| CODE | PSY5646 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| TITLE | Core Placement 2: Health Psychology - Behaviour Change | ||||||||||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Psychology | ||||||||||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This is the second core placement of the MPsy course and is spread over the whole of the second year. Students will spend a minimum of 8 hours per week on site engaged in supervised practice supported by 1 hour of individual supervision. In addition, they will participate actively in group supervision sessions as well as attend to a training workshop of 14hours on Court Expert Witnessing. During the first semester: The students will be based at the School Psychological Services and will be working with children and adolescents presenting with several negative health habits. During the first weeks the trainees will be observing Psychologists and other health care professionals in their work with children and adolescents. They will have tutorials aimed at giving them more practical skills for working with children and adolescents with negative health habits. The students will also have the opportunity to engage in intervention work with four children and adolescents with negative health habits under supervision. The Second Semester: During the second semester students will have the opportunity to apply health psychology theory to the creation of Health Promotion campaigns for the general public. The students will be based at the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department. In the first few weeks they will observe other professionals working on parallel campaigns. They will be assigned a current health issue and will be conducting research as well as collaborating with other health care professionals with the aim of devising a Health Promotion Campaign. Study-unit Aims: The study-unit aims to help the students to integrate the professional characteristics pertaining to the role of the health psychologist when working with children and adolescents with several health difficulties. The students will have the chance to critically appraise the different styles of service delivery evaluating psychological interventions and methods for behaviour change and promoting understanding of theoretical underpinnings of relationships between care providers and clients. They will adopt a reflective approach to working with children and adolescents. The trainees will also be encouraged to adopt an evidence based approach to assessment and intervention, as well as to the creation Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Campaigns. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Describe and critically analyze the major conditions and challenges faced by children and adolescents with negative health habits; - Describe and analyze different forms of assessment and interpretation of findings and the proper treatment formulation aimed at targeting the negative health behaviour effectively; - Evaluate the use of Behaviour Change Programs when working with negative health behaviors amongst children and adolescents; - Critically evaluate the current and potential role of the health psychologist in carious settings; - Describe the various types of clients and their challenges when seeking psychological support from health psychologists; - Analyze the main features of health psychology models for the creation of Health Promotion Campaigns and other health initiatives; - Evaluate the role of different professionals involved in the creation of Health Promotion Campaigns; - Evaluate the costs involved in a campaign and the need to opt for campaigns that are more cost-effective; - Evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign; what made it effective and aspects which could be enhanced. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate adequate skills and competences including in assessment, formulation, intervention, evaluation and reporting related to psychological intervention with different types of clients; - Demonstrate critical reflection and reflexivity in and on their practice; - Integrate Health Psychology theory and research with their practice; - Demonstrate skills in effective report writing according to goals including court witness; - Demonstrate skills in the positive use of supervision; - Demonstrate the use of adequate organizational skills such as record keeping and time-management; - Demonstrate ethically appropriate and professional skills in work with other psychologists and other professionals; - Demonstrate adequate hands on evidence-based consultancy skills with clients; - Design effective Health Policies and Campaigns on the basis of relevant theory and research; - Evaluate the outcomes of one's psychological work with clients in health settings. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: Corcoran, N. (2007). Communicating Health: Strategies for Heath Promotion . London Sage. Riekert, K.A., Ockene, J.K., & Pbert, L. (2013). The Handbook of Health Behavior Change. New York: Springer Publishing. Supplementary texts: Compass, B.E., Haaga, D.A.F., Keefe, F.J., Leitenberg,H., & Williams,D.A. (1998). Sampling of empirically supported psychological treatments from Health Psychology: Smoking, Chronic Pain, Cancer, and Bulimia Nervosa. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66 (1), 89 - 112. Grimes, D.A., & Schulz, K.F. (2002). Cohort Studies – Marching Towards Outcomes. Lancet, 359, 341-345. Must, A., Spadano, J., Coakley, E. H., Field, A.E., Colditz, G. & Dietz, W.H. (1999). The disease burden associated with overweight and obesity. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282, 1523-1529. Prochaska J.O., & DiClemente C.C. (1982) 'Transtheoretical therapy: Toward a more integrative model of change'. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 19: 276-288. Rutter, D. & Quine, L. (2002). Changing Health Behaviour. Buckingham: Open University Press. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-Requisite qualifications: B.Psy (Hons) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Placement and Tutorial | ||||||||||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Pamela Portelli (Co-ord.) |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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