Those of us who teach introductory psychology have the privilege and the challenge of introducing students to our discipline, which is more expansive than ever as research proliferates in many areas. This task has become increasingly problematic in recent years as the authors of introductory textbooks have struggled to keep pace, resulting in books that are more comprehensive, longer, and thus more difficult to complete in one term. The choices of which topics to assign and to what depth to cover them have become more difficult for teachers. Teachers end up either omitting entire chapters or asking students to read chapters at a pace too hurried for optimal learning. Further, introductory textbooks have become much more expensive, leading some students to not even purchase them. As an introductory psychology teacher, I grappled with these critical issues. Psychology: A Concise Introduction is the result of my own search for a textbook that includes the essential core content in psychology but is also economical in both size and cost.
Chapter Topics. To make the most informed choices of chapter topics, I consulted Benjamin Miller and Barbara Gentile’s national survey of 761 introductory psychology teachers at 490 schools (Miller & Gentile, 1998). They asked teachers to rate the importance of and need for coverage of 25 different topics in their courses. Since my first chapter covers psychology as a science, I chose the highest-rated topics in Miller and Gentile’s study as the subjects of the other nine chapters. To maintain the book’s brevity, I paired sensation with perception and cognitive development with social development in single chapters. The topic order is the standard one—introduction/methods, neuroscience, sensation/perception, learning, memory, thinking/intelligence, developmental psychology, personality, social psychology, and abnormal psychology. Because the topics of emotion, motivation, and states of consciousness were rated just below the chosen topics, I included sections on emotion and consciousness in the neuroscience chapter and on motivation in the learning chapter. My choices of chapter topics were further validated by Scott Bates’s analysis of topic coverage for 107 introductory psychology course syllabi (Bates, 2004). His topic coverage findings based on syllabi analysis match my chapter topic choices almost perfectly.
Pedagogical Program. In writing Psychology: A Concise Introduction, I have tried to offer solid topical coverage in an engaging, conversational style. The content in each chapter has been reduced to the core content within that topic domain. Illustrations are full-color and pedagogically sound. Students will find this book easy to learn from. It incorporates both pedagogical aids and study guide exercises to structure their learning. My choice of pedagogical aids was primarily based on research findings about student perception of the use and importance of the many aids employed in textbooks. I included the aids that students report valuing and using in their learning. Each chapter begins with an overview in the form of a topical outline, and key terms are identified by boldface type and then defined both in the text and in a marginal glossary. Detailed summaries are provided at the end of each major chapter section. Study guide exercises begin with Concept Check questions at the end of each chapter section. These questions lead students to think more deeply about the material in that section. For example, a question may ask students to contrast concepts to understand differences between them or to demonstrate their understanding of a concept by applying it in a novel situation. At the end of each chapter there is a list of key terms and a Key Terms Exercise to test student knowledge of these terms. A multiple-choice Practice Test on the chapter’s content follows the Key Terms Exercise. Answers to this test along with answers to the Key Terms Exercise and the sectional Concept Checks are provided at the end of each chapter. These exercises combined with the pedagogical aids should foster sufficient review and self-assessment, eliminating the need for and additional expense of a separate study guide.
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Fourth Edition Changes. Reaching the goal of a textbook that could be covered in a single term at a reasonable price without sacrificing essential content was a challenge, but based on the overwhelmingly positive market response, the publisher and I seem to have been successful. With only 10 chapters, Psychology: A Concise Introduction has fit nicely into introductory courses on both semester and quarter systems. The breadth of the audience for the text has also been gratifying. It has been used successfully at all types of colleges and universities, from two-year schools to research institutions. Given this success and to maintain the text’s basic goal, the content was expanded and revised only where necessary. The 10 chapters (those topics taught most frequently by introductory teachers) remain the same, and content additions were made judiciously.
The third edition revisions were well received, so my fourth edition revisions are along the same lines. I only made revisions that enhanced the text’s pedagogical program or visual persona, were absolutely necessary due to recent research findings, contributed toward more closure on a particular topic, or had substantial value to student readers. I have updated content where necessary (e.g., new analyses of Phineas Gage’s brain damage in Chapter 2; discussion of the dual processing model of thinking in Chapter 6; and the complete revision of the coverage of mental disorders in Chapter 10 in accordance with the new DSM-5), added content that provides better closure on a topic (e.g., discussion of the Twin Towers of Pisa illusion to demonstrate the subjective nature of perception in Chapter 3 and coverage of the BBC Prison Study and its relationship to Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment in Chapter 9) or that has value to students in their everyday lives (e.g., addition of the Premack principle of relative reinforcement and its uses in the real world in Chapter 4 and extended discussion of the false positive problem in medical screening in Chapter 6). I also added new concepts if they served to strengthen a discussion of a related concept (e.g., addition of the nocebo effect in Chapter 1 and the neurocognitive theory of dreaming in Chapter 2).
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In this new edition, the visual pedagogical program was expanded and strengthened throughout the text. Because this program is an integral part of the learning process, I carefully examined each figure, table, illustration, photo, and cartoon to ensure that it served a clear pedagogical function, and any that needed improvement were either revised or replaced. In addition, the tables were redesigned to facilitate their use, and new illustrations, historical photos, and cartoons were added where necessary to further improve the pedagogical value of the visual program. The text’s interior design was also revised to have a cleaner look and thus enhance its use. Because of their success in the first three editions, the specific pedagogical aids employed (those that research has found students report valuing and using in their learning) and the structure of the integrated study guide remain the same. All of the questions in the Concept Check sections, Key Terms Exercises, and multiple-choice Practice Tests were reevaluated and revised if necessary. In sum, I think that students will find this new edition even easier to learn from.
As with the first three editions, the textbook’s smaller size and lower cost allow teachers the option of adding supplemental readings to customize their courses to fit their own goals and interests. To facilitate the task of finding supplemental materials, Worth offers many supplements for this purpose.