units

ASC5010

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Monash University

Postgraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 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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12 points, SCA Band 2, 0.250 EFTSL

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

LevelPostgraduate
FacultyFaculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational UnitEastern Health Clinical School
OfferedNot offered in 2015
Coordinator(s)Dr Naomi Crafti

Synopsis

This subject will define and present the latest research in the aetiology, maintenance, treatment and recovery from gambling and other process addictions. Process addictions involve dependence to certain mood-altering behaviours, such as gambling, eating disorders, sexual activity, the internet or gaming and shopping/hoarding behaviours. While the main focus of this subject will be on problem gambling, the generalisation of underlying principles to other problem behaviours will be described and discussed. Some of the areas to be covered in this unit include; definitions and features of behavioural addictions, prevention and treatment programs for behavioural addictions and public health issues.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. Provide evidence for both the differences and similarities between behavioural or process addictions and substance disorders
  2. Contextualise issues regarding gambling addiction including precipitating and maintaining factors
  3. Provide an evidence based assessment, treatment and recovery program for a person with multiple or complex addiction issues
  4. Compare and contrast the special features associated with a range of behaviourally based addictive disorders
  5. Critically analyse the research, available treatments and subclinical problems associated with one or more behavioural addictions (in addition to gambling)
  6. Present an argument to potential legislators, based on the available evidence, to legislate for changes in the law that can contribute to behaviour change in an area of addiction identified in this unit.

Assessment

Participation in online discussions (Hurdle)
Participation in an online debate (written) (1,500 words) (15%)
Case study (written) (4,500 words) (30%)
Essay (written) (6,500 words) (55%)

Workload requirements

Students enrolling in ASC5010 will be expected to contact the unit coordinator(s) regularly throughout the semester and participate in online discussion with fellow students and academic staff. Students should expect to spend around 24 hours a week of self-directed learning. This includes accessing online lectures, podcasts and resources as well as participating in forum discussions questions and quizzes via Moodle in addition to conducting offline independent study such as reading, research and writing activities.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Addiction studies, Behavioural studies, Psychology, Mental health.