Unit Synopsis
In this unit you will examine the relationships between cultural contexts and human behaviour. You will gain understanding of the similarities and differences in behaviour as influenced by various cultures, particularly perspectives of First Nations Peoples. You will learn about key cross-cultural theories, common research methods used in cross-cultural psychology and examine how these are relevant in research and applied settings. In this unit you will learn how to apply your psychological knowledge and skills in a manner that is culturally appropriate and sensitive to the diversity of others.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
96 credit points in CC43, CF59, CL51, CL55, CM62, CC13, CG85, CG93 or CA10, OR admission to CC10 and completion of PSYC11010. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Portfolio | 40% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Presentation | 20% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 67.44% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 32.33% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Unit coordinator reflections.
The current assessment tasks could be adapted to better enable students to understand how theory and evidence in cultural reflexivity and responsiveness can be applied to real-world scenarios.
Assessments will be reviewed to better fit with the unit's pedagogical needs and learning outcomes, and to better reflect real-world situations.
Assessments were redesigned, asking students to reflect on real-world situations.
Source: Student feedback and unit coordinator reflections.
There were concerns about the clarity of aspects of the assessment instructions and consistency in wording across assessment materials.
The review of assessment tasks will include reviewing the assessment information and marking rubrics to ensure clarity and consistency across all documents.
Marking rubrics were changed to provide clarity and consistency. Words used in the marking rubric were also adopted in the Unit Profile and Assessment Briefing.
Source: Student feedback.
Some students felt a disconnection between the content of the live sessions and the content of the pre-recorded lectures.
Review the unit schedule, particularly the pre-recorded and live session content, to create a better sense of continuity and flow.
Weekly 3-hour live sessions delivering content replaced pre-recorded sessions.
Source: Student Unit Evaluation
Clearer marking rubric including examples of successful assignments.
Simplify marking rubrics by including clearer criteria and excluding any requirements that are not taught in the unit (e.g., philosophical stances).
In Progress
Source: Student Unit Evaluation and In Class Feedback
Change the time of assessment due dates to allow students to include feedback from prior assessments into the next.
Review assessment dates so that feedback provided can be implemented by students in their subsequent assessment pieces.
In Progress
Source: Student Unit Evaluation and In Class Feedback
Change the Unit's delivery format.
Replace the weekly 3-hour live sessions with pre-recorded lectures and provide weekly Zoom tutorials.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Critically apply cross-cultural perspectives to key theories and concepts in psychology.
- Critically evaluate psychological research for appropriate acknowledgement of sociocultural influences and perspectives on diversity and inclusion.
- Apply perspectives of cross-cultural psychology in a manner that is reflexive, culturally appropriate and sensitive to the diversity of individuals.
This unit addresses Foundational Competencies as specified by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC). The unit specifically aligns to the following APAC graduate competencies:
1.1 Comprehend and apply a broad and coherent body of knowledge of psychology, with depth of understanding of underlying principles, theories and concepts in the discipline, using a scientific approach, including the following topics: i. the history and philosophy underpinning the science of psychology and the social, cultural, historical and professional influences on the practice of psychology; ii. individual differences in capacity, behaviour and personality; iv. psychological disorders and evidence-based interventions; v. learning and memory; vi. cognition, language and perception; vii. motivation and emotion; viii. neuroscience and the biological bases of behaviour; ix. lifespan developmental psychology; x. social psychology and xii. research methods and statistics.
1.2 Apply knowledge and skills of psychology in a manner that is reflexive, culturally appropriate and sensitive to the diversity of individuals.
1.3 Analyse and critique theory and research in the discipline of psychology and communicate these in written and oral formats.
1.4 Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate values and ethics in psychology.
1.6 Demonstrate self-directed pursuit of scholarly inquiry in psychology.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Portfolio | • | • | |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | |
| 3 - Presentation | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | ||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | ||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | ||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | |
| 9 - Social Innovation | • | ||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |