Postgraduate - UnitPSY4131 - Developmental and biological psychology

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	School of Psychological Sciences
Offered	Monash Online Teaching Period 4 2014 (Online) Monash Online Teaching Period 6 2014 (Online)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Matthew Mundy

Synopsis

This unit provides a continuation/elaboration of first-year psychology topics: developmental psychology and biological psychology. Developmental psychology encompasses physical, cognitive, and social-emotional changes across the life span and how these are shaped by macrosystems such as culture, and microsystems such as peers and the family. Biological psychology includes states of consciousness, mental disorders and addiction, mechanisms and disorders of learning and memory, and the regulation of emotional and motivated states. The laboratory program complements the lectures, and provides further training in research techniques, report writing, oral presentations and teamwork.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students will have the ability to:

Examine and determine how the range of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are underpinned by physiological and neural processes;
Explain the structural, chemical, and functional changes in the brain that accompany normal human development;
Evaluate the interplay between familial and cultural factors in determining the course of development from birth through to old age;
Synthesize current research and present a cohesive account of the etiology, neuropathology, and behavioural sequelae of a select developmental disorder;
Undertake a literature search and critically analyse the research methodology and conclusions of empirical studies in select topic areas in biological and developmental psychology;
Conduct and apply learned skills in common psychological tests to an assessment of human behaviour in a controlled and simulated environment.

Assessment

Secure Online Exams (30 mins per exam) (6 x 6.66% = 40%)
Oral presentation (4 mins per student, plus class interaction) (20%)
Research Report (1250 words) (20%)
Developmental Report (500 words plus 12hrs of computer interaction during childrearing) (20%)

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Matthew Mundy

Workload requirements

Students should expect to spend an average of 15-20 hours per week on this unit. This time will cover:

video lecture materials (1hr);
synchronous & asynchronous discussion (1-2 hrs);
synchronous web-based 'class-time' for skills-based activities (2hrs);
weekly readings (4-5hrs);
weekly skills-based assessment tasks (4-6 hours); and
content-based assessment (4-5 hours, including revision and formative assessment).