WAYLAND BAPTIST UNIVERSITY
Plainview
School of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Wayland Baptist University exists to educate students in an academically challenging, learning-focused and
distinctively Christian environment for professional success and service to God and humankind.
CNSL 5301 – VC02 Lifespan Development
TERM: Fall 2013
Instructor: Brian McClenagan, Ph.D.
Contact Information: <<Office: (806) 291-1178, Cell: (806) 292-1430. Email: brianm@wbu.edu:
Office Hours: <<Monday: 9:00 – 12:00, Tuesday: 9:00 – 12:00, Thursday: 10:00 – 12:00, Friday, 9:00 –
11:00.
Class Time and Location: Online
Catalog Description: Physical, cognitive, emotional and social changes that occur from conception until death
and how these changes apply to the process of counseling.
Prerequisite: Graduate Status
Textbook: << Broderick, P. C. and Blewitt, P. (2009) The Life Span: Human Development for Helping
Professionals, 3rd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. >>
Course outcome competencies:
 Explain the 3 domains of development and the meaning of a “lifespan: perspective.
 Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical perspectives in developmental psychology.
 Explain the basic methods of research in developmental psychology.
 Describe the typical characteristics of individuals across the lifespan.
 Understand the normal variation across individuals at each point in the lifespan.
 Apply developmental principles to situations associated with counseling.
Course Goals:
1) Prepare students for the LPC licensing exam section on development.
2) Guide students toward a deeper understanding of the nature of human development.
3) Allow students to think about how developmental issues are important in counseling.
Course Objectives:
A) Demonstrate knowledge of the major people and theories in developmental psychology.
B) Describe the typical characteristics of individuals across the lifespan.
C) Understand the normal variation across individuals at each point in the lifespan.
D) Apply developmental principles to situations associated with counseling.
Attendance: Students enrolled at one of the University’s external campuses should make every effort to attend
all class meetings. All absences must be explained to the instructor, who will then determine whether the
omitted work may be made up. When a student reaches that number of absences considered by the instructor to
be excessive, the instructor will so advise the student and file an unsatisfactory progress report with the campus
dean. Any student who misses 25 percent or more of the regularly scheduled class meetings may receive a
grade of F in the course. Additional attendance policies for each course, as defined by the instructor in the
course syllabus, are considered a part of the University’s attendance policy.
Service for the Disabled: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), it is the
policy of Wayland Baptist University that no otherwise qualified person with a disability be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational program or
activity in the university. The Coordinator of Counseling Services serves as the coordinator of students with a
disability and should be contacted concerning accommodation requests at (806) 291- 3765. Documentation of a
disability must accompany any request for accommodations.
Course requirements:
Discussion Boards: You will be required to participate in a discussion board for each of the chapters covered.
Most weeks we will cover 2 chapters, so you can expect 2 discussion boards per week.
Weekly quizzes: Each week there will be 1 quiz covering both of the chapters for the week (more details
later).
Exams: There will be 3 exams during the term.
Report: This will require you to prepare a report on counseling-related issues for a particular age group. This
report will be a guide that will be shared with the group that will describe the characteristics of this age group
that need to be taken into consideration when counseling. Since these will provide information about
developmental stages to be shared with the whole class, I would like to have reports covering all ages, i.e.
preschool, elementary, adolescence, young adult, middle adult and older adult. Think about which stage you
would like to work on.
Note: Please do NOT wait until the last week to begin this project! I will ask for some preliminary work in your
weekly assignments as the term goes. This will be shared with others so that each student will wind up with a
primer covering each age group. Everyone do a good job so that this will be a valuable resource down the line!
Your report should:
1) describe the characteristics of people in that age group that are relevant to counseling. Overview the
material from the text and from other class readings and other professional grade materials that you have
found on your own and highlight the characteristics that seem to be most relevant to the counseling
situation. For example, you could discuss major social changes that might create stress or adjustment
problems (i.e. added responsibility in young adult), cognitive limits that might affect how a person is
able to think about their problems in therapy (i.e. pre-operational or concrete thinking in children) or
characteristics that might mimic disorders or affect diagnosis (i.e. hearing loss mistaken as dementia or
depression in elderly)
2) clearly explain how those characteristics are important to counseling.
a. tell what specific types of changes other professionals have made in their counseling techniques
to account for these developmental differences.
b. describe research that has been done that illustrates your points.
(In other words, don’t just rely on your own judgment; show us what real practitioners have found. Published,
peer reviewed research in journals is best.)
3) be formatted in APA style.
a. You can find a good (and very concise) overview of this style here:
http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.aspx?doc_id=796
b. Or, a longer version with more examples here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
c. Or you can go to the APA site which has FAQs as well as a fancy tutorial:
http://www.apastyle.org/
4) be written clearly, grammatically, and professionally. The paper should be at least 10 pages (appropriate
length varies a bit with your writing style) and have at least 8 references beyond the textbook. The
references should include some peer-reviewed research articles from scholarly journals as well as other
professional level sources. Please be careful to evaluate your sources. Websites are ok if they are from
respectable sources. You are in the process of becoming professional counselors and, therefore, you
should begin to rely on professional sources for your information. This means that the authors should be
professionals in the field of counseling or related disciplines. Peer-reviewed sources like journals or
edited books are better because the ideas are not just the flaky notions of one individual. (They are at
least the flaky notions of a group of people!) If you have questions about this, please ask! Also, be sure
to cite the source of all information (even if you paraphrase and do not quote!!!).
Method of determining course grade: There are APPROXIMATELY 1000 points available in this class,
broken down in the following manner:
Discussion board: 300 total
Weekly quizzes: 100 total
Exams:
300 total
Report:
300
The University has a standard grade scale:
A = 90-100, B = 80-89, C = 70-79, D = 60-69, F= below 60, W = Withdrawal, WP = withdrew passing, WF =
withdrew failing, I = incomplete. An incomplete may be given within the last two weeks of a long term or
within the last two days of a microterm to a student who is passing, but has not completed a term paper,
examination, or other required work for reasons beyond the student’s control. A grade of “incomplete” is
changed if the work required is completed prior to the last day of the next long (10 to 15 weeks) term, unless the
instructor designates an earlier date for completion. If the work is not completed by the appropriate date, the I
is converted to an F.
Instructor's policy on Academic Dishonesty: Instructor’s policy on Academic Dishonesty: Academic
misconduct includes all forms of cheating, such as illicit possession of exams, forgery, or plagiarism
(presenting the work of other people as your own). Misconduct will result, at a minimum, in receiving a
zero for the assignment and may result in an ‘F’ in the course.
Attendance: Obviously attendance does not exactly apply to the virtual campus. I will, however expect
you to turn in your assignments in a timely manner and to participate in the discussion boards in a way
that allows you to interact with the other students. If you consistently post on the boards only on the last
day of the week, this will not allow much interaction. If this becomes a trend for you, then your
discussion grade will go down. Late assignments will be reduced in grade for each day late.
Tentative course schedule:
Week 1 (Aug. 19 –Aug. 25): Chapters 1 and 2
Week 2 (Aug. 26 – Sep 1): Chapters 3 and 4
Week 3 (Sep 2 – Sept 8): Chapter 5
Exam
Week 4 (Sept 9 – Sept 15): Chapters 6 and 7
Week 5 (Sept 16 – Sept 22): Chapter 8
– Midterm Exam
Week 6 (Sept 23 – Sept 29): Chapter 9
Week 7 (Sept 30 – Oct 6): Chapters 10
Week 8 (Oct 7 – Oct 13): Chapters 11 and 12
Week 9 (Oct 14 – Oct 20): Chapters 13 and 14
Week 10 (Oct 21 – Oct 27): Chapter 15
Week 11 (Oct 28 – Nov2)
– Final Exam
- Project due October 18