Overview
In this unit, you will examine interconnected factors and complex systems that impact wellbeing and resilience at an individual and societal level. At the individual level, you will examine the interplay between mental processes, emotions, and physiology, and assess how to positively influence these areas. You will also evaluate the importance of factors such as sleep, nutrition and diet, exercise, social support, fun, play, and creativity. At a societal level, you will evaluate the impact on wellbeing and resilience of factors such as education, health systems, societal norms and values, and the impact of built and natural environments. Within this interconnected factors framework, you will draw on evidence-based research, tools, approaches, and models, to promote wellbeing and resilience interventions.
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 1 - 2022
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).
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.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student feedback (evaluations).
Students found the material useful, interesting, and engaging, and appreciated the ability to focus on areas of interest in activities and assessments.
Retain the unit material (with updates as needed) and allow students to focus on particular areas of interest for assessment pieces.
Feedback from Student feedback (evaluations).
Students appreciated the chance to apply unit content to diverse types of assessment pieces (e.g., blog, reflective journal).
Retain the diversity of types of assessment pieces.
Feedback from Student feedback (evaluations).
Two students indicated that they would like more video recordings for some lecture material, rather than mostly written lecture notes.
Review unit material to see whether additional recordings or podcasts would complement written materials.
- Critically analyse wellbeing and resilience resources, including contemporary discipline research, programs and interventions
- Discuss and evaluate the integration of psychosocial, physiological and environmental approaches to understanding wellbeing and resilience
- Apply reflective practice to chronicle insights and awareness of interconnected wellbeing factors
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 35% | |||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 45% | |||
| 3 - Reflective Practice Assignment - 20% | |||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 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 | |||
Textbooks
Positive Psychology: Theory, Research and Applications
2nd edition (2019)
Authors: Ilona Boniwell and Aneta D. Tunariu
Open University Press. McGraw-Hill Education
New York New York , New York , USA
ISBN: 978-0-335-262-182 (pb), eISBN: 978-0-335-262-199
Binding: Paperback
The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology
3rd edition (2021)
Authors: C.R. Snyder, Shane J. Lopez, Lisa M. Edwards, and Susana C. Marques (editors)
Oxford University Press
New York New York , New York , USA
ISBN: 978-0-199-396-511 (pb)
Binding: Paperback
Additional Textbook Information
These textbooks are used across your positive psychology studies. Both textbooks can be accessed free-of-charge as e-books by students via the CQU Library Catalogue. Occasionally, when there are lots of students trying to access the books at the same time, you may need to try again later or print out sections required. If you wish to purchase hardcopies so that you always have access to the texts, you can do so through the CQU Bookshop here: http://bookshop.cqu.edu.au
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
a.gerace@cqu.edu.au
m.l.moore@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Understanding wellbeing and resilience: Ecological approaches and PERMA +
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Zoom Tutorial: Week 1 Tuesday (8 Mar 2022) 6:30-8:00 pm AEDT
Module/Topic
Positive emotions and wellbeing
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Mindsets
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Zoom Tutorial: Week 3 Tuesday (22 Mar 2022) 6:30-8:00 pm AEDT
Module/Topic
Health and wellbeing (Part 1)
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Health and wellbeing (Part 2)
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
No module/topics this week
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 1 - Written Assessment
Curate and evaluate wellbeing articles, videos, and websites Due: Vacation Week Monday (11 Apr 2022) 5:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Resilience
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The search for meaning: Strengths, values, and goals
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Zoom Tutorial: Week 7 Tuesday (26 Apr 2022) 6:30-8:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Young people and wellbeing
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Environment and wellbeing
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Wellbeing at work
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Zoom Tutorial: Week 10 Tuesday (17 May 2022) 6:30-8:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Aging and wellbeing
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 2 - Online resources
Positive psychology, wellbeing, and resilience blog posts Due: Week 11 Monday (23 May 2022) 5:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Bringing it all together: Individual and societal contributors to wellbeing and resilience
Chapter
Please see selected readings and activities on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
There are no examinations for this unit
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 3 - Reflective Practice Assignment
Reflective practice assessment Due: Review/Exam Week Monday (6 June 2022) 5:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
There are no examinations for this unit
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Your Unit Coordinator for Term 1, 2022 is Dr Melissa Moore.
1 Written Assessment
In Assessment 1, you are required to collect and evaluate a series of resources pertaining to wellbeing in different areas. The areas (topics) chosen will inform your completion of Assessment 2, which is to develop an online positive psychology, wellbeing, and resilience blog.
For Assessment 1, you will:
- Choose five topics from a list of wellbeing topics (provided on the Moodle site). You are also required to include an additional (sixth) topic area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and wellbeing.
- Pertaining to the six chosen topics (five chosen topics from the list and one of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and wellbeing), source and collate a collection of peer-reviewed research articles, quality relevant websites, research-oriented summary media articles, and videos
- Reference each resource using APA style
- For the six topic areas, summarise, analyse and evaluate the collected resources (400 words +/- 10% per topic area).
It is expected that for each topic area, students collect a minimum of 4 resources. This means that you will have a minimum of 24 curated items.
All collected resources (e.g. websites, videos) should be underpinned by peer-reviewed research. For each of the six topics, the resources collected should include at least one review article (e.g., systematic review, narrative review) from a peer-reviewed journal.
Topic area resources collected must have a primary focus on positive psychology and/or wellbeing and resilience. For each topic area, your chosen resources should cover psychological, physiological/physical, and environmental approaches to wellbeing/resilience. Each topic area must include at least one wellbeing intervention/practice.
Maximum word count for the analysis and evaluation of six topic areas: 2400 words (+/- 10%). This word limit includes in-text citations but excludes any reference section. Meeting the word count is included as a part of the marking criteria in your marking rubric on Moodle. See the Psychology Word Count Information document on Moodle for a rationale for using this type of word limit restriction.
Further task details will be available on the unit Moodle site.
Vacation Week Monday (11 Apr 2022) 5:00 pm AEST
Week 7 Monday (25 Apr 2022)
Feedback and grade for this assessment will be provided within 2 weeks of submission.
You will be assessed on:
- Quality and appropriateness of resources collected on positive psychology and wellbeing and resilience
- Integration of psychological, physiological, and environmental health approaches for each topic area
- Critical evaluation of resources and wellbeing interventions/wellbeing practices supported by empirical evidence
- Quality of written communication, including correct APA referencing and adherence to word count.
Detailed information regarding assessment requirements and criteria for assessment can be found in the Unit and Assessment Guide on Moodle.
- Critically analyse wellbeing and resilience resources, including contemporary discipline research, programs and interventions
- Discuss and evaluate the integration of psychosocial, physiological and environmental approaches to understanding wellbeing and resilience
2 Written Assessment
In Assessment 2, you will produce a Positive Psychology, Wellbeing, and Resilience website blog consisting of five individual blog posts.
For Assessment 2, you will:
- Research and choose an appropriate web blog platform to use
- Prepare a series of five blog posts, one post per chosen topic area from Assessment 1 (that is, a blog post on each of your free-choice topic areas from Assessment 1), summarising evidence-based information (using references) pertaining to the area. You may use references from Assessment 1, but will need to source additional references for each blog post
- Detail at least one suitable, evidence-based wellbeing intervention/practice area per topic area.
Blog posts should be prepared for a non-academic audience. This may be a general lay audience, or a particular audience (e.g., particular profession; particular group such as people experiencing a particular life event).
Your evaluation of resources from Assessment 1 (e.g., strengths and weaknesses of particular studies or gaps in the literature) will inform your development of your blog posts, such as choosing which resources to use and directing you to sourcing further resources. However, you will not be using any of your written text from Assessment 1 in your blog posts.
Maximum word count: 2500 words (+/- 10%). This word limit includes in-text citations but excludes any reference section. Meeting the word count is included as a part of the marking criteria in your marking rubric on Moodle. See the Psychology Word Count Information document on Moodle for a rationale for using this type of word limit restriction.
Further task details will be available on the unit Moodle site.
Week 11 Monday (23 May 2022) 5:00 pm AEST
Review/Exam Week Monday (6 June 2022)
Feedback and grade for this assessment will be provided within 2 weeks of submission.
You will be assessed on:
- Your examination of main issues pertaining to topic areas
- Rationale for choosing, and evaluation of, specific evidence-based interventions/practices
- Presentation and written communication skills, including attention to context, audience, and purpose of the blog
- Use of citations and references
- Adherence to word count.
Detailed information regarding assessment requirements and criteria for assessment can be found in the Unit and Assessment Guide on Moodle.
- Critically analyse wellbeing and resilience resources, including contemporary discipline research, programs and interventions
- Discuss and evaluate the integration of psychosocial, physiological and environmental approaches to understanding wellbeing and resilience
- Apply reflective practice to chronicle insights and awareness of interconnected wellbeing factors
3 Reflective Practice Assignment
In Assessment 3, you will use a reflective practice journal to chronicle your reflections and insights of interconnected wellbeing and resilience factors.
You will produce two reflective practice journal entries (600 words each, +/- 10%) documenting:
- reflections on unit content, including self-reflection of your own understanding of content and mastery of concepts
- connections made between unit content and previous life experiences and observations
- evaluation of changes in prior perceptions and beliefs regarding wellbeing and resilience
- plans for future action using unit learning, or actual experimentation undertaken with unit concepts, in home and/or work life.
For each entry, it is recommended that you choose a focused area to reflect upon; for example, you may choose to focus on one week's content or even a small number of concepts/areas from a week's content. You are expected to use references when discussing concepts from the literature, and you are expected to include at least two references per journal entry.
The first journal entry should focus on any content from the first half (Weeks 1-6) of the unit, with the second entry focusing on any content from the second half (Weeks 7-12) of the unit.
While the two entries are submitted together, it is recommended that you write your first entry within the first half of the unit, and your second towards the end of the unit.
Maximum word count: 1200 words (+/- 10%). This word limit includes in-text citations but excludes any reference section. Meeting the word count is included as a part of the marking criteria in your marking rubric on Moodle. See the Psychology Word Count Information document on Moodle for a rationale for using this type of word limit restriction.
Further task details will be available on the unit Moodle site.
Review/Exam Week Monday (6 June 2022) 5:00 pm AEST
Exam Week Friday (17 June 2022)
Feedback and grade for this assessment will be provided within 2 weeks of submission.
You will be assessed on:
- Self-reflection and examination of your own learning
- Application of learning to previous life experiences and future actions in response to learning.
- Quality of written communication, including correct APA referencing and adherence to word count.
- Apply reflective practice to chronicle insights and awareness of interconnected wellbeing factors
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?
