Course Title: Psychological Assessment and Individual Differences

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Psychological Assessment and Individual Differences

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

BESC1433

City Campus

Undergraduate

150H Health Sciences

Face-to-Face

 Sem 1 2007,
Sem 1 2008,
Sem 1 2009,
Sem 1 2010,
Sem 1 2011,
Sem 1 2012,
Sem 2 2013,
Sem 2 2014,
Sem 2 2015,
Sem 2 2016

BESC1433

City Campus

Undergraduate

173H School of Health and Biomed

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2018,
Sem 2 2019,
Sem 2 2020,
Sem 2 2021,
Sem 2 2022,
Sem 2 2023,
Sem 2 2024

BESC1434

Bundoora Campus

Undergraduate

150H Health Sciences

Face-to-Face

 Sem 1 2007,
Sem 1 2008,
Sem 1 2010,
Sem 1 2011,
Sem 1 2012,
Sem 2 2013,
Sem 2 2014

BESC1435

Bundoora Campus

Postgraduate

150H Health Sciences

Face-to-Face

 Sem 1 2007,
Sem 1 2008,
Sem 1 2010,
Sem 1 2011,
Sem 1 2012,
Sem 2 2013,
Sem 2 2014

BESC1436

City Campus

Postgraduate

150H Health Sciences

Face-to-Face

 Sem 1 2007,
Sem 1 2008,
Sem 1 2009,
Sem 1 2010,
Sem 1 2011,
Sem 1 2012,
Sem 2 2013,
Sem 2 2014

BESC1534

RMIT University Vietnam

Undergraduate

173H School of Health and Biomed

Face-to-Face

 Viet3 2023,
Viet3 2024

BESC1556

RMIT Vietnam Hanoi Campus

Undergraduate

173H School of Health and Biomed

Face-to-Face

 Viet3 2024

Course Coordinator: Christopher Powell

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925

Course Coordinator Email: chris.powell@rmit.edu.au


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Enforced Pre-Requisite Courses

Successful completion of:

Note: it is a condition of enrolment at RMIT that you accept responsibility for ensuring that you have completed the prerequisite/s and agree to concurrently enrol in co-requisite courses before enrolling in a course.

For information go to RMIT Course Requisites webpage.


Course Description

The course has two purposes: (1) to compare and contrast different theoretical models of individual differences, and (2) to introduce students to a range of assessment procedures, ethical issues, and professional issues related to psychological assessment. Through lectures, small-group discussions, readings, and writing essays and reports, students are encouraged to: evaluate their own perspectives on individual differences in terms of established concepts; consider the implications of these concepts for their own development; select and evaluate assessment instruments by applying their knowledge of psychometric theory; and demonstrate an understanding of a range of ethical and professional issues related to psychological assessment.


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 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.


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

  1. Outline biological, psychological, and social perspectives surrounding individual differences.
  2. Evaluate the trait perspective on personality.
  3. Describe the relationship of personality with culture and political orientation.
  4. Describe diverse approaches to assessing individual differences.
  5. Describe the process of developing valid and reliable measures for psychological assessment.
  6. Compare and contrast different approaches to measuring intelligence.
  7. Evaluate the degree to which individual difference measures predict important life outcomes.


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

Assessment Task 1: Essay
Weighting 40%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1 & 2

Assessment Task 2: Literature Review
Weighting 40%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1, 2, 3 & 7

Assessment Task 3: Quizzes
Weighting 20%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7

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.