PSYC21002 - Advanced Clinical Assessment

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit is intended to provide you with advanced knowledge and skill acquisition at Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC) Accreditation Standards Level 4, which represents professional and specialised areas of practice competencies necessary for working as a Clinical Psychologist. Specifically this unit aims to build your competency in assessment research, theory and practice of more complex psychological pathology and presentations. This will include specific focus on more advanced cognitive assessment techniques, including neuropsychological screening and assessment. You will build knowledge and skills specific to culturally-responsive reflective practice approaches in complex psychological assessment, which will be integrated throughout the teaching, learning and assessment within this unit.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 9
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

For students enrolled in CG17 Master of Clinical Psychology, the units PSYC21001 Assessment 1 and PSYC21008 Clinical Practice 2 are prerequisites.

For students enrolled in CM49 Master of Clinical Psychology Advanced Entry), the unit PSYC21008 Clinical Practice 2 is a prerequisite.

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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2024

Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Rockhampton
Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Rockhampton

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).

Assessment Overview

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.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 45%
2. Presentation 35%
3. Online Quiz(zes) 20%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 83.33% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 54.55% response rate.

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.

Source: SUTE unit comments
Feedback
Quizzes should have more weight on the overall grade for the unit.
Recommendation
Review the weighting of this Assessment Task to consider whether the quizzes could have more weight.
Action Taken
The quiz weighting was revised as part of the update to all Assessment Tasks in the major revision of this unit for 2024.
Source: SUTE unit comments
Feedback
Quizzes were too broad and attempted to cover a lot of information. The Quiz should not be comprehension test but a test for understanding of content.
Recommendation
Review the content of the quiz questions to ensure they directly assess the Learning Outcomes.
Action Taken
The number of quizzes was reduced and the quiz questions were revised to better fit the updated Learning Outcomes and assessment strategy of the unit.
Source: Student SUTE feedback.
Feedback
A student suggested that the third Assessment Task - the Case Study Report - could be broken down into steps with each step being a focus of attention in weekly classes. This would allow students to apply their learning as they progress through the unit.
Recommendation
Review the structure and timing of the assessment task with a view to covering some of the specific psychometric tests in weekly classes. This will need to include sufficient flexibility for the weekly curriculum content to be relevant to a new case study for each year's Assessment Task.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Lecturer reflection on unit.
Feedback
Learning resources need to be expanded. Due to a major revision of this unit there were not a lot of resources available to be uploaded to Moodle and the Psychology wellness centre did not have all tests taught in the unit.
Recommendation
Review the weekly content and source additional learning resources for Moodle. Consider whether additional relevant psychometric tests could be added to the Psychology Wellness Centre test library so that students can practice these tests in or between classes.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Critically apply theoretical knowledge and a culturally responsive scientist-practitioner approach to the selection and implementation of psychological tests, within the context of complex psychological assessment
  2. Justify and communicate evidence-based integration of advanced assessment techniques in oral and written format
  3. Demonstrate working knowledge of brain functions as they relate to neurological dysfunctions within the context of clinical psychology assessments.

These Learning Outcomes are intended to link with the CG17 Master of Clinical Psychology course Learning Outcome "Conduct culturally responsive assessment of psychological disorders to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples" (Learning Outcome number 3).

The PSYC21002 Learning Outcomes align with the 2019 Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC) accreditation guidelines for Level 4 Graduate Competencies specific to assessment in clinical psychology.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Written Assessment • •
2 - Presentation • •
3 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Knowledge • • •
2 - Communication • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • •
4 - Research •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8