Principles of Social Psychology - 1st International Edition

Reviewed by Kevin Apple, Professor, James Madison University on 8/5/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The textbook includes all of the basic topics one would expect for an undergraduate social psychology textbook. The authors do an excellent job incorporating the classic studies in the field. However, the content in the textbook is dated. For example, the authors do not write about the current replication crisis in social psychology. Nor do the authors write about micro-aggressions. Throughout the textbook, the authors write about “recent” research or “recent” examples; however, most of these studies/examples are from 2013 or earlier. For example, there is a box in the text about Brad Pitt and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The text does include a glossary. Although there is not an index, a student can use the search function to find specific material.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Overall, the textbook is accurate. In Chapter 5, the authors refer to Psychologist Cuddy’s TED talk about non-verbal communication. Cuddy’s work on the topic of “power posing” has been questioned and is part of a controversy. I certainly do not object to the authors referring to this TED talk, but the authors should consider mentioning the controversy associated with this research.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

As already mentioned, the textbook is dated. By updating examples, the authors can increase the relevance of the textbook. For example, incorporating topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement and campus protests about the war in Gaza could make the book more relevant for today's students.

Clarity rating: 5

The writing is very clear. I found the textbook easy to read, and I believe most undergraduate students will find the book engaging.

Consistency rating: 4

The authors use a consistent framework for each chapter. However, some chapters include interactive (H5P) activities, and some chapters do not. For example, Chapter 1 includes 5 interactive activities across multiple sections, but Chapter 4 has 0 of these interactive activities. I believe it would be beneficial for the students if all of the chapters had a similar number of these activities.

Modularity rating: 4

Most chapters have 4 or 5 sections. For the most part, I believe these sections can be read in any order. In addition, I believe that an instructor can also ask students to not read sections of the book. The sections, however, vary in length. For example, Section 8.3 is 8 pages, but Section 10.3 is 20 pages. The authors can improve the modularity if each section had a more similar length.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The textbook is organized well. All topics are presented well.

Interface rating: 5

The interface works well. While reviewing the book, I had no issues with the print version or the online version of the text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Although there were some minor typographical errors, the grammar in the book was fine.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

As mentioned earlier in this review, the textbook is a dated. For example, the authors use the term “LGBT community" instead of the more recent term “LGBTQ community." I believe a more current social psychology textbook would be less binary with respect to gender and less heteronormative.

Comments

Although this textbook is not perfect, I believe it can be used effectively in a classroom. An instructor using this book may want to incorporate recent research/examples into class lectures/assignments.

Reviewed by Linda Nidelkoff, Instructor, Northeastern Illinois University on 3/29/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This text is written from an applied perspective. In choosing this emphasis, one that appeals to our current student population, the authors have chosen to introduce the paradigms of research and theory in a somewhat fragemented order and less than complete way. Missing in the text are discussions of important paradigms that are seminal organizers of current research and theory. Bandura's work needs a more complete explanation, for example. Milgram's and Zimbardo's works are presented but the very important challenges to our understanding of group process by Hassan and Reicher are absent. Tajfel and the work by symbolic interactionist, which are the cornerstone upon which much of the group and self work are based, are absent. A useful addition to this work would be to contrast attitudes, values, and norms, Nonetheless, I applaud the work that has been done by these authors with applied social psychology topics.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

My review of the various chapters are that the presentations pf research are accurate , though sometimes under-developed. My only quibble is with the overarching statements like "aggression is not cathartic". Playful aggression actually is essential to optimal brain development. Sears and others have demonstrated cathartic aggression. These authors seem to get things essentially correct with material that I know more about.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Applied social psychological perspectives are very welcome to students. Social psychological perspectives can be used to understand the world and these authors champion this use well. The authors combine a lot of perspectives and topics to attempt explain the things of interest to many of us in the world. The authors use social psychology to explain violence, gender differences in behavior, loving and liking and the reasons for differences in perceptions among people. These topics seem to be of strong interest to undergraduate and graduate students.

Clarity rating: 4

The applied focus of the book and its "bottom up" emphasis seem to have affected the clarity of the presentation of material. Some parts of the catalog of attributional and perceptual biases are connected to each other in a less than organized manner. Instructors with a strong theoretical base may be able to connect these related topics through use of attribution and other cognitive social psychological theories so the text material can easily be made more clear and able to be understood, Nontheless, the examples used by the authors are useful to clarity material. The exercises and quizzes also support clarity of the material.

Consistency rating: 5

The authors have made a strong effort to define important terms and to use those terms in a consistent manner. These efforts enhance the readability of the text. The theoretical base of the work presented, while somewhat dispersed through the topics, is presented consistently (i.e. with no detected examples of contradictions)

Modularity rating: 5

The authors have successfully segmented topics within and between chapters. Clearly differentiated subsections exist. Reading checks and quizzes are presented after main sections of the text. Mid-chapter questions are asked. This text useful in that aspect. If an instructor has some minor suggestions for text re-organization that can be done easily through assignment of subsections of the text.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The authors choices of text order seem logical. The use of the modularity of the text could be used to refine the organization of the text, if an instructor prefers. For example, the material on attribution theory might be assigned prior to/alongside the chapter on social cognition.

Interface rating: 5

The materials connected to this work are very useful. The authors have worked hard on clarity of process, accessibility, and relevance to the subject matter.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

This text has been edited well. I found the grammar and the spelling to be correct.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The cultural relevance of the work is fine overall. More representation of cultural images and ideas could be done to augment the work that these authors have done by inclusions of multi-cultural examples. The authors might also supplement the work on culture through more use of models of culture such as Hofstede, Fiske, and other authors.

Comments

The text authors have done a good job with the writing of this text. This text might be especially useful in courses where the instructor teaches from a strong theory rather than applied base. The topics written about are of interest to students. The modularity of the text would permit easy use of the book to support the theories presented in the course and the theoretical organization of the instructor.

Reviewed by Jay Brown, Professor of Psychology, Texas Wesleyan University on 2/6/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Social psychology is both a basic and an applied field. I'd like to see more emphasis on the applied side.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The research I reviewed was accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The initial text is from 2014, ad there seems to have been very little to update the text.

Clarity rating: 5

A cleanly written text

Consistency rating: 5

The format of the book is very consistent and clean.

Modularity rating: 5

Each chapter has subshapters which then in turn have subsections that could be used as stand alone material.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

This text follows the same basic layout as other Social Psychology texts I've worked with.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is very clean.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Though I din't deeply read a lot of the text, I found no grammatical issues.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Though the book does make reference to cultural issues, I think these cultural issues should take more of a center stage. Social psychological principles established in Western sample do not hold true for non-western sample.

Comments

I do not teach Social Psychology as often as I would like, but social psychological issues arise regularly in many of my other courses. I am a firm believer in demoncratizing education and do not use any paid texts in any of my courses. Most of my courses are specialized upper level courses so OER texts are often difficult to acquire. My solution, piece together course material from existing OER. This text will be a valuable resource for my creation of OER in many different courses.

Reviewed by Bettina Spencer, Professor of Psychology, Saint Mary's College on 4/11/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book covers all of the main topics I want my undergraduate students to know in a Social Psychology course. The classic research (cognitive dissonance, bystander effect, conformity, social categorization, etc.) are all there as well as more contemporary research. The activities were updated in 2022, which helps fill in some gaps since its original publication date (2104). Importantly, the web version is completely accessible.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

This is a version of Stangor's classic Social Psychology textbook, and is therefore thorough and accurate. All of the topics are accurately covered.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The web version of this book is fully accessible, which I will take in a trade-off with completely up to date references. The references tend to end around 2010, but those updates would be easy to make in a new version of this book, or in one's lectures. I do hope the authors release an updated version of this book.

Clarity rating: 5

This text is very clear and concise. Complicated theories and studies are explained in a manner that undergraduate students can easily understand.

Consistency rating: 5

This book is consistent throughout in regards to language, activities, format, etc. It is as organized and clear as any paper textbook.

Modularity rating: 5

This book is a modular as any paper textbook in that the sections are divided in traditional/typical ways. This book is probably more similar to traditional textbooks because it is written in chapters. Other ebooks may break the modules down a bit more, but if you are looking to replicate, not redesign, the textbook experience this book is essentially the classic textbook but online and accessible with linked activities.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

All of the chapters and sections are organized in the traditional Social Psychology textbook arrangement, starting with research methods in social psychology, then social cognition, the self, attitudes and behavior, and so forth.

Interface rating: 4

The interface is relatively basic and reading this book is very similar to reading a paper textbook, but with fewer photos and sidebars. In that sense it is very straightforward, but also sometimes boring to look at. However, the accessibility of the web version is a huge benefit.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

This book is professionally written, with no errors or typos.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

A benefit to this book is that it is an international edition and does properly explore cultural differences in social psychological theories (emotional expression, fundamental attribution error, etc.) without generalizing or perpetrating stereotypes.

Comments

Overall this book is the best option if you want to replicate your traditional textbook experience without altering too much of the content or how you organize your syllabus and assignments. In that sense it is a very good entry into the open access ebook world, and because it is accessible all students will be able use the material. If you are considering switching to an open access ebook, this one is basically a replacement for Stangor's Social Psychology textbook.

Reviewed by Ketevan Mosashvili, Part-time faculty, Bridgewater State University on 12/6/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The book is covering all major topics/areas in social psychology presenting essential and fundamental texts for each topic.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

There are references at the end of each chapter. they represent peer-reviewed, impact-factor journals.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Most of the chapters have Research Focus section related to the topic of the chapter. The necessary updates related to the up-to-date relevance will be easy to implement.

Clarity rating: 5

Jargon and technical terminology are introduced after the context and introduction piece, which makes it easy to comprehend the definition and the idea.

Consistency rating: 5

Each and every chapter introduces new terminology or concepts in a consecutive way. There is no theory introduced without previous knowledge needed to understand.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters are divided in smaller sub-chapters focusing on sub-topic of the chapter. It is easy to comprehend keeping the big theme in mind while focusing on parts of it.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics and accordingly chapters are presented in a sequence that make sense and is easily comprehensible. Each chapter starts with the learning objectives, continues with the main text and ends with the references and summary.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is easy to perceive well structures. It meets the readers' intuitive "expectation."

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The book does not contain grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book includes rich cross-cultural studies in many chapters.

Reviewed by Martin Laubach, Professor, Marshall University on 10/12/22, updated 12/6/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

There are many points of divergence from the textbook’s psychological perspective where I need to lecture, like Mead and the self, Stryker and identities, Goffman and dramaturgy, but I also bring in cutting edge material like Barrett’s work on the social construction of emotions and Will Storr’s Selfie, which discusses the emergence of the self in Western culture. I found the book surprisingly weak on socialization, which is common to both perspectives, and on research methodology, which is only addressed in a small section of a chapter, but again this allowed me to bring in sociological paradigm in lecture. At 12 chapters, the textbook leaves room in the syllabus for a class on symbolic communication, language, and theory of mind, and more in-depth material on organizational behavior.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I have not found any errors within its paradigm.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

I decided to adopt this textbook for my course Individual and Society after the two textbooks I previously used went out of print. The course is social psychology, but from a sociological point of view. The difference between psychological social psychology and sociological social psychology is that the former starts from the person and works up to society while the latter starts with society and works down to the individual, making the individual a kind of “node” of society. Unfortunately, there are no sociological social psychology open source textbooks. So, to make this work I have to rely on the textbook to provide basic material common to both paradigms and then bring in the sociological perspective in lectures and other content.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is appropriate for an upper level undergraduate course

Consistency rating: 5

There are no problems here

Modularity rating: 5

At 12 chapters, the textbook leaves room in the syllabus for a class on symbolic communication, language, and theory of mind, and more in-depth material on organizational behavior. I have swapped chapters around in my course with no problem. I assign quizzes on each chapter in which the students offer a "take away" summary of the sections of the chapters assigned for each class, and have seen no problems for the students.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics are organized well, but I have swapped a few around to fit better with my other material.

Interface rating: 5

no problems

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

haven't found any yet

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This text is cross cultural which is one of its strong points.

Comments

Review of open source social psychology textbook
Marty Laubach
Professor of Sociology
Marshall University

Jhangiani, R., Tarry, H., & Stangor, C. (2022). Principles of social psychology (1st international H5P edition). BCcampus. https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/

I decided to adopt this textbook for my course Individual and Society after the two textbooks I previously used went out of print. The course is social psychology, but from a sociological point of view. The difference between psychological social psychology and sociological social psychology is that the former starts from the person and works up to society while the latter starts with society and works down to the individual, making the individual a kind of “node” of society. Unfortunately, there are no sociological social psychology open source textbooks. So, to make this work I have to rely on the textbook to provide basic material common to both paradigms and then bring in the sociological perspective in lectures and other content. This requirement has made the course heavy on lecture, but as it is a hyflex course (available face to face, virtual, and asynchronous online), it has to be designed with online discussion as reflections on the weekly course materials, so lecture (and my notes and the transcript) is effectively a substitute for the second textbook. I record the lectures and post them for the asynchronous students. Since I assign podcasts and videos, I see my recorded lectures (in front of the synchronous students) as essentially another podcast but one that organizes all of the rest of the weekly content.

There are many points of divergence from the textbook’s psychological perspective where I need to lecture, like Mead and the self, Stryker and identities, Goffman and dramaturgy, but I also bring in cutting edge material like Barrett’s work on the social construction of emotions and Will Storr’s Selfie, which discusses the emergence of the self in Western culture. I found the book surprisingly weak on socialization, which is common to both perspectives, and on research methodology, which is only addressed in a small section of a chapter, but again this allowed me to bring in sociological paradigm in lecture. At 12 chapters, the textbook leaves room in the syllabus for a class on symbolic communication, language, and theory of mind, and more in-depth material on organizational behavior.

So far I have received good feedback from the students, especially appreciating the free textbook and the flexibility on how the course material is delivered. I warned them in the beginning that I was experimenting both with the new textbook and with the hyflex delivery methodology, so they have been tolerant about it all. We are in the midst of the course so I haven’t yet received the anonymous feedback.