PSYC20037 - Introduction to Positive Psychology: Perspectives on Wellbeing

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit will introduce you to the paradigm of positive psychology, and explore the development of this specialist area over the past 20 years. In this unit, you will explore the discipline's emphasis on flourishing and strengths-based approaches, and examine how these differ from traditional psychological frameworks. The unit examines conceptualisation and measurement of wellbeing and the application of positive psychology at the individual, group, community, and organisational level.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 8
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

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 2 - 2025

Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Online

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).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Postgraduate 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. Written Assessment 20%
2. Essay 40%
3. Presentation 40%

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%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 95.83% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 26.37% 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: Student Unit and Teacher Evaluation responses and student emails.
Feedback
Students appreciated the support provided by the Unit Coordinator, including prompt guidance and response to queries.
Recommendation
The Unit Coordinator will continue to use a supportive communication approach.
Action Taken
Supportive communication was maintained throughout the 2025 unit offering.
Source: Reflections of Unit Coordinator and teaching team; student performance.
Feedback
Students benefitted from experiential learning tasks related to how to measure wellbeing.
Recommendation
The Unit Coordinator will continue to embed engagement with experiential learning tasks related to wellbeing measurement into assessment tasks and tutorial activities.
Action Taken
Experiential learning tasks related to wellbeing measurement were further embedded into assessment tasks and tutorial activities.
Source: Student Unit and Teacher Evaluation responses.
Feedback
Some students suggested they would like weekly learning goals stated in Moodle.
Recommendation
The Unit Coordinator will highlight the intended learning goals for each week in the Moodle workbooks.
Action Taken
Intended learning goals were added to each weekly Moodle workbook.
Source: Student Unit and Teacher Evaluation responses.
Feedback
A few students indicated feeling overwhelmed by the volume of unit readings.
Recommendation
The Unit Coordinator will revisit the unit readings in consultation with the teaching team, and explicitly label readings as 'recommended' versus 'optional'.
Action Taken
All readings were explicitly labelled as 'essential', 'recommended', or 'optional/additional'.
Source: Student Unit and Teacher Evaluation responses and student emails.
Feedback
Students appreciated the support and encouragement provided.
Recommendation
The teaching team will continue to use a supportive and encouraging approach.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student Unit and Teacher Evaluation responses.
Feedback
Students found the unit content interesting, comprehensive, and relevant to daily life, but some students wished to see a more explicit connection between weekly Moodle content and the assessments.
Recommendation
The teaching team will maintain the unit content and revisit the weekly Moodle workbooks to embed explicit connections to the assessment tasks.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Analyse the key theoretical and empirical developments in positive psychology
  2. Apply the major principles and theories of Positive Psychology in an applied context
  3. Identify and evaluate ways to conceptualise and measure wellbeing in an applied context.

N/A - no external accreditation requirement.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Written Assessment •
2 - Essay • • •
3 - Presentation • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Knowledge • • •
2 - Communication • • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • • •
4 - Research • • •
5 - Self-management •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8