CONTEMPORARY HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - 2021/2

Module Overview

This module provides students with an understanding of the professional and transferrable skills useful for a career in health psychology. Students will also gain an awareness of professional issues in health psychology. We will encourage students to think reflexively on how to apply professional and transferrable skills in the context of different issues that are impacting on contemporary health psychology. The module has been designed in accordance with requirements (stage 1) of the British Psychological Society's Division of Health Psychology accreditation criteria. This module addresses the following curriculum areas of a British Psychological Society accredited degree: Professional issues, contexts and perspectives in health psychology, client groups and other stakeholders, health-related behaviors and cognitions, interventions and healthcare and professional settings. This module will help students to learn to think critically and reflexively about the application of health psychology skills in different contemporary health issues.

Module provider

Psychology

Module Leader

SMITH Kimberley (Psychology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The role of health psychologists in healthcare


• Developing transferable skills relevant to health psychology practice


• Learning about different patient populations and the issues facing these populations


• Learning about how wider social considerations impact contemporary health psychology

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

NA/

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their reflective and transferrable (focus on communication) skills.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Communication exercise 5-8 minute video explaining a contemporary health issue to lay (non-scientific) audience 30% (addresses learning outcome:  1 and 2)


• Critical reflection (2500 words). Students will choose a case study that will address issues discussed in lectures. They will use evidence and reflection to critically reflect on how the skills they have learnt about are useful for health psychologists in addressing the issues faced by that patient in the case study (addresses learning outcome: 1, 2 and 3)

Module aims

• Equip students with an awareness of the practical and transferable skills useful in health psychology.
• Start to develop key transferrable skills useful for health psychology practice.
• Equip students with an awareness of the contemporary issues impacting on health and health psychology practice
• Encourage students to reflect and critically engage with issues impacting on contemporary health psychology practice and the role health psychologists could have in helping with these issues.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

Develop the reflective skills of students, develop communication skills through classroom-based discussion and assessment, encourage students to consider the skills useful for becoming a health psychologist, make students aware of different issues impacting on contemporary health psychology and develop students ability to consider how they would apply the skills they learn about within contemporary health psychology.

The learning and teaching methods include:

11 x 2hr lectures including in-class discussion and learning exercises

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: PSYM115

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.