Students learn to apply behavioural theory and research to specific issues faced in practice, develop evidence-based interventions, and evaluate the effectiveness of psychological interventions.

The course develops students' skills and knowledge in the application of behaviour analysis. The meetings will focus around issues related to he practice of applied behaviour analysis and will provide both knowledge and discussion to help students' practice. Material relevant for the practice of psychology from a behavioural perspective will also be included in the course.

The course provides 90 hours of the academic course work required by the Behavior Analysts Certification Board (BCBA).

The primary learning objective is for students to learn to apply psychological knowledge and skills to practice, i.e. recognising how psychological theory and and research can be applied to particular needs faced in practice, developing evidence-based interventions, and evaluating the effectiveness of psychological interventions, . Assessment issues will also be addressed in this course, including the appropriate use of psychometric measures and behavioural assessment and appropriate and effective ways to collect ongoing data.

Students who have completed this course and have specialised in applied behaviour analysis will have developed their skills in applying psychological knowledge to practical concerns in the application of behaviour analysis. They will have developed a scientist-practitioner approach to solving applied problems.

As part of this process there will be some student-led seminars which will address ethical issues, assessment, selecting and designing interventions, behaviour change procedures, evaluating interventions, measuring and recording behaviour, designing ways to try and collect data, and interpretation of the obtained data.

This course provides 90 hours of course work hours required for certification as a Behaviour Analyst under the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) in the following 4th and 5th Edition content areas:

5th edition: B: 3 - 8, 11, 13, 15; FK: 10, 03 - 06, 14 - 16, 21, 24, 31, 33, 35 - 37, 39 - 40, 47 - 47; F: 1 - 9; G: 1 - 3, 5 - 9, 11, 13 - 22; H: 1 - 8; I: 1 - 8.

4th edition: B 01 - 02; G: 01 - 08; D: 05, -7, 0920 - 21; E: 04 - 13; F: 01 - 02, 05 - 06; K: 01 - 10.

Lecture / discussion 2 hours, Tutorial, I hour.

The on-campus meetings will occur on Monday afternoons approximately three times per four week period (see Psych551 timetable). There will be a minimum of 30 class meetings during the year and each will be 2 hours long. The 1 hour long online tutorials are available on Moodle. There is a class and a tutorial each week, but some of these are assigned to Psych552 (see Psych552 time table).

Off campus students who are in the PGDipPracPsych(ABA) programme will attend the class meetings through the video / computer interfaces available as a live classroom link.

Students who are NOT enrolled in the PGDipPracPsych(ABA) will be enrolled in the NET version of Psych551 and may attend the class in real time or they may do the course as a self-paced course through the Psych551 NET special Moodle page.