Principles of Social Psychology
I do believe that this text covers all the major areas of social psychology, and all the content that I would teach in a related course. I even think it goes a little beyond. To my knowledge, this is the first time I have seen a text that includes a completely independent chapter on conflict and cooperation, these are usually contained within the aggression and helping chapters (which are also included). I also really like the inclusion of the section Thinking Like a Social Psychologist which I believe increases the comprehensiveness of the text. I believe that students will think more completely about the material because of the questions posed to them in this section. They will also be able to make links between course material and life events in a much easier and efficient way. I think this addition is an added bonus to the comprehensiveness!
I believe that the content of the text is accurate. I do not see any glaring misrepresentations of information. However, I would have liked to see more discussion of some of the classical research articles. For example, in the section of Attitude-behavior consistency, there is no discussion of classical articles claiming attitudes do not predict behavior (LaPiere, 1934 or Wicker, 1969). It seems like for certain sections there is a lot of historical context for the research and others are missing it. But this may be my own personal biases (in areas in which I do research and teach and I have more information). Overall, I do believe the text is written in an unbiased and accurate manner.
See above about some of the historical focus - I think this might add a little to the relevance. I also do think that because the text is written in an accurate and unbiased manner, it will stand the test of time. The content will not need to change drastically. However, the examples and current event media stories may become something that needs to be updated relatively regularly. I have found that with each passing year, students have become less and less aware of events that I consider current. Although they have basic knowledge, without additional details of the event, they may not be able to make the necessary connections. In addition, many of the hyperlinks in the text to the sites where these events are discussed may need to be updated. There are already a few (video and story) links that are no longer working. This might create a problem for the students and make the text a little less useful and relevant.
I really like the writing style of the author. The text was easy to follow and it is written at a level most students can understand.
In the preface the author mentions 2 underlying principles of Social (person and situation, and ABCs) and two human motivations (self-concern and other-concern), I really like this idea. I agree with the author that these are very important concepts in social psychology. I did notice while reading most (if not all) the chapters these 4 ideas are mentioned numerous times. I believe that having these consistent topics mentioned in every section of the book will help students make ties across topics that superficially seem like they have nothing in common. This is an innovative way to write a text in social psychology. In addition, I think there is a lot of consistency in the organization of each chapter (see comments for organization below).
I believe that this text is organized similarly to other Introduction to Social Psychology texts when it comes to chapter order and sequence. I do however, like the added information about organization in the preface. Discussing the text as organized by focus at different levels of analysis - individual, social, and group, is an asset, and allows instructors to structure the course at these levels as well. However, other than mentioning this in the preface, there is no other indication that the text is organized in this way. A table of contents or section title page might help readers make this distinction, since many instructors and students do not read the preface of a textbook. Overall, I think the modularity of this text is similar to most texts designed as an introductory text to Social Psychology..
I like that the chapters are similar in structure. Each starts with a media story or current event (although some of these are now dated and may not be relevant to students), which is followed by learning objectives for the section in the chapter. After discussing information and research on the topic of interest, each chapter ends with a section on Thinking like a Social Psychologist (and addition I really like) and then a brief chapter summary. I feel like this consistency is something students will like. It will help them find different types of information very easily once they recognize the structural organization.
There are some issues with the presentation of information. I tried to click on the very first video link in the text (Video Clip 1 on p. 3-4) and it sent me to a youtbe video error. I understand that not all videos on youtube remain for long periods of time, and this is not the fault of the author or publisher, but I wonder who, if anyone, maintains these when you use an open textbook? Are there alternative video formats that could be used.
I did like the ability to hyperlink to relevant figures or tables, this was very useful. However it was confusing to me that hyperlinks and important terms (vocabulary words) are in the same color. I found myself trying to click on vocabulary words through the first two chapters to see if a definition or text box would come up with additional information. I think it would be easier to follow if these two features had different appearances. Perhaps leave the hyperlinks blue (since most people identify those in that color) and make the important terms bold? It would take care of some confusion.
I would also like to see a table of contents page which includes not just chapter titles, but also subsections. That ways students could link off into their assigned reading from the table of contents. I used the bookmarks tool in adobe to do this, but students who are not tech-savy would not know about this, and I would have to spend class time teaching them to use this tool. It would just be easier if there was something there already for them.
I did not notice any grammatical errors or typos. The book seems to be relatively well written and is at a level of language that is easy to understand.
The text is culturally relevant. The pictures and images throughout the text contain people of different races and ethnic backgrounds. In addition, the text discusses research from other cultures and culture differences. The nature of social psychology takes into account social and cultural groups, so this text represents that well.
I do think the book has many strengths, and some weaknesses (as all other textbooks do), but for a free book for students, I think this is pretty good!