Introduction to Psychology
This textbook covers a large range of subjects within the field of psychology; however, some chapters were shortened and brief in their coverage, while others were thorough and extensive in depth of material. Some aspects of the material did not include most recent research and changes in our fields understanding (for example, the discussion around emotion, arousal and the fight/flight system did not include an introduction to trauma or how the growing body of research shows consistently the impact of early trauma on physical/biological and emotional/mental development). The questions for critical thinking facilitated active learning of what was discussed in the chapter. The progression of chapters followed a logical order from a learning and instructing point of view
The content presented and discussed was accurate; however, certain topics were much more skim in the information provided; this could be resolved through accessing additional learning materials. As a learner in an introductory course, the errors detected would likely go unnoticed. As an instructor and with more comprehensive understanding, the errors were minimally noticeable; nothing observed was falsely reported, simply lacking as comprehensive discussion as possible. The coverage on drugs and addiction was inclusive of updated research that goes against our prior understanding of the impacts of illicit drugs; I was happy to read this inclusion.
The prenatal development section briefly covered environmental contributions to birth defects and harmful developmental impacts, including only a sentence or two on the damage of various substances. The discussion around whether our actions are largely due to nature or nurture did not include material around various theories of heritability, leaving the discussion to sound largely based from a personal perspective. The chapter discussing intelligence appeared slightly biased; while reviewing the differences in intelligence between men and women and different races, there was more heavy material presented to support these differences in IQ being partially based in genetics, without a discussion around how social norms and environmental factors also come into play when looking at the findings around differences between social groups and intelligence. Information around the fight or flight system and the brain processes involved in responding to threats was minimal and insufficient, again discussing differences between men and women in their biological arousal response systems, and without addressing the growing body of knowledge around activation of these processes.
Much of the information included in an introductory course is historical, and therefore relevance and longevity should not be a concern. The critical thinking questions and the boxes with real life examples are great in that they reflect updated culturally relevant examples in terms of topics, current themes around the United States political, cultural (etc) climate; however, as culture and times changes, these would be easily adaptable/changeable
This text was very clear and engaging. The layout was inviting, the use of font adjustments (italics, bold face, etc) supported focused learning and signaled when definitions/jargon were given/explored. Each chapter section starts with clear objectives for the reader, and key takeaways, followed by critical thinking questions. Each chapter concludes with a summary of key concepts covered.
The book is written in an engaging manner; difficult concepts are balanced with engaging examples from lived experience. Discussion questions are written to invoke thoughtful responses and personal engagement with the material. Even chapters that may be more challenging for students (research and statistics) are written and therefore read with ease and discussed with engaging and relevant examples.
The chapter lengths were really remarkable for what was covered; they were chunked out in a manner that were short to read and that encouraged engagement with the text. I was shocked at the depth of material and the quality of engagement for also having short and brief chapters - this I think will go a long way with students who are just being introduced to the field of psychology. There were links provided throughout the text; however, I was unsuccessful in getting these links to work and so I cannot report on the usefulness or appropriateness of these learning supplements.
Chapters followed a logical progression of material and each chapter included engaging examples and prompts for future learning or current critical engagement with the material. It was easy to read, easy to follow, and easy to move between chapters. Each chapter provided useful materials in terms of definitions and clarity in previously discussed material
Display features were clear and useful. Links however, were not working for me regardless of how I tried to open them. I was excited to see the option of having youtube videos, examples of personality tests, etc; however, ultimately they were not accessible for use. I was able to highlight the text; however, in the format I was using, I was unable to highlight multiple sections; once I tried, my previous highlighted portion was removed.
This was very well written; there were no grammatical errors that I observed.
Culture in terms of inclusiveness was absent; there was not much included in terms of information that may vary between cultures. When there was discussion of differences between groups of people in regard to race, sex and gender, these differences were named and yet poorly explored; therefore, readers lost opportunities to engage the material with a global view, and potentially could have formed biased or incomplete information about various groups.