Textbook Evaluation Assignment

For this assignment, examine and write a review of three different Introductory Psychology textbooks Your write-up should be turned in at the beginning of class on Thursday, Oct 27.

To obtain textbooks you will need to contact the book representative for different publishing companies to request exam/review copies of texts (these are texts that the publishers send out free to instructors, hopeing the instructor will choose their text for an upcoming class). I have contacted most of the book reps to let them know that you will be requesting texts, but if one questions whether you are legitimate let me know. I ask that you only request 2 texts per publisher, so you'll want to review the texts on each publisher's website before deciding which 2 to request. If you are chosen to teach a course in the spring, you can contact the reps again to have more texts sent to you.

Here are the publishing companies, websites, and book rep info. You should look at the websites to choose the texts you want to review, and contact the reps immediately so they have time to acquire the text and ship it to you.

1. Allyn & Bacon/ Longman
www.ablongman.com
Julie Mack
julie.mack@ablongman.com
916-354-0921

2. Houghton-Mifflin
www.college.hmco.com
Leslie Nowack
Leslie_nowack@hmco.com
800-462-6560 x2263

3. McGraw-Hill
www.mhhe.com
Carolyn Ghazi-Tehrani
carolyn_ghazi-tehrani@mcgraw-hill.com
916-415-1300

4. Prentice Hall
www.prenhall.com
Kathy Moore
Kathy_Moore@prenhall.com

5. Thomson/Wadsworth
www.wadsworth.com
Stephanie Monzon
stephanie.monzon@thomson.com
(800) 876-2350 ext. 7261

6. Wiley
www.wiley.com
Eric Yager
eyager@wiley.com
916-206-9327

While most Introductory Psychology textbooks have roughly the same chapter headings, there can be large variations in the actual content and style. Some intro texts are full texts while others are considered more abbreviated texts. Furthermore, each person writing a textbook has his/her own area of interest and expertise, and that can shape the focus of a text. Evaluating a textbook can be tricky, because you have to make a decision without having read all of the textbook. The first thing to do for this assignment is start to come up with some different methods to evaluate and compare different texts.

In your review, you should briefly explain at least 2 methods you used to critique the texts, and the strengths and weaknesses of each text based on those methods. Since Introductory Psychology at Sac State is taught in two separate semesters, also evaluate the appropriateness of each text for a Psyc 1 class versus a Psyc 5 class. Not all intro texts would be useful for both classes.