| Assessment Brief | |
| Program | Master of Counselling and Applied Psychotherapy |
| Subject | Group Therapy 1 |
| Subject code | PSY601 |
| Name of assessment | Assessment 2: Essay |
| Length | 2000 words |
| Learning outcomes addressed by this assessment: | This assessment addresses learning outcomes 3 & 4 |
| Submission Date: | Sunday 8th May 2016 |
| Lecturer Name | Group Therapists |
| Assessment brief Summary: | Students are to submit an essay based on their reflections of Yalom’s work and their own experiences |
| Total marks | 50 |
| Weighting | 50% |
| Students are advised that any submissions past the due date incur a 10% penalty per day, calculated from the total mark e.g. a task marked out of 40 will incur a 4 mark penalty per day. Furthermore, students must attempt all tasks in the unit to be eligible to pass the unit. More information can be found in Think Education Assessment Policy document on the Think Education website (http://www.think.edu.au). |
Assessment Description:
You are required to synthesise your reflections on your group (Task 1) and self (Task 2) to provide an analysis of your own patterns of behaviour within the group, and an analysis of your and your group’s behaviour at a process level, drawing on concepts from Yalom’s theory.
The purpose of this assessment is to reflect on personal experiences by drawing on theoretical concepts. Personal experiences are written in the 1st person, whereas theory is presented in the 3rd person. Reflections need to develop and come to a conclusion, not solely describing a series of events and feelings.
For this assignment, you should have at least read the following from the Yalom Text (Yalom, I.(2005) The Theory & Practice of Group Psychotherapy. (5th Ed) New York: Basic Books
Chapters 1-6, paying particular attention to pp 53-76 on Cohesiveness, pp 141-199 on Here-and-Now Process Illumination, and
Chapter 11 on the stages of group development, pp 309-320
Marking Criteria:
| Max. in category | Your points | |
| Word count, readability, and structure | 10% | |
| Number and choice of appropriate references | 20% | |
| In-text references and reference list (Achieving fewer than 5 points in this category will limit the mark for this assessment to a High Pass = 64/100). | 10% | |
| Answering the question and responding to the topic | 30% | |
| Links to theories and concepts | 30% | |
| Total: | 100% | |
| Mark: | ||
| Comments: |
Achieving less than 50% of the maximum in any of the categories above (for example, less than 15% in the Answering the question and responding to the topic category, which carries a maximum of 30%) may limit your mark for this assessment to a pass (maximum of 64%).
Notes:
This essay will be fully referenced including a reference list. We recommend that you work with your Academic Writing Guide to ensure that you reference correctly. You will find links to this document on the main page of every unit, under the ‘Assessments’ section. Correct academic writing and referencing are essential tasks that you need to learn.
If you do not have sufficient references, you will not be able to create a strong argument and discuss the topic in the context of theory. The number of references mentioned in this assessment brief is the minimum, not the maximum. The more appropriately used references you include and the better their quality, the more likely you are to write a thoughtful and well-constructed argument which is more likely to receive a high mark.
Wikipedia, online dictionaries, and online encyclopedias are acceptable as a starting point to gain knowledge about a topic, but are NOT acceptable references. These and general websites will not be accepted as they are rarely peer-reviewed. You must search for peer-reviewed journal articles, which you can find in the online journal databases, and which can be accessed from the library homepage. Please contact the Think: Class Lecturer if you need a tutorial on how to do online research. Marks will be deducted for failure to adhere to the word count – as a general rule you may go over or under by 10% of the stated length.
The assessment MUST be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word format. Other formats may not be readable by markers. Please be aware that any assessments submitted in other formats will be considered LATE and will lose marks until it is presented in Word. Your lecturer may, or may not, notice on the day after the due date that assessments have not been successfully submitted. Please contact the lecturer if you have doubts that your submission has been successful. Please also note that the lecturer/marker may check your work for plagiarism, so you are strongly encouraged to submit your work through plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin before you submit your assignment onto the learning portal…
