Unit Description
This capstone unit introduces students to the role and significance of research in developing the evidence base for counselling and psychotherapy.
Students will be introduced to a range of research paradigms, research designs and methodologies, with an emphasis on qualitative methodology. Social, legal and ethical aspects of research in the discipline will be addressed.
Students will learn how to develop a research question and a draft research proposal, including a timeline for implementation. Students will be encouraged to give feedback to each other on the merits of each other’s proposals.
Students will also be introduced to systematic literature search techniques, and ways to record and display searches of literature. Students will conduct a search of published peer- reviewed research for the research question they develop, relevant to the counselling and psychotherapy discipline, and will produce a quality literature review synthesising and evaluating these findings.
Unit Code
203
Unit Type
Core Unit
Study Period
Year 2, Semester 1
Credit Points
3.0
Consultation Times
30 minutes before and after workshop intensives and by appointment during the semester
Topics Covered
- Why research matters: the role and importance of research in counselling and psychotherapy
- Research paradigms and research design
- Research methodology: quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods
- Research methods, data collection and analysis
- Developing sound research questions for research projects that are literature-based, autobiographical or use secondary data
- Developing sound research proposals
- Social, legal and ethical aspects of counselling and psychotherapy research
- Criteria for evaluating the value of published research in counselling and psychotherapy
- Literature review: How to search published peer-reviewed literature and record the search
- Literature review: How to write and synthesise the findings of the literature review
Learning Outcomes
- Clearly articulate the role of research in advancing the counselling and psychotherapy profession
- Critically analyse social, legal and ethical aspects of conducting counselling and psychotherapy research
- Critically analyse epistemological and methodological differences between qualitative, quantitative and mixed method research paradigms
- Develop and evaluate sound research questions for exploring a topic relevant to process work
- Critically evaluate published peer-reviewed research in the selected research topic
- Critically review the body of literature pertaining to the selected research topic and synthesise the findings in a literature review
Delivery Mode
Workshop intensives on-campus
Workshop Intensive 1:
9:00 am to 5:30 pm
3.25 hours of teaching and learning
Workshop Intensive 3:
9:00 am to 5:30 pm
3.25 hours of teaching and learning
Online delivery
1.5 hour Zoom discussion mid-semester
Student Workload
(Student work load not in usable format)
Available in Courses
This unit is available in the following courses:
Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy (Holistic Practice)Created: April 28, 2021, 4:48 p.m. • Updated: April 4, 2022, 9:23 a.m.