FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY DIPLOMA - LEVEL 3 COURSE

The course includes the following units:-

Unit Objectives: To understand the importance of research design; To have an understanding of the differences between exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research projects; To understand why it is necessary to standardise the experiment; and To have an awareness of different research methods and instruments.

Unit Objectives: To have a basic understanding of probability; To understand what is meant by the independent variable; To understand what is meant by the dependent variable; To have a basic understanding of relative frequency; To be able to construct a simple Likert scale; To be able to construct a simple histogram; and To understand what is meant by the terms random sample and population.

Unit Objectives: To have an awareness that perceptions of mental disorder as a cause of violent crime are distorted; To have an awareness that research suggests serious violent behaviour is not frequent among people with schizophrenia; To have an awareness of the personality traits that characterise the psychopath; To have an awareness of the emotional aspects of violence; and To conduct research into a possible psychological cause of violent behaviour.

Unit Objectives: Understand that there is no single definition of a serial killer; Understand the difference between serial murder, mass murder and spree killing; Understand that there are a number of urban myths about serial killers; and Conduct research and produce a report that tends to prove or disprove these urban myths.

Unit Objectives: Understand that not all drugs are illegal; Understand that abuse of legal substances can have high social and economic costs; Recognise the links between crime and substance abuse; and Have a basic understanding of government approaches to the reduction of crime resulting from substance abuse.

Unit Objectives: To have a basic understanding of the different types of child abuse; To have a basic understanding of the signs of child abuse; To have a basic understanding of the effects of child abuse; and To have an awareness of some of the explanations of sexual offending and their incomplete nature.

Unit Objectives: Have an awareness of the factors considered to make a child's evidence unreliable; Have an awareness of the flaws in the concerns about the reliability of a child's testimony; Have an awareness of the current arrangements for the giving of evidence by children; and Have an awareness of the defects in the current arrangements for children to give evidence in court.

Unit Objectives: Have a basic understanding of the role of the psychologist/psychiatrist in cases involving mentally disordered offenders; Have a basic understanding of what is meant by mental disorder; and Have a basic knowledge of the insanity defence.

Unit Objectives: To have a basic understanding of dissociative identity disorder; To have a basic understanding of dissociative amnesia; To have a basic understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder; To have a basic understanding of what is meant by dangerous people with severe personality disorder; and To be able to conduct research into dissociative identity disorder.

Unit Objectives: To recognise that eyewitness memory is highly fallible; To recognise that memories are considered a product of conceptual systems; To have a basic understanding of some of the research into perception, memory and eyewitness testimony; and To examine and report on personal perception and memory

Unit Objectives: To have a basic understanding of the effects of imprisonment on the psychological and physical health of offenders; To have an awareness of the psychological effects of imprisonment on female offenders; To have an awareness of the psychological effects of imprisonment on young offenders; To have an awareness of re-offending risk assessment and its purpose; and To conduct research into psychology in a correctional setting.

Unit Objectives: To have a basic understanding of the issues involved in the recruitment, selection, training and retention of police officers; Understand the advances that have been made in police training; Recognise the links between relevant and continuous training and the promotion process; and Understand why such major changes in training within the police service were necessary.

Unit Objectives: Have an awareness of what is meant by stress; Have an awareness of some of the contributory factors of stress; Have an awareness of some of the research around stress and Have an awareness of the contributory factors of stress in your own work place or a familiar work place.

Unit Objectives: Understand what is meant by an unresponsive bystander; Understand what is meant by an impulsive bystander; Understand how various models have been constructed to explain bystander behaviour; and Conduct own research into how the behaviour of the authorities might affect bystander behaviour.

Unit Objectives: Understand what is meant by a research proposal; Produce a research proposal; Understand what is meant by a research project report; and Produce a research project report.

Assessment:

Completion of the research based learning activities accompanying each module contributes 70% of the assessment for the award of the Forensic Psychology Diploma. The last module of the course requires the student to produce a research proposal based on activities carried out during the Forensic Psychology Diploma. The student will be required to plan, conduct and report on a research project of their choice. The report will be approximately 5,000 words, that is 15 x A4 typed pages of 1.5 spacing. This research will account for the final 30% assessment for the Forensic Psychology Diploma.

Course Assignments can be returned by uploading to the online portal, by email or by post. We recommend that assignments are completed and returned as word-processed documents through the online portal. Handwritten documents can be accepted but need to be clear and legible and may be subject to a longer marking time.