Pre-requisites

CN9100 Counselling Frameworks and Evidence in Practice

Co-requisites

RP9020 Applied Research Project

Learning Outcomes

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

• Research and critically evaluate types of research relating to counselling and psychotherapy

• Synthesise a meta analysis of recent research relating to a chosen area of counselling practice relevant to their area of specialisation

• Critically review and revise a component of counselling practice or emerging theory relevant to their area of specialisation

• Create a position paper based on a thorough literature review constructed to communicate informatively to peers in the counselling field

• Construct and justify a research proposal and associated standard HREC protocol or template

Unit Description

This unit introduces students to research in counselling, looking at research methods for qualitative and quantitative projects. The ethics of research will be considered in light of codes of ethics, practice and statements on human research ethics. Students will apply their learning to engage with recent research in their area of specialisation in regard to content knowledge, and highly effective counselling and psychotherapy practices.

Topics

1. An introduction to qualitative and quantitative research methods Literature reviews
2. Defining the research question, setting aims and hypotheses, choosing the right methodology
3. The process of proposal construction, report writing and publishing results
4. An introduction to mental health and wellbeing focussed methodologies – systematic and scoping reviews, qualitative approaches, quantitative approaches, mixed method approaches
5. NHMRC national guidelines for human ethics and the purpose of a HREC
6. Writing ethics proposals – negligible, low risk and human subject proposals
7. Research tools – Survey instruments, Qualitative research software, SPSS

Assessment and Indicative Load

Assessment types include Major Essay, Research Paper, Ethics Proposal, and Attendance. Indicative study load is 150 hours.

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Unit offerings

Face to face: (Demand based)

Please note

The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.

This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.