Pretty appalling and made me question whether continuing to study psychology at Melbourne is even worth it. (For reference, my subject mark was a high H1 so none of my criticisms come from not doing well, the subject was just crap!). Some really outdated and harmful stuff taught in this subject which is very concerning as this is the 'new generation' of mental health physicians you're teaching, many of whom will presume that what they're being taught is true - if you're neurodivergent then be prepared to feel awful about yourself. I was disappointed that I didn't learn more - particularly the ADHD and Autism lectures were very basic and contained lots of harmful and outdated content. Lecturer also became quite rude when some other students asked for clarification on these topics. First assignment was an absolute mess - assignment outline and criteria didn't at all match what they actually graded us on - subject staff were also very unresponsive to feedback, when a whole heap of students provided feedback that was clear they basically just made a video saying eh seems like you're all getting a bit emotional and didn't at all address the valid concerns. Students also provided a link to a reddit discussion where lots of students currently enrolled had engaged in a productive and informative discussion about the assignment, asking the staff to read through it because it summarised student concerns really well and could be helpful for revising the subject next year, but the head of the subject flat out said nah not going to read through that, that's your space to complain I don't want to intrude (even though many students had said please read it). If you take this subject PLEASE be critical about what you're being taught (particularly when it comes to autism and ADHD) and take the time to look into those with lived experience to actually learn and recognise which parts of the subject are actively harmful.

I enjoyed the lecture content, however, the subject is poorly run. Subject coordinator and lecturers turn their backs on student concerns and criticisms. Assignments are poorly explained and the marking team appear to require information that isn’t specified on the rubrics or in the instructions. This subject has no exams and our entire grade is based on the assignments, so this is a big issue. Tutorials are too short (1.5 hours and only 5 tutorials) and usually there is not enough time to go through all the slides and ask questions as well, which sucks because this is the only time to ask tutors about assignments. Content is not uploaded to Canvas in a timely manner so we are left waiting, which is another issue for assignments. My tutor was lovely and always keen to help us, provided a lot of additional support in class and in her own time, and fought for our concerns to be heard. I believe I would be performing even worse without that help, however, I’ve heard from other students that some tutors have no idea what is going on either. I know that the subject is under new management so perhaps that’s why things are so unorganised right now. Hopefully, things improve in the future because while I enjoyed the lectures and think this is an interesting subject, I cannot recommend it in it’s current state. - M

Content of this subject is interesting. However, tutor is not well prepared and not helpful. If you prefer assignments rather than exams then this subject is for you.

I enjoyed the content of this subject very much. Assessments were relevant and provided good insight into realistic tasks/responsibilities for those working in the Developmental Psychology field.

I found the structure and teaching of this subject to be appalling. There were no rubrics provided for the assignments, and the marking seemed to depend completely on who your tutor was - I had friends in different classes who turned in assignments with near-identical content and who received wildly different marks than me. I think a lot of people take this subject thinking it will be easy because it's all assignments, but it's the worst subject of my degree.

This will be a biased review in some sense since I have been tutoring this subject for a number of years. It has 3 streams of content, for which there is an assignment in each stream. There is no exam component which may be ideal for students who prefer assignments over exams. It can be a very enjoyable subject but it is generally more suitable for students with some background knowledge in psychology and psychological writing.