Introduction to Psychology

by Charles Stangor

This is the black & white edition. Cover is in color and traditional paperback binding. It is the most recent edition (2011).

Genres: Psychology, Textbooks, School

480 pages, NOOK Study eTextbook

First published November 18, 2006

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy reading psychology textbooks. In my opinion, the best of these have three things in common: firstly, they provide accurate and current information. Secondly, they provide relevant examples and case studies to expand on the information provided. Thirdly, they omit the author’s opinions.
This textbook absolutely met the first two requirements. I especially enjoyed reading the studies and individual experiences outlined in this text. Unfortunately, the author seemed to be attempting to persuade the reader follow his beliefs in several areas of the content (e.g., animal testing, the effects of violence in video games, as well as others. As a quick final note, I must also say that I think it is amazing that Stangor provided this text online at no cost.

[Mihail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed the book. Very thorough and comprehensive introduction. A lot of references to the research. I guess people downrate it for sexuality section, but the book is written a little early to cover the most contemporary ideology.

[Fotis Koutoulakis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, I picked this book up from the Saylor Academy's Introduction to Psychology course, as I was fascinated by the subject, and decided to self study. This means that I am not a psychologist, so I would rather not comment on (my perception of) the content itself, but I will comment on what features from the book I liked, and what I got from it.

Now, first things first, the Goodreads database is wrong. This book is not 480 pages, it's about 800 pages (the version you can find from MIT OCW if you google the name of the book and the author's name is about 860 pages, and the saylor version is 780). Granted, some pages are images, but still, the book was much bigger than I originally thought. I am saying it as a warning to people who, like me, are looking for a quick introductory book on psychology. It doesn't feel quick, and at times, it's so much packed with information, that, unless you use notetaking software (I use onenote) or anything else to take notes, and regularly revise them, it's going to feel overwhelmingly dense.

Well, having said the above, there were several things that I liked about this book. First of all, I found several chapters particularly interesting, including the one on the brain and the nervous system, the one on consciousness and the one on sensation and perception. I also liked the mini sections called "Research Focus" and "Psychology in Real Life" that described what people are working on, or situations in real life that psychological findings where particularly useful.

Another chapter of the book that deserves mention is the one on learning. I didn't learn too much from that particular chapter, since I had already learnt much of the information within from the Coursera "Learn how to learn" course, but it served as interesting revision material, and a good reference, proving that much of what you learn is solid documented scientific evidence.

I can't say much more about the book, since I haven't read many more on the subject, but it was a good read for me overall.

[Caitlin Saavedra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Decently informative but poorly written, only reasonably-well organized, and full of arbitrary opinions. The author is VERY fond of gearing the text towards his personal beliefs - this is particularly noticeable in controversial sections like those about drug use and sexuality. I was appalled by the way he discussed homosexuality. Maybe he thought he was being objective but it mostly just sounded outdated and insensitive.

I would have literally ANY other textbook as I imagine it would have given me just as much practical information without being as bad as this book.

[Bleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty useful for reviewing material I hadn't seen in a while, but I wouldn't really recommend it to someone who has little background in psychology. It was great for being free but, as another reviewer pointed out, he shows biases toward multiple subjects. The PDF version I used (accessed through MIT Open Courseware) also had many spelling and formatting issues that distracted from the text.

Overall it was a great find and was very helpful.

[Rashid · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book contained many of the key concepts that I have learned from many different sources, so I would it say it was quite informative. It was useful. But there were times when both pros and cons about a topic were expressed, without any conclusion. Since I am no expert, I found that a bit frustrating. Also, it would have been nice to see more examples and applications from everyday life.

[Suguru Kaneda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skipped some chapters so I cannot describe how great entirely this book is, however, I love chapter 3 about Brain. This explanation about brain function is really fun and easy to understand. If you are interested in the specific brain function, I highly recommend you to read chapter 3. I want you give 4-star for chapter 4 but I gave 3-stars in total.

[Charity · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finding it a bit dry compared to others (plotnik for example)

[Christian Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Comment

[Jesryl]

no

[Crystal Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Education