Dr lucia vardanega

101614 Psychology and Health School of Social Sciences and Psychology│Unit Learning guide

Spring 2016

UNIT DETAILS

Unit Code: 101614 Unit Name: Psychology and Health

Level: 1 Contact hours per week:

1 hour tutorial 1 hour lecture - Online or face to face (see schedule)

STAFF

Unit Coordinators

Evelyn Smith & Daniel Talbot

Phone: 6707 Email: Evelyn.Smith@westernsydney.edu.au D.Talbot@westernsydney.edu.au

First point of contact:

As a first step, please direct any queries about this unit or associated assignments to the Discussion Board on the vUWS site. This will be responded to within 24- 48 hours. If you wish to discuss a matter confidentially, please make an appointment to see your tutor. If the issue is not resolved contact Daniel Talbot or Evelyn Smith via email.

Additional Lecturer: Fiona Calvert F.calvert@westernsydney.edu.au Tutors: Charlotte Whittingham C.Whittingham@westernsydney.edu.au Nkosi Lessey N.Lessey@westernsydney.edu.au Kym Hando 18049682@student.westernsydney.edu.au Marlee King Marlee.King@westernsydney.edu.au Lucia Vardanega L.Vardanega@westernsydney.edu.au Hanna Elkofairi H.Elkofairi@westernsydney.edu.au

CONSULTATION ARRANGEMENTS (by appointment only)

Make an appointment to see your tutor (send them an email), if the issue is not resolved contact Daniel Talbot, or Evelyn Smith By appointment only

Text Book

The required readings for this unit are listed in the unit schedule on page 7. The readings correspond to each week of the unit schedule.

© Copyright: University of Western Sydney, 2013. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission from the Dean of the School of Science & Health. Copyright for acknowledged materials reproduced herein is retained by the copyright holder. All readings in this publication are copied under licence in accordance with Part VB of the Copyright Act 1968.

mailto:Evelyn.Smith@westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:D.Talbot@westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:F.calvert@westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:C.Whittingham@westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:N.Lessey@westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:18049682@student.westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:Marlee.King@westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:L.Vardanega@westernsydney.edu.au
mailto:H.Elkofairi@westernsydney.edu.au
Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

1. About Psychology and Health 1

1.1 An Introduction to this Unit 1

1.2 Approach to Learning 1

1.3 What is Expected of You 2

1.4 Student responsibilities and conduct 3

1.5 What You can Expect from the Teaching Team 4

2. Learning and Teaching in this Unit 5

2.1 Unit Learning Outcomes 5

2.2 Course Learning Outcomes or Graduate Attributes 5

2.3 Schedule of Activities 6

2.4 Summary of How Learning Activities Support Achievment of Unit Learning Outcomes 9

2.5 Learning Resources 10

2.6 Other Resources 11

2. Assessment 12

3.1 Assessment summary 12

Assessments 1 & 2: Quizzes (15%) and Reflective Journal (15%) 13

Assessment 2: Report (30%) 16

Assessment 3: Exam (40%) 22

3.2 General Submission Requirements 23

4. Important Information 25

4.1 Links to Policies 25

4.2 Raising concerns 25

1. About Psychology and Health

1.1 An Introduction to this Unit

This unit aims to provide an introduction to the psychology of health and behaviour as relevant to the health sciences. Half of this unit is on health psychology and its applications, and the other half is on mental illness. The first half will involve a discussion of health behaviours, teaching you behaviour change techniques and introducing you to psychological interventions as applied to illness. The second half will introduce you to different mental illnesses and outline how psychologists treat and manage these conditions.

1.2 Approach to Learning

This subject will be delivered utilising a range of teaching and learning resources. The textbook attached to this subject is not a compulsory text (you don’t need buy it!), but rather has been recommended to help you understand the lecture material. The readings for the tutorials are assessable in the final exam. Face-to-face learning activities in tutorials are intended to help you consolidate what you have learned from the lectures and provide opportunities for you to engage in deeper learning. The unit will be presented by means of one hour lecture (starting on week 1) and one hour tutorial (starting on week 2) on a weekly basis throughout the course of the semester. Material from lectures will be assessable in the final examination. This unit relies heavily on vUWS to develop a blended learning environment and you are required to use vUWS to submit your assignments. There will also be a wide array of resources, materials, and learning modules that will be available on vUWS to assist you in your study. Furthermore, it is strongly recommended that you regularly visit the vUWS site for unit updates and announcements, to see if resources have been added, and to share your ideas and queries on the vUWS Discussion board. Please note that the Discussion Board is the first point of contact for any queries relating to this unit or the assignments. If you have difficulties accessing vUWS, please contact the e-Learning Helpdesk on (02) 9852 5252 before contacting the unit coordinators. Support for vUWS is available from the IT Service Desk and Blended Learning Platforms ream from 8.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays and University concessional days).

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1.3 What is Expected of You

Workload This is a 10 credit point unit and you should therefore allocate 10 hours per week for this unit. Two hours will be lecture/tutorial time and the remaining 8 hours should be devoted to reading and study, assessment preparation, and revision. In this unit, you will need to devote much of this time to reading the allocated materials. Health science assignments assume development of knowledge, skills and perspectives over time as ‘deep’ learning is required. If you complete the modules, do the associated reading, listen to lectures and actively participate in the tutorials you will be rewarded with development of your knowledge, skills and approach in the area of Psychology and Health, and how this unit applies to your career. Use the lectures, tutorials, online modules and assessments to apply and deepen your understanding of the material. Every lecture, tutorial, on-line module and reading is relevant to the assessments.

Attendance Students are expected to attend all lectures, view all online lectures and attend and participate actively in all tutorial activities. Failure to do so may seriously undermine a student’s ability to complete the unit satisfactorily. Attendance records may be consulted in the assessment of any requests for extensions or Special Consideration. You should advise your tutor if you are unable to attend a tutorial due to illness or misadventure.

Lectures: This subject comprises a combination of online-delivered and face-to-face lectures. This is in line with feedback given from previous cohorts undertaking this unit. Six lectures will be delivered face to face and online, while 7 will be online only (online lectures may be accessed via vUWS (vuws.westernsydney.edu.au ) . We recommend accessing these from a computer in the IT Computer Labs to avoid bandwidth usage at home. Lectures have been recorded in advance using the university’s Lecture Online video podcasting system, and have been placed in your vUWS site to be accessed often. The online lectures have been checked for technical quality. Please see Section 2.3 for an outline of the delivery of the lectures in this subject. Everything in the lectures is assessable in the final subject examination. The readings for the tutorials are also assessable in the final exam. The proposed textbook is only recommended to help you understand the lecture material and is not directly assessable. Tutorial activities are intended to help you consolidate what you have learned from the lectures and provide opportunities for you to engage in deeper learning. Tutorials: You have a one-hour tutorial every week commencing in week 2. Most tutorials have pre- readings or online module activities available on the vUWS unit site.

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