Psychology

Reviewed by Carrie Fried, Professor, Winona State University on 2/1/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 3

Many areas covered well, but there are some topics that are typically of interest to students that are really too brief & skimpy. These include things like functions of cerebral cortex, dreaming, opioid addiction. There is no mention of neural networks, jumps right from single neurons to cerebral cortex...

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I found no factual errors

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

In this course (intro level comprehensive course) I don't worry too much about the latest evidence. Often students never take another course in Psych. I think the places where relevance / longevity might be an issue in this text are places where content is too brief (e.g., missing newer thinking on addiction). Updates on abnormal/clinical seems fine.

Clarity rating: 5

The prose seems very clear and accessible. I thought the case-studies were well-integrated. Enough info to make the point clearly, and integrated into the text instead of as a separate box, which I like.

Consistency rating: 5

Seemed good. It felt like one text written by on author rather than a bunch of modules written by separate distinct authors. I really appreciated that.

Modularity rating: 3

Didn't really seem modular, but I don't like the modular approach so that is fine with me.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Good

Interface rating: 4

I just viewed it as a PDF which worked fine. Charts and images were somewhat lacking at times, but the interface was fine.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Didn't see any, but I really didn't read with a copy-editor's eye.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Fine

I teach a one-semester comprehensive into psych course. I can't quite decide if this text is comprehensive enough or if it is too brief for my liking. I guess it boils down to do I use a more comprehensive book that students may digest 50% of or this book, which students may actually digest 70-80%....