Learn to Work with People

• Study, Learn and apply an understanding of psychology in your job.
• Graduates of this course may find work in anything that involves helping or managing people, from being running a business to providing counselling services, or marketing, leisure management or teaching.

What can psychology teach you?

• Why we act differently when we are in groups and when we are alone
• How to improve a person's motivation and performance
• How we develop certain patterns of thought and behaviour, and how to change negative patterns
• How we learn from the moment we are born
• How our biological development or condition affects our thinking
• How to raise moral children ......and that's only the beginning!

A broad-based foundation in theoretical psychology can be applied in many fields, such as business, counselling, helping services and teaching. It will give you a much deeper insight into human behaviour and factors (such as learning, environment and personality) that can affect it, and improve your ability to deal effectively with others. While this course will not qualify you as or a psychologist (which requires a university degree), it will develop your capacity to apply pscyhology for more effective teaching, management, consulting, parenting, marketing, or for your personal growth. The course may also provide a valuable stepping stone to further study in this fascinating field.

COURSE STRUCTURE

The 1500 hour course is made up of 15 modules: 7 compulsory core modules and 8 electives (which can be selected from the 'elective modules' list below).

Click on individual modules for details.

Core Modules

Introduction to Psychology
This course develops your capacity to analyse aspects of a persons psychological state and apply derived knowledge to motivate that person. It develops a sound basis for further studies of psychology covering such things as the nature and scope of psychology, neurological and environmental effects on behaviour, personality, consciousness, perception, needs, drives and motivation.

Psychology and Counselling
This builds on the previous module developing an ability to analyse psychological conditions, and apply that knowledge in real world situations such as counselling or advisory roles.

Counselling Techniques 
Learn about significant approaches to the counselling process. This course doesn't show bias for any one technique but rather, it aims to make the student aware of different types of therapy that can be used to help clients. If you are a counsellor or want to be one, this is an indispensable part of your training or professional development. Learn which theories have had a lasting affect on modern counselling and psychotherapy and which techniques are best suited to different kinds of counselling situations

Industrial Psychology
Develop knowledge and skills for anyone involved in workplace situations, such as managers, supervisors, small business owners, union representatives, etc. By understanding the thought processes that take place in the minds of people at work, a manager or supervisor can develop empathy with their staff, and apply this empathy to the way they manage the workplace.

Child Psychology
Learn how children develop psychologically as they grow, and what factors (such as learning, parenting styles, enforcement, and genetic makeup) influence their behaviour and thinking. Anyone who lives or works with children will gain valuable insights into child behaviour. This course provides a foundation for understanding child behaviour, for anyone living, dealing with or working with children.

Reasearch Project I
Learn to plan and conduct research into the current status of an aspect of an industry relating to their area of study, and to complete a descriptive report based on that research

Plus 100 hours of Industry Meetings (eg. seminars, conferences) or relevant work experience.

Elective Modules
Choose any eight (8) from the following. Details of these courses may be found in our printed handbook or on this web site.

Biopsychology I

Developmental Psychology

Neuropsychology

Educational Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Conflict Management

Stress Management

Sports Psychology

Life Coaching

Marketing Psychology

Relationship Communications Counselling

Counselling Skills I

Careers Counselling

Social Psychology

Abnormal Psychology

Psychological Assessment

Research Project II

Statistics

(The choice of subjects may vary as new courses are developed)

Duration: 1500 hours

SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

The study of human development focuses on behavioural and psychological development from conception through later life. Emphasis is on the processes and mechanisms underlying developmental change and stability and the contexts in which development takes place. Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. For example, psychology studies the brain, sensation and perception, motivation, intelligence, emotions, memory, psychological disorders, and much more. Developmental Psychology is a subfield of psychology. Its focus is on studying the changes that take place across our life span. Development is defined as changes in our physical structure, thought, and behaviour due to genetics or the environment. Development is life long and also can be a very personal thing.

Development incorporates change over time. We all change as we mature. Some of those changes are due to experience and others to our physiology. Developmental psychology is concerned with the patterns and processes of change throughout our lifetimes. A significant question in developmental psychology is the relation between innateness and environmental influence in regard to any particular aspect of development – put in more easy terms nature vs. nurture.

Developmental psychology is interested in discovering the psychological processes of development. This is also the study of progressive psychological changes that occur in human beings as they age. Originally concerned with infants and children, and later other periods of great change such as adolescence and early life aging, it now encompasses the entire life span of an individual. This ever growing field examines change across a broad range of topics including: motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes, problem solving abilities, conceptual understanding, acquisition of language, moral understanding, and identify formation.

Freud and Human Development

Freud's theory is quite interesting, and he was well beyond his time. Freud addresses "psychic energy", the conscious, unconscious, and preconscious, and developmental stages. The stages are: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent and Genital.

Children according to Freud are polymorphologically perverse (Note: he did not use this term in any negative context though). This means that they gain erotic pleasure from many different zones in the body -not just the genitals. During his research, Freud formulated a series of stages which the infant goes through.

In each stage, the focus of pleasure is on a particular erotic zone. According to Freud, the child develops psychologically during each of these stages. The physical erotic experience is like a symbol for a psychological lesson. Freud suggested five phases -

Oral Phase (birth to 2 years)

During this phase, the infant’s sexual pleasure is derived from the oral orifice (the mouth, lips & tongue). This need for oral gratification is demonstrated by a child's compulsion to suck any object it can find. This pleasure is first discovered by sucking the mother’s breast. At this stage the child is learning to differentiate between itself and the external world, represented by its mother. Too little or too much oral gratification can cause an oral fixation, according to Freud, which predisposes the individual towards certain psychological symptoms during adulthood. Infants who were under gratified might exhibit a severely low self concept or depression as an adult. Infants who were over gratified might exhibit excessive dependency on loved ones during adulthood.

Anal Phase (2-3 years)

During the anal phase the infant’s pleasure is derived from the experience of defecation (expelling faeces). This occurs during toilet training. For the first time the child is learning about the importance of self control. Also, because this is the child's first major experience of socialisation, it has a significant bearing on the individual’s later relationship with authority. A fixation at this stage, according to Freud may lead to psychological symptoms of over control, or lack of self control, authoritarianism, or on the other hand, excessive rebellion (depending on what problems the infant experienced during the trials of toilet training). Freud went so far as to suggest that obsessive-compulsive behaviour neurosis, which is characterised by compulsive uncontrollable behaviour, was closely related to infantile anal fixation.

Phallic Phase (3-7 years)

In this phase, pleasure is derived from the sex organs (auto-eroticism/masturbation). This is the stage at which the Oedipus complex can occur. Freud argued that at around 3-4 years of age, boys develop an intense sexual longing for their mother, and they become jealous of their rival for the mother’s affection – usually the father. Freud named this the Oedipus Complex after Oedipus, the King of Thebes, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. Freud argued that the young boy is jealous of his father and fears that the father might castrate him for his rivalry behaviour. If this fear is sufficient (as Freud argues it is in most boys), the boy will begin to repress his sexual feelings about his mother and identify with his father. This lessens the chance that he will be castrated as he is no longer a rival. The boy will begin to incorporate the father’s behaviour and attitudes and become “male” psychologically. Identifying with the father will also touch the boy’s superego as he will be forced to repress two taboo motives – murder and incest – and thereby learn these moral standards.

Before this age, girls prefer their mothers, but at 3-4 years, they discover that she does not have a penis. Freud argues that the girl will blame her closest companion – the mother – for this “castration”. This discovery will lead to a transfer of affection from the mother to the father. Freud believed that girls envy their fathers for possessing a penis and will choose the male as a sex object, hoping that he will share the organ that she lacks with her. Freud argued that underlying this was a motive to bear her father’s child, and this event would compensate her for not having a penis, particularly if the baby was male.

The Oedipus Complex and Electra Complex are similar. Both sexes value the male penis – boys want to keep theirs, girls want to have one. Both boys and girls see the parent of the same sex as their main rival for affection of the other parent. However, Freud was not sure how or why girls developed Electra complexes by identifying with their fathers. If they believe they have been castrated by the mother, what do they have to fear? Freud assumed that the Electra complex faded as the girl realises she will not possess their father. The Electra complex is not based on fear (i.e. fear of castration), so they may internalize the moral standards of their mother or their father.