Course Title: Applied Psychology Topics

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Applied Psychology Topics

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
BESC1407	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	150H Health Sciences	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2006, Sem 1 2007, Sem 2 2008, Sem 2 2009, Sem 2 2010, Sem 2 2011, Sem 1 2012, Sem 2 2012, Sem 2 2013, Sem 2 2014, Sem 2 2015, Sem 2 2016
BESC1407	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
BESC1408	City Campus	Undergraduate	173H School of Health and Biomed	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2019, Sem 2 2020, Sem 2 2021, Sem 2 2022
BESC1410	Bundoora Campus	Postgraduate	150H Health Sciences	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2006, Sem 1 2007, Sem 2 2008, Sem 2 2009, Sem 2 2010, Sem 2 2011, Sem 1 2012, Sem 2 2012, Sem 2 2013, Sem 2 2014, Sem 2 2015, Sem 2 2016
BESC1544	RMIT University Vietnam	Undergraduate	173H School of Health and Biomed	Face-to-Face	Viet3 2021

Course Coordinator: Dr Robin Laycock

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7400

Course Coordinator Email: robin.laycock@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 202.04.035-3

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

 

Course Description

The course applied psychology topics provides you with an opportunity to investigate psychology components associated with health, exercise and sport. The health psychology component examines the nature of health psychology, its biopsychosocial approach and its relationship with behavioural health care. It will examine topical social issues such as stress, eating problems, substance abuse, and exercise and also examine issues of interest in professional psychology such as treatment adherence, the nature and management of pain and psychological contributions to management of chronic health problems. The exercise and sport psychology components examine personality and motivation; stress and arousal; substance abuse in sport; psychological factors in preventing and managing sports injury; exercise and psychological well-being; and exercise behaviour and adherence.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course contributes to the development of the following Program Learning Outcomes for BP154 Bachelor of Applied Science (Psychology):

• 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 6: develop collaborative partnerships with colleagues, other professionals and the community that build on the capacity of others and develop open and flexible relationships that adapt to evolving needs and aspirations.

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

1. Recognise the concept of health and the related field of health psychology; apply these concepts in every-day life and in the practice of clinical psychology.
2. Review major research findings in health psychology, and an appreciation of the difficulties in arriving at firm conclusions about relationships between health outcomes and particular behaviours.
3. Critically analyse knowledge construction in sports and exercise psychology.
4. Recognise the impact of individual differences on sports and exercise behaviour.
5. Analyse the social environment of the sport/exercise domain 
6. Demonstrate an understanding of good communication skills in health and sport/exercise domains. 

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

Assessment Tasks 

Early Assessment Task: Course content quizzes
Weighting 20%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1-9  

Assessment Task 2: Communication Skills
Weighting 35%
This assessment task supports CLO 10 

Assessment Task 3: Applications of Health and Exercise/Sport Psychology
Weighting 45%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1-9  

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.