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Unit of Study PSYC2002 - Understanding Psychological Diagnoses (2025)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Unit type

    UG Coursework Unit

  • Credit points

    12

  • Faculty/College

    Faculty of Health

  • Placement

    No

  • Enrolment information

Unit description

Explores the evolution in conceptualising mental health and psychological diagnoses, including historical, theoretical, scientific, and cultural perspectives. The unit examines the boundary between normal experiences and clinically significant symptoms and incorporates lived-experience perspectives. Biopsychosocial factors that create and maintain psychological symptoms, the strengths and limitations of diagnoses, and evidence-based therapeutic approaches to improve mental health and wellbeing for specific diagnoses are considered throughout. 

Unit content

  1. Understanding mental health challenges
  2. Childhood and adolescence
  3. Depression and anxiety
  4. Stress, trauma, and psychosis
  5. Food, substances, sleep, sex, and screens
  6. Personality and cognition 

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Coffs Harbour
Term4
Term4
Gold Coast
Term4
Term4
Online
Term4
Term4

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

describe developmental and psychological diagnoses and how these are distinct from normal experiences and expected behaviours in a cultural context

examine psychological diagnoses from a historic, theoretical, scientific, and lived-experience perspective

collaborate to convey contemporary ideas about psychological diagnoses and approaches that improve mental health and wellbeing

discuss how psychological diagnoses are conceptualised and defined in the DSM and ICD and limitations of these classification systems, including cultural bias

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
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Prescribed Resources/Equipment
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Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.