Psychology Project
Overview
This unit provides students with an understanding of the fundamentals of psychological measurement. Students will gain familiarity with the general process of developing psychological scales, including a variety of measurement methods and administration formats. The unit will also address topics in basic psychometric theory, including reliability, validity, and norms. Students will be given the opportunity to develop professionally relevant skills and experience in the selection, construction and evaluation of psychological tests and measures.
Requisites
PSY20006 Cognition and Human Performance
Rules
STA20006 - Analysis of Variance and Regression
AND
PSY20006 - Cognition and Human Performance
31-May-2026
07-June-2026
04-October-2026
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Describe the characteristics of a good psychological measure and explain how to evaluate the usefulness and appropriateness of a specific instrument for a specific application
- Outline the steps involved in the development of psychological measures, and design your own program for the development and validation of a new measure
- Calculate, report and interpret key statistics relevant to scale development and evaluation
- Describe a range of different measurement formats and methods, explaining the pros and cons of each
- Develop skills in effective Generative AI prompt creation and how to effectively incorporate AI generated output into an assessment task
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Activity Type | Activity | Total Hours | Number of Weeks | Hours Per Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-campus | Lecture | 12 | 12 weeks | 1 |
| On-campus | Class | 24 | 12 weeks | 2 |
| Specified Activities | Various | 24 | 12 weeks | 2 |
| Unspecified Activities | Various | 90 | 12 weeks | 7.5 |
| Total Hours: | 150 | Total Hours (per week): | 12.5 | |
All Applicable Locations
| Activity Type | Activity | Total Hours | Number of Weeks | Hours Per Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live Online | Class | 13 | 13 week | 1 |
| Online | Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning | 137 | 13 week | 10.54 |
| Total Hours: | 150 | Total Hours (per week): | 11.54 | |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report 1 | Individual | 40% | 1,2,5 |
| Report 2 | Individual | 50% | 1,2,3,4 |
| Online Tests | Individual | 10% | 1,2,3,4 |
Content
- Theories and methods for psychological measurement
- Fundamentals of test construction
- Methods for evaluating the properties and quality of tests
- Administration and scoring of tests
- Cultural appropriateness and sensitivity
- Professional and ethical issues in psychological measurement and research
- Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.