Psychological Factors in Health and Social Care Settings

The aim of this module is to develop understanding of the psychological factors which influence human behaviour throughout the lifespan and how these apply to health and social care settings

• Understand theories of lifespan development

• Analyse how psychological theories are applied to health and social care practice

• Examine social and biological determinants of human behaviour displayed in health and social care contexts 

Students are required to produce a written and logically structured reflective essay (2000 words) that will have a particular focus on the ways in which psychological theories are applied to health and social care practice, with particular emphasis on their own career goals.

• Reflect on psychological theories and researches you have presented for completing task 01.

• Explore your role as a health care professional in applying the learnt psychological perspectives, as your duty to care.

• Discuss how you would relate this learning to health and social care practice.

Your work must be informed and supported by scholarly material that is relevant to and focused on the task(s) set. You should provide evidence that you have accessed a wide range of sources, which may be academic, governmental and industrial; these sources may include academic journal articles, textbooks, current news articles, organisational documents, and websites. You should consider the credibility of your sources; academic journals are normally highly credible sources while websites require careful consideration/selection and should be used sparingly. Any sources you use should be current and uptodate, mostly published within the last five years or so, though seminal/important works in the field may be older.

You must provide evidence of your research/own reading throughout your work, using intext citations in the main body of your work and a reference list that is alphabetical at the end of your work. Please use the Harvard referencing system.

Your work must demonstrate the growing extent of your knowledge and understanding of concepts and underlying principles associated with the subject area. Knowledge relates to the facts, information and skills you have acquired through your learning. You demonstrate your understanding by interpreting the meaning of the facts and information (knowledge). This means that you need to select and include in your work the concepts, techniques, models, theories, etc. appropriate to the task(s) set. You should be able to explain the theories, concepts, etc. meaningfully to show your understanding. Your mark/grade will also depend upon the extent to which you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding; ideally each should be complete and detailed, with comprehensive coverage.

Your work must contain evidence of logical, analytical thinking, evaluation and synthesis. For example, to examine and break information down into parts, make inferences, compile, compare and contrast information. This means not just describing What! but also justifying: Why? How? When? Who? Where? At all times, you must provide justification for your arguments and judgements. Evidence that you have reflected upon the ideas of others within the subject area is crucial to you providing a reasoned and informed debate within your work. Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you are able to make sound judgements and convincing arguments using data and concepts.

Sound, valid conclusions are necessary and must be derived from the content of your work. There should be no new information
presented within your conclusion. Where relevant, alternative solutions and recommendations may be proposed.

You should be able to demonstrate how the subject-related concepts and ideas relate to real world situations or a particular context. How do they work in practice? You will deploy models, methods, techniques, and/or theories, in that context, to assess current situations, perhaps to formulate plans or solutions to solve problems, some of which may be innovative and creative. This is likely to involve, for instance, the use of real world examples and cases, the application of a model within an organisation and/or benchmarking one organisation against others based on stated criteria.

You should show awareness of the limitations of concepts and theories when applied in particular contexts.

Your work must provide evidence of the attributes expected in professional practice. This includes demonstrating your individual initiative and/or collaborative working. You must communicate effectively in a suitable format, which may be written and/or oral, for example, essay, management report, presentation. Work should be coherent and well-structured in presentation and organisation.