Inherent requirements – Bachelor of Psychological Studies
Find the abilities, attributes, skills and behaviours needed to meet the learning outcomes of the:
- Bachelor of Arts (ABAB)
- Bachelor of Criminal Justice and Psychological Studies (ABCY)
- Bachelor of Psychological Studies (ABPA)
- Bachelor of Psychological Studies/Bachelor Business (ABPB)
- Bachelor of Criminology/Bachelor of Psychological Studies (LBCP)
- Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Psychological Studies (LBWP)
- Bachelor of Sport Science (Human Movement)/Bachelor of Psychological Studies (SBHP)
You should carefully consider the following inherent requirement statements for these courses as a:
- a guide for your learning during the course
- a way to identify challenges you may have in meeting the requirements.
This relates to the understanding and ability to comply with Australian and Victorian law and professional accreditation regulations.
Examples include:
- Child protection and safety legislation (including the ability to pass a Working with Children Check)
- Criminal History / Police Checks
- Occupational health and safety
- Anti-discrimination legislation.
Rationale
Knowledge, understanding, and compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements are necessary pre-requisites in order to reduce the risk of harm to self and others. Compliance with these professional regulations and the Australian Law ensures students are both responsible and accountable for their behaviours.
Examples
- Complying with legal requirements.
- Complying with regulatory requirements for eventual registration with the Australian Health Professional Registration Authority (AHPRA).
- Complying with Anti-discrimination legislation.
This relates to the student's ability to understand and adhere to standards, codes, guidelines and policies that facilitates safe, competent interactions and relationships for students and the people they engage with.
Examples include:
- Complying with academic and non-academic conduct codes and policies, including academic integrity policies
- Understanding and complying with professional standards, codes of practice, and guidelines
Rationale
Compliance with recognised values of society, and the scientific discipline of psychology facilitates safe and competent interactions and relationships for students and the people with whom they engage. This supports the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual well-being of all parties.
Examples
- Appropriately acknowledging sources in the preparation of assessment tasks.
- Displaying sensitivity to others’ experiences and opinions in discussions as part of course work.
- Understanding and practising appropriate professional boundaries.
- Demonstrating appropriate behaviour with confidential information.
- Complying with codes and guidelines of ethical conduct with respect to research.
- Responding appropriately and respectfully to staff and students including verbal and non-verbal communication.
This relates to the student's capacity for knowledge acquisition, utilisation and retention. It also includes metacognitive capacity such as awareness of one's own thinking, and the ability to reflect, evaluate, adapt and implement new cognitive strategies.
Examples include:
- Focus, memory, attention to detail, theoretical deliberation, and practical functioning sufficient to meet the course objectives
- Ability to reflect and take personal responsibility
- Ability to apply knowledge in practical and theoretical assessment settings.
Cognition - knowledge & cognitive
Knowledge acquisition, utilisation and retention spanning and drawing together all coursework subjects. Cognitive skills for focus, memory, attention to detail, theoretical deliberation, and practical functioning.
Rationale
Understanding and retention of coursework information and the effective processing of this information is required for the academic completion of the course.
Examples
- Ability to conceptualise and use appropriate knowledge in response to assessment items.
- Ability to select, evaluate, and apply knowledge, for example to formulate and test hypotheses, prepare a critical literature review, develop treatment plans.
- Understanding, applying, and evaluating psychological knowledge
- Locating and integrating information from a range of sources.
Cognition - metacognition
Awareness of own thinking, and skills to reflect, evaluate, adapt and implement new cognitive strategies for improved learning.
Rationale
The ability to understand and apply psychological principles to a wide range of situations and contexts is a key graduate attribute for psychology courses, and the capacity for reflection on the self and others is an important component of this process.
Examples
- Identifying how one's ability to relate to others may impede or enhance work with peers and academic teachers in classroom practice settings.
- Accurately assessing one’s own performance in assessments and integrating feedback effectively into subsequent tasks.
- The capacity to reflect on personal experiences and professional performance and learn from them.
- Insightful awareness of one’s feelings, motives, and attitudes based on psychological principles.
- The capacity for independent learning in a changing scientific and professional context.
This includes both writing and reading, and is also linked to English language proficiency (literacy requirements are always established in terms of English). NB: For VE, literacy requirements are based on the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF).
Examples include:
- Capacity to comprehend, summarise and reference a range of literature in accordance with appropriate academic conventions in written assignments
- Producing clear, accurate documentation relating to practical tasks.
Rationale
Students need to demonstrate the ability to comprehend written information in English presented in a variety of styles, and the capacity to understand and implement academic conventions to construct written text in a scholarly manner.
Examples
- Paraphrasing, summarising and referencing in accordance with appropriate academic conventions (e.g., not plagiarising).
- Reading and synthesising written instructions to understand and respond to assessment requirements.
This includes any form of numeracy required to complete the course successfully. For many courses, this will be basic functional numeracy. NB: For VE, numeracy requirements are based on the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF).
Examples include:
- Competent reasoning and reliable accuracy with numerical concepts
- Ability to perform basic mathematical tasks.
Rationale
The ability to read, decode, interpret, and communicate numerical information is essential to the scientific basis of psychology.
Examples
- Performing calculations and statistical analysis using statistical software packages and interpreting the output
- Scoring psychological measurements.
This includes verbal, non-verbal and written communication.
Examples include:
- Verbal communication in English to a standard that allows fluid, clear, and comprehensible two-way discussions
- Ability to recognise, interpret and respond to non-verbal cues, to communicate with congruent and respectful non-verbal behaviour, and to be sensitive to individual and/or cultural variations in non-verbal communication
- Ability to produce English text to the expected standard (NB: This is a skill that may be developed throughout a course, and should be identified as such in any inherent requirements statement).
Communication - verbal
Verbal communication in English to a standard that allows fluid, clear, and comprehensible two-way discussions, tailored to the local English-speaking audiences.
Rationale
Effective communication in a variety of formats and contexts, including presenting data and the results of statistical analyses, is an important skill. Communicating in a way that displays respect and empathy to others helps develop trusting relationships. The practice of psychology requires a wide range of communication skills including effective verbal communication with colleagues. Effective verbal communication, in English, with University staff and students is required for effective learning.
Examples
- Delivering oral presentations as part of assessments.
- Tailoring written communication style to a variety of different formats and data, such as online discussion forums and scientific reports
- Participating in classes, team and group work, and classroom discussions
- The capacity to develop coherent written and verbal communication in response to assessments
- Communicate in ways that show sensitivity to individual and cultural differences
- Understand and respond to verbal communication accurately, appropriately and in a timely manner
- Ability to understand and provide clear instructions in a given context; and to provide timely, clear feedback and reporting.
Communication - written
Ability to produce English text to a standard that provides clear and professional-level communication, with language usage and style tailored to the targeted recipients.
Rationale
Effective communication in English text is required to demonstrate applied skills in academic writing conventions and in sustained and organised academic argument.
Examples
- Tailoring written communication style to a variety of different formats and data, such as online discussion forums and scientific reports.
This includes a person's ability to sustain their performance in a given activity or series of activities over time. Care must be taken to not prescribe sustained performance in a way that allows no room for temporary changes to performance levels due to illness or other factors.
Examples include:
- Ability to sustain a working posture, associated manual tasks, cognitive engagement, performance level and emotional control for the full duration of any task required as part of the course or any placement.
Rationale
Psychology is a dynamic and evolving discipline and this is reflected in the changes to the course requirements over time.
Examples
- Completion of tests under appropriate conditions, which may include reasonable adjustments for accessibility reasons
- Demonstrate the capacity to participate and engage in the learning and teaching environment, to meet the learning outcomes of the course.
This includes the personal flexibility and resilience required to adapt behaviour to different situations, even when they are stressful or difficult. NB: Care must be taken to allow room in the inherent requirements for the individual to demonstrate behavioural adaptability through withdrawing from activities for a time to undertake medical interventions and self-care measures.
Examples include:
- Ability to adjust ways of working to work within teams of varied personal and professional backgrounds
- Being receptive and responding appropriately to constructive feedback
- Maintaining respectful communication practices in times of increased stressors or workloads
- Adjusting to changing circumstances in a way that allows self-care.
Rationale
Psychological training requires that students are able to apply psychological knowledge to personal development, including articulating ideas, regulating one’s emotions and behaviours, and solving everyday problems.
Examples
- Appropriately regulating one’s emotional state and reactions
- Ability to be self-reliant, organised, and an effective time manager
- Demonstrating respectful behaviour and being receptive and responding appropriately to constructive feedback.