Overview
In this unit you will explore how the practical application of positive psychology can be used to enhance the wellbeing and resilience of individuals, groups, communities and organisations. You will take the fundamental principles and theories of positive psychology and explore how these are used to design and develop interventions across a range of settings such as education, health, youth, organisations and families. You will examine the drivers of systems and behavioural change and explore tools for integrating change such as appreciative enquiry, behavioural insights and change management methodologies. This unit includes a compulsory residential school, conducted in Adelaide, which will provide you with direct access to national and international experts in practical settings and provide an immersive experience where you will learn about the development and application of positive psychology interventions. In addition, you will be taught, in a supportive environment, group coaching, facilitation, and training skills, to equip you to work with small and large groups, (adults and teenagers). You will also learn how to assess and increase motivation and confidence for behaviour change, develop and implement goal-setting strategies in groups, utilise a range of training room media, and learn how to apply a range of approaches for enhancing group learning, engagement, and participation.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2017
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Residential Schools
This unit has a Compulsory Residential School for distance mode students and the details are:
Click here to see your Residential School Timetable.
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
- Define how the principles and theories of positive psychology can be used to support individuals, groups and communities across a range of settings and cohorts
- Facilitate behavioural and/or systems change in individuals, groups, communities and organisations by recognising the determinants of change and implementing positive psychology tools and methods
- Explore how models of systems thinking, behavioural insight, motivation factors, and appreciative inquiry, can be applied to bring about lasting change
- Evaluate the impact of positive psychology interventions on different groups
- Apply effective decision making and problem solving to the application of positive psychology tools in real-world situations
- Design a comprehensive long-form and short-form Facilitation Plan for a 1-day Positive Psychology workshop that includes at least two wellbeing and resilience interventions, and a range of group discussion formats.
- Demonstrate competency in delivering a Positive Psychology intervention to a group, including small and whole group facilitation, skills acquisition testing, and introduction and conclusion sections.
- Develop and apply reflective-practice skills, to reflect on your ongoing development of knowledge, and practitioner skills in the positive psychology/wellbeing domain, and also reflect on your personal development during the Unit.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 50% | ||||||||
| 3 - Reflective Practice Assignment - 10% | ||||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||||||
| 4 - Research | ||||||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 50% | ||||||||
| 3 - Reflective Practice Assignment - 10% | ||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
Additional Textbook Information
There are no prescribed books for this unit. Readings and an e-book will be supplied as part of the coursework.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 6th Edition (APA 6th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
a.mcclelland@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
1. Introduction to the domain
2. Behaviour change principles
3. One personal habit or behaviour change.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
1. Motivation and change
2. Evaluating programs and interventions.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Planning and writing group programs and interventions.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Compulsory Residential School, Adelaide (or Zoom).
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
The Residential School will run from Monday July 31, 11am, to Friday August 4, 5pm. Details will be in Moodle.
Module/Topic
Mental/physical health and wellbeing for individuals.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Interventions in Organisations.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Reflective Practice Assignment journal 2 Due Friday (August 25) 05:00 PM AEST
Written Assessment Due: Week 6 Friday (25 Aug 2017) 5:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Interventions in Education.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Working with teenagers and children.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Working with couples and families.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Reflective Practice Assignment journal 3 Due Friday (August 25) 05:00 PM AEST
Module/Topic
Social innovation and social enterprises.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Presentations in pairs (Practical Assessment - online).
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Wrap up, and moving forward.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Reflective Practice Assignment journal 4 Due Friday (August 25) 05:00 PM AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Details for the compulsory Residential (and for those unable to attend) will be posted in Week 1 on the unit Moodle site.
Please ensure you have your CQUniversity email diverted to your normal email address, to ensure you receive all notifications.
1 Written Assessment
In this assessment task, you will:
1. Plan and write a 1-day (8 hours) group program that includes prescribed sessions, and a minimum of two wellbeing/resilience interventions. The finished assessment document will include a schedule of the full program sessions, facilitation notes, media usage and room configurations, session timing, and a dot-point short-form schedule of the program. It will also include brief (one sentence) rationales for the included elements and facilitation approaches.
2. Draw on principles and theories of positive psychology to write a brief overview explaining how your interventions can be used to support the individuals and/or group targeted in your 1-day program.
Training in the process of developing and writing group programs will be provided in Week 3. Many session elements will also be modelled during the Residential, with time for hands-on group facilitation practice. The prescribed sessions to be included will be detailed in the Assessment Guide. The focus of this assignment is on how to use facilitation principles and approaches to develop a program that includes interventions and various group sessions. Hence, the predominant focus is not on the detailed specifics of the content in each session of your 1-day program, but rather, on the principles and practices of how to structure and write a facilitation plan for a group program.
Week 6 Friday (25 Aug 2017) 5:00 pm AEST
Week 8 Friday (8 Sept 2017)
Assessment criteria will be assessed via a marking guide that will be available on the unit Moodle site. This will be used to assess:
1. Your session inclusions in the program
2. Your brief introductory explanation regarding the interventions
3. Your one-sentence rationales for the elements in your program
4. The appropriate inclusion of all required sessions and program elements
5. Facilitation approaches chosen for each session
6. Appropriate timing and transitions allotted for sessions
7. Embedding of ethics and inclusion principles
8. Appropriate usage of room space, seating configurations, and media usage
9. The quality of your writing, rationales, facilitation approaches, program structure, and adherence to ethical principles.
- Define how the principles and theories of positive psychology can be used to support individuals, groups and communities across a range of settings and cohorts
- Explore how models of systems thinking, behavioural insight, motivation factors, and appreciative inquiry, can be applied to bring about lasting change
- Evaluate the impact of positive psychology interventions on different groups
- Design a comprehensive long-form and short-form Facilitation Plan for a 1-day Positive Psychology workshop that includes at least two wellbeing and resilience interventions, and a range of group discussion formats.
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
2 Practical Assessment
In pairs, you will plan and conduct a 25-30 minute online group training session that includes:
1. An introduction
2. One intervention taught to the group
3. One small-group discussion (Zoom breakout rooms) and one whole-group discussion
4. The use of PPT slides, and various required features of Zoom
5. Evidence of fulfilment of the requirements of the intervention by the group members
6. A summary/conclusion.
You will also complete a brief peer-review feedback sheet for each of the presenting pairs.
Following the presentation, you will be required to submit in Moodle your PPT slides and any other visual media utilised in the presentation.
Notes:
- Information and guidance for developing the group training and facilitation skills for this assessment piece will be provided during the term on Moodle. Modelling of sessions, and hands-on facilitation practice will occur at the Residential.
- You will need to attend one of the 3 presentation evenings in Week 11 (Monday, Sept 25, Tuesday 26, or Wed 27), for 2.5 hours. Depending on student numbers, we may need to extend an evening or utilise an extra night in Week 11.
- Negotiation of partner choice and the presentation schedule will occur in week 4.
- You will be given 5 minutes between each presentation to complete a peer-review feedback rubric and comments.
Presentations will occur on 3 consecutive evenings (Monday-Wednesday). On the evenings you are not presenting, attendance is encouraged, but optional.
Review/Exam Week Friday (13 Oct 2017)
This assessment piece is a group-facilitation competency assessment. As such, a competency-based marking guide will be used to assess whether each competency has been satisfactorily achieved, and to what quality level. The marking guide will be supplied in the unit Moodle site and will assess a range of criteria including:
1. The inclusion and facilitation quality of the required session elements detailed in the Assessment Guide
2. The level of professionalism evident in your facilitation and visuals
3. The facilitation skills and ethical practices evident in the implementing of the intervention, and in your introduction, discussions facilitation, and session wrap-up
4. Appropriateness of facilitation approaches, content, intervention choice, and timing.
The Assessment Guide, which will be available in the unit Moodle site, will provide full details of the assessment requirements, and competencies being assessed.
- Facilitate behavioural and/or systems change in individuals, groups, communities and organisations by recognising the determinants of change and implementing positive psychology tools and methods
- Apply effective decision making and problem solving to the application of positive psychology tools in real-world situations
- Demonstrate competency in delivering a Positive Psychology intervention to a group, including small and whole group facilitation, skills acquisition testing, and introduction and conclusion sections.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
- Leadership
3 Reflective Practice Assignment
Four Reflective Practice journal entries (approximately 300 words each) will be required for this assessment piece. Details will be provided on Moodle in the Assessment Guide regarding the approach, format, and inclusion requirements. Guidance will also be supplied in the Assessment Guide as to how to develop a Reflective Practice. The journal submissions provide the opportunity to reflect on your professional and personal journey, as well as documenting your developing skills and insights in the domain. In conjunction with your reflections on your personal and professional development and domain/specific reflections, each of the four submissions will include a topic-specific reflection requirement, detailed in the Assessment Guide.
Week 3 Friday (28 July 2017) 5:00 pm AEST
Please note: journal entries will be due Friday, 5 pm (AEST) in Weeks 3, 6, 9, and 12.
Week 5 Friday (11 Aug 2017)
Each journal entry will receive feedback from the unit coordinator two weeks after each journal entry is submitted.
Feedback will be provided - and a mark given - based on effort, and on adherence to the assessment requirements detailed in the Assessment Guide. Whilst each Reflective Practice submission will allow you flexibility to develop your own style for reflecting on your personal and professional development in the unit, the following assessment criteria will apply:
1. Inclusion and clarity of description of the reflection event/experience, activity or focus
2. Inclusion and clarity of intellectual and emotional responses to the reflective focus
3. General reflection: evidence of comparing current insights to previous understandings
4. Inclusion and clarity of domain/career-specific reflections
5. Inclusion and clarity of the topic-specific reflection required for each of the four submissions.
- Develop and apply reflective-practice skills, to reflect on your ongoing development of knowledge, and practitioner skills in the positive psychology/wellbeing domain, and also reflect on your personal development during the Unit.
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
