Resource approaches to health and wellbeing

Postgraduate course

Course description

Objectives and Content

This course unit introduces and explores various approaches to the understanding of health and wellbeing, including the definition of health and the development of health. While including health definitions from the biomedical field, the course is grounded in the field of health promotion and has a main focus on positive, holistic and resource approaches to health.

The students will learn to critically appraise various approaches to health. Students will also learn to analyse consequences of various approaches to health in diverse contexts.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this course the students should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge:

The student

  • has advanced knowledge of various definitions of health and wellbeing in a diverse context.
  • has in-depth knowledge of various theories and conceptual frameworks with a resource perspective, focussing on the development of health versus the prevention of disease.
  • has thorough understanding of approaches to applying resource perspectives to health in practice.

Skills:

The student

  • can contrast and critically appraise various approaches to health definition and health development
  • can critically analyse the consequences of applying given health understandings to particular situations.
  • can on a theoretical basis, choose a relevant approach to health for various situations met in practice.
  • can analyse cases from a resource perspective.

General competence:

The student

  • can coherently and critically communicate ideas concerning health and wellbeing.
  • can analyse and apply theories of knowledge relevant for health and wellbeing as an academic field

Full-time/Part-time

Full-time

ECTS Credits

10 ECTS

Level of Study

Master

Semester of Instruction

Autumn
Required Previous Knowledge
None
Access to the Course

For students admitted to the master programmes at the Department of Health Promotion and Development.

International exchange students at the Faculty of Psychology may apply.

Teaching Methods and Extent of Organized Teaching

The teaching will be a mix between lectures and seminars with a focus on student involvement in the activities.

Independent study is required, and the student will work on the term paper throughout the course. The student will be offered one optional supervision on the paper.

Compulsory Assignments and Attendance
Annotation of three self-selected papers from the required reading list.
Forms of Assessment

Course paper of 3000 words +/-10% in which the student explores the relevance of the course content for a situation related to practice. The paper can be written in Norwegian or English.

The exam will only be offered once in the teaching semester.

NOTE: Text generated by ChatGPT and other AI text generators is not permitted in the submitted written work.

Grading Scale
The grading scale used is A to F. Grade A is the highest passing grade in the grading scale, grade F is a fail.
Assessment Semester
Autumn
Reading List
The reading list will be available by 1st of December for the spring semester.
Course Evaluation
The course will be evaluated by students and faculty and evaluations will be openly available as is standard University of Bergen practice for quality assurance.
Programme Committee
The Department of Health Promotion and Development
Course Coordinator
Department of Health Promotion and Development.
Course Administrator
The Faculty of Psychology is responsible for the administration of the programme.