HLTHPSYC 720 : Health Psychology Interventions
Medical and Health Sciences
2020 Semester Two (1205) (15 POINTS)
Course Prescription
Course Overview
This course introduces the models of intervention most commonly used in health psychology at individual, group, and population levels. It reviews the theories that underpin health psychology interventions and applies these approaches to examples from the field. Individual and group/community treatment targets are considered, including common difficulties that impact on disease occurrence, illness management, and the psychological consequences of disease.
Capabilities Developed in this Course
| Capability 1: | Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice |
| Capability 2: | Critical Thinking |
| Capability 3: | Solution Seeking |
| Capability 4: | Communication and Engagement |
| Capability 5: | Independence and Integrity |
| Capability 6: | Social and Environmental Responsibilities |
Learning Outcomes
- To discuss and reflect on the use of different approaches to health psychology interventions including the theoretical underpinning of the approaches, the practical application of the approaches, and how they have been applied to targets relevant to health psychology. (Capability 1.1, 1.3 and 3.1)
- Describe and discuss the primary approaches to health psychology interventions and the challenges of intervening at different levels – individual, group, population. (Capability 1.2, 1.3, 4.1, 4.2, 6.1 and 6.2)
- Evaluate the research evidence around the effectiveness of health psychology interventions, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of various designs. (Capability 1.2, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3)
- Reflect on and justify the need for using evidence-based frameworks to develop, implement and evaluate interventions. (Capability 1.2, 1.3, 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.2 and 6.1)
Assessments
| Assessment Type | Percentage | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 30% | Individual Coursework |
| Presentation | 30% | Individual Coursework |
| Final Exam | 40% | Individual Examination |
| 3 types | 100% |
| Assessment Type | Learning Outcome Addressed | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
| Essay | ||||||||||
| Presentation | ||||||||||
| Final Exam | ||||||||||
Learning Resources
A wide array of health psychology, clinical psychology and medical journals report information relevant to this course. The NICE guidelines offer summaries of evidence based support for interventions for a number of relevant conditions http://www.nice.org.uk (Links to an external site.). The US Society for Clinical Psychology guidelines offer similar information, https://www.div12.org/psychological-treatments/.
Workload Expectations
This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.
For this course, you can expect 24 hours of lectures (12 x 2-hour lectures), 24 hours of preparation for lectures (reading and thinking about the content), 60 hours of work on assignments (30 hours per assignment) and 42 hours of work for the final exam (40 hours of exam preparation and 2 hours to sit the exam). The total student workload is 150 hours.
Other Information
Classes will be taught in a combination of lecture and workshop formats together with facilitated discussions (depending on the particular content).
Digital Resources
Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).
Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.
Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.
Inclusive Learning
All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.
Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website at http://disability.auckland.ac.nz
Special Circumstances
If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.
If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.
This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.
Student Feedback
At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.
Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.
Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.
Student Charter and Responsibilities
The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter (https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html).
Disclaimer
Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.
In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.