces SPSS, focusing on creating data files, and the SPSS techniques in relation to descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, and t-tests. There will also be a laboratory program, which will focus on selected theoretical issues from the unit content.
PSYC202 Social Psychology
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC101 Psychology B
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week of lectures, 1 hour per week of statistics tutorials; 2 hours per week in laboratory.
This unit presents the field of social psychology in terms of three foci: social knowledge, social interaction and social influence. The statistics component includes the F-ratio, one-way analysis of variance and non-parametric techniques. There will also be a laboratory program, which will focus on selected theoretical issues from the unit content.
PSYC204 Biological Psychology
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC101 Psychology B
Teaching Organisation 4 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent of lectures, laboratory work, seminars and/or field studies.
This unit addresses key issues in current psychobiological theory by exploring the mechanisms of behaviour from their evolutionary origins and genetic base, to their ultimate adaptiveness in psychobiological life. The unit is offered as a study of the biological processes underlying behaviour, including psychophysiology and behavioural neuroscience. With a theoretical model of evolution as a process of behavioural change, the presentation of selected topics in biological psychology in lectures will be accompanied by illustrative examples of behavioural change in laboratory/tutorial classes.
PSYC205 Learning and Perception
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC204 Biological Psychology
Teaching Organisation 4hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent of lectures, laboratory work, seminars and/or field studies.
This unit addresses the contribution that learning theory provides to the understanding of behaviour. Perception is the process whereby individuals monitor their environments; learning is the process whereby individuals adapt themselves to their environments. Such environments may be internal (physiological, cognitive) or external (geophysical, biological, social, cultural). Models of learning will be linked to a consideration of the perceptual, neuropsychological, and social development of the individual human through infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
PSYC300 Theories of Personality
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC202 Social Psychology
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week of lectures and tutorials, 2 hours per week in laboratory.
Personality psychology seeks to understand enduring and individual tendencies displayed by people in their patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours over time and across situations. In other words, this unit has been developed to explore the nature and question of personality. It will consider the many facets, individual differences, behavioural dimensions, and traits that constitute a personality style by focusing on the major theories of personality and the orientation of its theorists. The statistics component of this unit will include an extension of inferential testing to factorial models. There will also be a laboratory program, which will focus on selected theoretical issues from the unit content.
PSYC304 Abnormal Psychology
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC202 Social Psychology or equivalent
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week of lectures and, 1 hour per week in tutorial.
This unit deals with theory and research in the field of abnormal psychology. It will investigate the contemporary understanding of the concepts of abnormality. The unit covers diagnostic systems frequently used to classify disorders and aspects of methodology in research in psychopathology, and presents models of aetiology in abnormal behaviour. The unit is not aimed at the discussion of treatment per se, although treatment issues are discussed as they relate to aetiology. Although there is some emphasis on the description of various disorders, including diagnostic categories, the unit is not aimed at students becoming diagnosticians. The unit does not attempt to cover all areas of psychopathology but rather selects across the areas to highlight different theories and research.
PSYC307 Cognitive Psychology
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC202 Social Psychology and PSYC205 Learning and Perception
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week of lectures and tutorials and 2 hours per week in laboratory for 12 weeks or equivalent.
This unit presents the field of cognitive psychology focussing primarily on memory and cognitive processes in adults. It provides an overview of traditional models and approaches to cognition and memory, and examines contemporary approaches and implications for cognitive functioning including neurocognition. The statistics component of the unit will focus on using computerised data analysis and the application of statistical techniques in more advanced research designs, eg multivariate designs. There will also be a laboratory program, which will focus on selected theoretical issues from the unit content.
PSYC309 Psychological Testing
10 cp
Prerequisites PSYC202 Social Psychology
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week of lectures and 1 hour per week of tutorials for 12 weeks or equivalent.
This unit introduces students to a major area of professional psychology - psychological tests, testing and measurement. Content includes basic psychometric theory and practice in relation to constructing tests and to applying established tests, with attention to the use of tests and measurement in the assessment process, and to the ethical requirements of psychological testing and assessment. Some standard psychological tests from several fields such as intelligence, educational achievement and personality will be introduced, and the tests’ applications, contributions and limitations examined.
PSYC310 Psychological Services Experience
10 cp
Prerequisites Enrolment in the BPsychSc, PSYC202 Social Psychology and PSYC205 Learning and Perception
Teaching Organisation 20 days, normally in the period between semesters. The unit must be completed during Year 3 of the program.
Australian Catholic University endeavours to prepare graduates who are able to exercise moral and professional autonomy in their chosen discipline in a pluralistic society. The University supports the development of community engagement and student awareness of social responsibility to the wider community. This elective enables students to work in an applied setting (social, health, educational or welfare) and be introduced to the work of a practising registered psychologist, while at the same time contributing to community service in a tangible way.
PSYC404 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology A
5 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 contact hours per week: combination of lectures, seminars and presentations of research papers.
This unit focuses on principles of research design in psychological research, primarily experimental methods and observational and survey methods. Some qualitative procedures will be addressed. The emphasis will be on empirical research approaches and the data analytic procedures associated with those approaches.
PSYC405 Comparative Psychology
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 contact hours per week: combination of lectures, seminars and presentations of research papers.
Students will be provided with an overview of contemporary theories on the evolution of behaviour. By using an historical perspective on the development of these theories, it will be demonstrated how cultural contexts exist over time to affect the perceptions and analyses of human and non-human behaviour. Students will study the specific applicability of these theories to human behaviour, the behaviour of companion animals, and of some of Australia’s indigenous species.
Students will be encouraged to develop a greater appreciation of Australian biodiversity and Australian animal behaviour, and a greater awareness of the important theoretical psychological perspectives for human behaviour that are possible through the adoption of an evolutionary paradigm.
PSYC406 Theories of Intervention
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 contact hours per week: equivalent of combination of lectures, seminars and presentations of research papers.
This unit introduces students to theories of counselling and psychotherapy, drawn from those therapies considered mainstream in the field, selected from the cognitive, cognitive-behavioural, behavioural, psychodynamic, systemic and humanistic-existential, social-constructivist schools. The emphasis is on understanding the origins and theoretical underpinnings of these approaches and on exploring similarities and differences between forms of therapies.
PSYC407 History and Philosophy of Psychology
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 contact hours per week: combination of lectures, seminars and presentations of research papers.
This unit aims to develop in students a critical appreciation of the breadth and limitations of the scientific approach to psychology. Students will be introduced to an historical analysis of prevailing social, political, and religious thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how these have reflected changing models of human behaviour and reality. Students will consider the presence of assumptions and bias (such as sexist and racist assumptions) in all psychological theory and research, and the effects of these upon individuals. It is hoped that such consideration will help students to define new goals, principles, and practices for a psychology in the twenty–first century.
PSYC408 Psychology of Human Sexuality
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 contact hours per week: seminars, guided discussion, video presentations, presentations of research papers, case studies.
This unit explores frameworks for understanding human sexuality and sexual dysfunction, including behavioural, cognitive, psychodynamic, physiological, humanistic, evolutionary, diathesis–stress. It aims to enhance students’ knowledge base regarding human sexuality, with particular reference to psychological research and treatment factors.
PSYC409 Research Project A
20 cp
Pre or Co-requisite PSYC404 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology A
Teaching Organisation Early in the academic year each student will be assigned to a staff member of the School of Psychology for supervision by the Lecturer-in Charge of the unit. In addition, fourth year seminars attended by all fourth year students and a number of staff provide additional feedback, interaction and support in the development of the research project. Further support in project work is provided through the unit PSYC404: Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology A in which students will be assisted with issues of design and analysis. Students are expected to meet regularly with their supervisor/s (approximately once per week) until the research report has been submitted. Students may work on joint projects but must write up individual theses.
This unit is designed to give students direct experience in the research processes of acquiring and empirically testing knowledge about human behaviour. The project will be a substantial component of their fourth year of study and will engage the students in all steps of the research process from formulation of appropriate research questions and research design including formulation of research hypotheses, to data collection, analysis and detailed reporting of research findings.
PSYC410 Honours Thesis A
20 cp
Pre or Co-requisite PSYC404 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology A
Teaching Organisation Early in the academic year each student will be assigned to a staff member of the School of Psychology for supervision by the Lecturer-in-Charge of the unit. In addition, fourth year seminars attended by all fourth year students and a number of staff of the School will provide additional feedback, interaction and support in the development of the research project. Further support in project work is provided through the unit PSYC404 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology A in which students will be assisted with issues of design and analysis. Students are expected to meet regularly with their supervisor/s (approximately once per week) until the research report has been submitted.
This unit is designed to give students direct experience in the research processes of acquiring and empirically testing knowledge about human behaviour. The project will be a substantial component of their fourth year of study and will engage the students in all steps of the research process from formulation of appropriate research questions, research design including formulation of research hypotheses, to data collection, analysis and detailed reporting of research findings.
PSYC412 Psychology of Ageing
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 contact hours per week: combination of lectures, seminars and presentation of research papers.
This unit explores the ageing process and the emerging field of psychology and ageing. It will focus on ageing as a normal developmental process and review contemporary research.
PSYC413 Ethics and Professional Issues in Psychology
10 cpPrerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2-hour lecture/seminar.
The aim of this unit is to introduce students to important issues related to professional practice in psychology. Ethics of professional psychological practice and research will be studied including a detailed consideration of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Code of Ethics and consideration of legislative and legal issues relevant to psychological practice that derive there from. Issues in interviewing, report writing, supervision and case preparation will also be considered.
PSYC414 Cultural Issues for Psychologists
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2-hour lecture/seminar.
Using social neuroscience perspectives, this unit presents students with cultural constructions of how the mind works. Particular emphasis is placed on sociocultural influences on adaptation to the environment, on belief systems and on decision making. Also included is an exploration and critical examination of prevailing models of assessment and treatment practices of mental health professionals in pluralistic societies.
PSYC415 Theories of Psychoanalysis: Freud and Lacan
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2-hour lecture/seminar per week.
This unit will introduce some of the ideas of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. It will focus on their major theoretical and clinical contributions, and through a series of readings it will investigate the history and epistemology of psychoanalysis. It will draw on both theory and practice to demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalytic theory and clinical formulations in the understanding of the nature of subjectivity. By investigating some of the discoveries and conceptualisations of the discipline, it will also explore the normal and pathological operation of our psychological system.
PSYC419 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology B
5 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses and PSYC404 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology A
Teaching Organisation 2 contact hours per week: combination of lectures, seminars and presentations of research papers.
This unit focuses on principles of research design in psychological research, primarily experimental methods and observational and survey methods. Some qualitative procedures will be addressed. The emphasis will be on empirical research approaches and the data analytic procedures associated with those approaches.
PSYC420 Research Project B
20 cp
Pre or Co-requisites PSYC409 Research Project A, PSYC419 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology B
Teaching Organisation Early in the academic year each student will be assigned to a staff member of the School of Psychology for supervision by the Lecturer-in Charge of the unit. In addition, fourth year seminars attended by all fourth year students and a number of staff provide additional feedback, interaction and support in the development of the research project. Further support in project work is provided through the unit PSYC419 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology B in which students will be assisted with issues of design and analysis. Students are expected to meet regularly with their supervisor/s (approximately once per week) until the research report has been submitted. Students may work on joint projects but must write up individual theses.
This unit is designed to give students direct experience in the research processes of acquiring and empirically testing knowledge about human behaviour. The project will be a substantial component of their fourth year of study and will engage the students in all steps of the research process from formulation of appropriate research questions and research design including formulation of research hypotheses, to data collection, analysis and detailed reporting of research findings.
PSYC421 Honours Thesis B
20 cp
Pre or Co-requisites PSYC410 Honours Thesis A. PSYC419 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology B
Teaching Organisation Early in the academic year each student will be assigned to a staff member of the School of Psychology for supervision by the Lecturer-in-Charge of the unit. In addition, fourth year seminars attended by all fourth year students and a number of staff of the School will provide additional feedback, interaction and support in the development of the research project. Further support in project work is provided through the unit PSYC419 Research and Quantitative Methods in Psychology B in which students will be assisted with issues of design and analysis. Students are expected to meet regularly with their supervisor/s (approximately once per week) until the research report has been submitted.
This unit is designed to give students direct experience in the research processes of acquiring and empirically testing knowledge about human behaviour. The project will be a substantial component of their fourth year of study and will engage the students in all steps of the research process from formulation of appropriate research questions, research design including formulation of research hypotheses, to data collection, analysis and detailed reporting of research findings.
Page last updated: 2017-06-28
Short url: https://handbook.acu.edu.au/61595
Page last updated: 2017-06-28
Short url: https://handbook.acu.edu.au/61595