49 Psychology
Always Developing: An Open Educational Resource on the Psychology of Adult Development
Anne Dull Baird (University of Windsor)
2019
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
We will look at how we change physically over time from emerging and early adulthood through aging and death. We will examine cognitive change, or how our ability to think and remember changes over time. We will consider how our concerns and psychological state are influenced by age and finally, how our social relationships change throughout life.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Suggested for: PSYC 381
The Balance of Personality
Chris Allen (Portland State University)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This open-access textbook was developed as an upper-division undergraduate textbook for theories of personality. Its intended audience are students from Portland State University enrolled in Psychology 432 Personality course. The chapters are shorter than some personality textbooks and in this particular course Psy 432 the textbook is combined with other readings including scientific articles on personality. This open-access textbook may be of interest to other courses interested in teaching about theory and research on personality.
Formats: Online, EPUB, and PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 356
Biological Psychology
Michael J. Hove (Fitchburg State University) and Steven A. Martinez (Temple University)
2024
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Biological psychology is the study of the biological bases of behavior and mental processes. It explores how biological factors like genes, hormones, neurotransmitters, and brain structures influence psychological components like thoughts, emotions, memories, and actions. This free and open textbook provides a wide ranging and up-to-date introduction to the main topics and methods of biological psychology.
Formats: Online, eBook, and PDF
Case Studies in Community Psychology Practice
Geraldine L. Palmer (Adler University), Todd L. Rogers, Judah Viola (National Louis University in Chicago), and Maronica Engel
2022
Licence: CC BY
This textbook displays this work in a dynamic case study format that will ignite students’ desire and passion to study and become future community psychologists or those whose heart beats with the beloved community. You can find community psychologists and allies partnering with communities to change racist policies, end health disparities, create alternate settings for youth, foster community-based models to heal trauma, evaluate programs, and much more!
Formats: Online, PDF, eBook, ODF, and more
Culture and Psychology: How People Shape and are Shaped by Culture
L. D. Worthy, Trisha Lavigne, and Fernando Romero (Maricopa Community Colleges)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Culture is one of the most powerful forces in the world. It shapes how we make sense of our world, how we express ourselves and how we understand and relate to others. In this textbook we introduce cultural universals and culturally specific constructs in psychology. This textbook was created for an undergraduate course that appeals to psychology majors and non-majors because it meets several general education and transfer credit requirements.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more
Suggested for: PSYC 315
Data Analysis in the Psychological Sciences
Leyre Castro and J. Toby Mordkoff
2023
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This open resource textbook contains 10 Units that describe and explain the main concepts in statistical analysis of psychological data. In addition to conceptual descriptions and explanations of the basic analyses for descriptive statistics, this textbook also explains how to conduct those analyses with common statistical software (Excel) and open-source free software (R).
Formats: Online, PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Developmental Psychology
Bill Pelz (Herkimer College)
Licence: CC BY
This course is designed to provide an engaging and personally relevant overview of the discipline of Developmental Psychology. In this course you will examine the cultural, social, psychological, and physiological influences which impact human development from conception to death. You – the student – will provide much of the substantive content and teaching presence in this course.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and more
Suggested for: PSYC 323
Developmental Psychology: A Canadian Perspective
Dinesh Ramoo
2022
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This book introduces you to the basic concepts of developmental psychology from a lifespan perspective. It presents development as a lifelong process that can be understood from physical, cognitive, and psychosocial dimensions. It also incorporates information relevant to the Canadian context with ideas derived from indigenous knowledge and experiences. In each chapter, up-to-date research findings describe and explain biological, psychological, and social development across the life course. Research is presented in an accessible and engaging manner that allows students to situate their own experience within the lifespan view of psychology. This book is an adaptation done by Dinesh Ramoo at Brandon University, building upon an adaptation done at Concordia of Lifespan Development.
Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB, and more
Suggested for: PSYC 323
Discover Psychology 2.0: A Brief Introductory Text
NOBA
2016
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This textbook presents core concepts common to introductory courses. The 15 units cover the traditional areas of intro-to-psychology; ranging from biological aspects of psychology to psychological disorders to social psychology. This book can be modified: feel free to add or remove modules to better suit your specific needs. Each module in this book is accompanied by instructor’s manual, PowerPoint presentation, test items, adaptive student quiz, and reading anticipation guide.
Formats: PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Essentials of Abnormal Psychology
Alexis Bridley and Lee W. Daffin Jr. (Washington State University)
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This textbook tackles the difficult topic of psychological disorders in eight chapters. After the first three foundational chapters, a discussion of psychological disorders ensues to include anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders, and personality disorders.
Formats: Online, PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 435
Fundamentals of Psychological Disorders – 3rd edition
Alexis Bridley and Lee W. Daffin Jr. (Washington State University)
2022
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Fundamentals of Psychological Disorders (formerly Abnormal Psychology) is an Open Education Resource written by Alexis Bridley, Ph.D. and Lee W. Daffin Jr., Ph.D. through Washington State University. The book tackles the difficult topic of mental disorders in 15 modules and is updated through the DSM-5-TR. This journey starts by discussing what abnormal behavior is by attempting to understand what normal behavior is. Models of abnormal psychology and clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment are then discussed. With these three modules completed, the authors next explore several classes of mental disorders in 5 blocks. Block 1 covers mood, trauma and stressor related, and dissociative disorders. Block 2 covers anxiety, somatic symptom, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Block 3 covers eating and substance-related and addictive disorders. Block 4 tackles schizophrenia spectrum and personality disorders. Finally, Block 5 investigates neurocognitive disorders and then ends with a discussion of contemporary issues in psychopathology. Disorders are covered by discussing their clinical presentation and DSM Criteria, epidemiology, comorbidity, etiology, and treatment options.
Formats: Online, PDF
Human Development
Human Development Teaching and Learning Group (Portland State University)
2021
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This open textbook is designed for Human Development, a core Psychology course. This course provides a bird’s eye view of major milestones and developmental tasks during each age period, starting at conception and ending with old age.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Suggested for: PSYC 228
Introduction to Applied Statistics for Psychology Students
Gordon E. Sarty (University of Saskatchewan)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Introduction to Applied Statistics for Psychology Students, by Gordon E. Sarty (Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan) began as a textbook published in PDF format, in various editions between 2014-2017. The book was written to meet the needs of University of Saskatchewan psychology students at the undergraduate (PSY 233, PSY 234) level.
Formats: Online, EPUB, and PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Introduction to Biological Psychology
Catherine N. Hall
2023
Licence: CC BY-NC
An open access textbook designed primarily for use by first and second year undergraduate students of British Psychological Society accredited Psychology degree courses in the UK.
Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB
Suggested for: PSYC 302
Introduction to Community Psychology: Becoming an Agent of Change
Edited by Leonard A. Jason, Olya Glantsman, Jack F. O’Brien, and Kaitlyn N. Ramian (DePaul University)
2019
Licence: CC BY
This textbook will show you how to comprehensively analyze, investigate, and address escalating problems of economic inequality, violence, substance abuse, homelessness, poverty, and racism. It will provide you with perspectives and tools to partner with community members and organizations to promote a fair and equitable allocation of resources and opportunities.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more
UPEI Introduction to Psychology 1
Philip Smith (University of Prince Edward Island)
2021
Licence: CC BY
This Introduction to Psychology is an adaptation of OpenStax’s Psychology and Noba’s Introduction to Psychology: The Full Noba Collection.
Formats: Online and PDF
Includes: Learning objectives, discussion questions, and vocabulary
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Introduction to Psychology
Jorden A. Cummings and Lee Sanders (University of Saskatchewan)
2019
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This introductory text has been created from a combination of original content and materials compiled and adapted from a number of open text publications, including Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition (Stangor & Wallinga, 2014), the Noba Project, and Research Methods in Psychology – 3rd American Edition (Price, Jhangiani, Chiang, Leighton, & Cuttler, 2017). This version of the text includes a Key Terms list for each chapter, an expanded glossary, and H5P chapter self-tests.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Introduction to Psychology
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing
2015
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Introduction to Psychology utilizes the dual theme of behavior and empiricism to make psychology relevant to intro students. This book help students organize their thinking about psychology at a conceptual level. Psychology matters because it helps us understand behavior and that our knowledge of psychology is based on empirical study.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI and, more
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition
Jennifer Walinga (Royal Roads University) and Charles Stangor (University of Maryland)
2014
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This book is designed to help students organize their thinking about psychology at a conceptual level. The focus on behaviour and empiricism has produced a text that is better organized, has fewer chapters, and is somewhat shorter than many of the leading books. The beginning of each section includes learning objectives; throughout the body of each section are key terms in bold followed by their definitions in italics; key takeaways, and exercises and critical thinking activities end each section.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI and more
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Introduction to Psychology & Neuroscience
Introduction to Psychology and Neuroscience Team (Dalhousie University)
2020
Licence: CC BY
An introductory psychology textbook with a heavy focus on neuroscience. It is an adaptation by a team at Dalhousie University, based on Psychology 2e from OpenStax and a few other related open textbooks. Some Canadian content has been incorporated.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Includes: Videos, key terms, review questions.
Suggested for: PSYC 451
Introduction to Psychology: The Full Noba Collection
Robert Biswas-Diener (Noba) and Edward Diener (University of Utah)
2016
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This textbook represents the entire catalog of Noba topics. It contains over 100 learning modules covering every area of psychology commonly taught in introductory courses. This book can be modified: feel free to rearrange or remove modules to better suit your specific needs. Please note that the publisher requires you to log in to download the textbooks.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Introduction to Sensation and Perception
Edited by Cheryl Olman (University of Minnesota)
2022
Licence: CC BY
This book was created by the students of PSY 3031: Sensation and Perception, as a class project, because there is no existing open-source textbook for S&P. Content is, for the most part, re-used and re-mixed from existing open-source materials from Psychology and Anatomy textbooks. We needed to do this project because we need a resource that goes into greater depth than the Sensation and Perception sections of introductory psychology textbooks. We also wanted to create a resource with a stronger neuroscience foundation than your average psychology textbook, with strong links between physiology and perception. The final product will always be a work in progress, but hopefully a useful collection of materials to support college-level courses that want to understand how human physiology supports human perceptual experiences.
Formats: Online, EPUB, and PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 333
Introduction to Substance Use Disorders
Patricia A. Stoddard Dare (Cleveland State University) and Audrey Begun (Ohio State University)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC
Introduction to Substance Use Disorders (2020) is an Open Educational Resource book designed for use in an introductory substance misuse course. These materials were developed using a variety of published sources and online materials, including resources produced by U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Routledge Handbook of Social Work and Addictive Behavior (2020), edited by A.L. Begun and M.M. Murray, and most notably Theories and Biological Basis of Substance Misuse, Part I and Part 2 by A.L. Begun.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Suggested for: PSYC 450
Learning Statistics with Jamovi: A tutorial for psychology students and other beginners
Danielle Navarro and David Foxcroft
2022
Licence: CC BY-SA
This book of learning statistics with jamovi covers the contents of an introductory statistics class, as typically taught to undergraduate psychology students. Descriptive statistics and graphing are followed by chapters on probability theory, sampling and estimation, and null hypothesis testing. The book covers the analysis of contingency tables, correlation, t-tests, regression, ANOVA and factor analysis.
Formats:
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Learning Statistics with R: A tutorial for psychology students and other beginners
Danielle Navarro (University of New South Wales)
2018
Licence: CC BY-SA
This book covers the contents of an introductory statistics class, as typically taught to undergraduate psychology students, focusing on the use of the R statistical software. The book discusses how to get started in R as well as giving an introduction to data manipulation and writing scripts. From a statistical perspective, the book discusses descriptive statistics and graphing first, followed by chapters on probability theory, sampling and estimation, and null hypothesis testing. After introducing the theory, the book covers the analysis of contingency tables, t-tests, ANOVAs and regression. Bayesian statistics are covered at the end of the book.
Formats: PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Lifespan Development
Lumen Learning
2019
Licence: CC BY
Lifespan Development examines the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes that occur throughout a lifetime. This course covers the essentials in understanding human development, psychological research, and theories of growth and development. Students will come to understand the lifespan perspective and to analyze growth through each of the major stages of development: prenatal development, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood (including emerging adulthood), middle adulthood, and late adulthood. The course covers key topics in each of these stages, including major developmental theories, genetics, attachment, education, learning, disabilities, parenting, family life, moral development, illnesses, aging, generativity, and attitudes towards death and dying.
Format: Online
Suggested for: PSYC 228
Lifespan Development – A Psychological Perspective – Fourth Edition
Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French (College of Lake County), adapted by Erin Barker (Concordia University)
2023
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Developmental Psychology, also known as Human Development or Lifespan Development, is the scientific study of ways in which people change, as well as stay the same, from conception to death. You will no doubt discover in the course of studying that the field examines change across a broad range of topics. These include physical and other psychophysiological processes, cognition, language, and psychosocial development, including the impact of family and peers.
Formats: PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 228
Neuroscience: Canadian 3rd Edition
William Ju, Maksym Shcherbina, Adel Halawa, Justin Jarovo,and Maryna Pilkiw (University of Toronto)
2022
Licence: CC BY
Neuroscience: Canadian 3rd Edition is a comprehensive source that examines the nervous system, neurodegeneration, techniques in studying neuroscience and emerging topics in the field.
Format: Online
Suggested for: PSYC 451
Neuroscience, Psychology and Conflict Management
Judith Rafferty (James Cook University)
2024
Licence: CC BY-NC
This peer reviewed eBook introduces readers to foundational concepts in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, personality psychology and social psychology to help explain why conflict occurs, how it develops and how it may be managed and/or resolved.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF
Personality Theory: A Multicultural Perspective
Mark D. Kelland (Lansing Community College)
2015
Licence: CC BY
This text covers general personality theory, with an emphasis on cultural aspects affecting personality development. There is also a section focusing on making positive choices in the development of one’s personality from a number of different cultural/philosophical perspectives.
Formats: Online, PDF, and Word
Suggested for: PSYC 356
Principles of Social Psychology: 1st International Edition
Charles Stangor (University of Maryland), Rajiv Jhangiani (Kwantlen Polytechnic University), and Hammond Tarry (Capilano University)
2017
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
The first International edition of this textbook provides students with an introduction to the basic concepts and principles of social psychology from an interactionist perspective. The presentation of classic studies and theories are balanced with insights from cutting-edge, contemporary research. An emphasis on real world examples and applications is intended to guide students to critically analyze their situations and social interactions in order to put their knowledge to effective use.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more
Suggested for: PSYC 379
Psychological Adjustment
Tori Kearns and Deborah Lee (East Georgia State College)
2018
Licence: CC BY
This textbook for Psychological Development was created by Dr. Tori Kearns and Dr. Deborah Lee. Topics covered include: Theories of Humanistic and Personality Psychology; Coping and Mental Illness; Interpersonal Communication; Sexuality; Understanding Gender; Work and Choosing a Career; Coping with Death and Loss; and Finding Meaning.
Formats: PDF, Word
Psychology, 2nd Edition
OpenStax
2023
Licence: CC BY
Psychology 2e is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.
Formats: Online, PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Psychology – H5P Edition
Rose M. Spielman (Quinnipiac University), Kathryn Dumper (Bainbridge State College), William Jenkins (Mercer University), Arlene Lacombe (Saint Joseph’s University), Marilyn Lovett (Spelman College), and Marion Perlmutter (University of Michigan)
2021
Licence: CC BY
Psychology – H5P Edition is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.
Formats: Online, EPUB, and PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 290
Psychology as a Biological Science
Robert Biswas-Diener (Portland State University) and Ed Diener (Universities of Utah)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This textbook provides standard introduction to psychology course content with a specific emphasis on biological aspects of psychology. This includes more content related to neuroscience methods, the brain and the nervous system.
Formats: Online, PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 289, PSYC 304, PSYC 402
Psychology of Human Relations
Stevy Scarbrough (Umpqua Community College)
2023
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Understanding human relations is a valuable skill for anyone entering into the job market. The aim of this textbook is to aid readers in understanding their own behaviors and the behaviors of others with the intent of engaging in positive interactions in personal and professional spaces.
Formats: Online, PDF, eBook
The Psychology of Human Thought: An Introduction
Edited by Robert J. Sternberg (Cornell University) and Joachim Funke (Heidelberg University)
2019
Licence: CC BY-SA
The Psychology of Human Thought is an open access collection of peer-reviewed chapters from all areas of higher cognitive processes. The book is intended to be used as a textbook in courses on higher process, complex cognition, human thought, and related courses. Chapters include concept acquisition, knowledge representation, inductive and deductive reasoning, problem solving, metacognition, language, expertise, intelligence, creativity, wisdom, development of thought, affect and thought, and sections about history and about methods. The chapters are written by distinguished scholarly experts in their respective fields, coming from such diverse regions as North America, Great Britain, France, Germany, Norway, Israel, and Australia. The level of the chapters is addressed to advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students.
Format: PDF
Suggested for: PSYC 355
Psychology of Language
Dinesh Ramoo and Marie Bartlett (Thompson Rivers University)
2024
Licence: CC BY
In this textbook, students are introduced to the fundamental principles of linguistics and psycholinguistics. Students will explore theories and models of language development, comprehension and production as well as bilingualism and reading. All of these topics are approached from a Canadian perspective and include ideas from indigenous cultures and languages of Canada.
Formats: Online, eBook, and PDF
ReCentering Psych Stats
Lynette Bikos (Seattle Pacific University)
2023
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
To center a variable in regression means to set its value at zero and interpret all other values in relation to this reference point. Regarding race and gender, researchers often center male and White at zero. Further, it is typical that research vignettes in statistics textbooks are similarly seated in a White, Western (frequently U.S.), heteronormative, framework. ReCentering Psych Stats seeks provide statistics training for psychology students (undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral) in a socially and culturally responsive way. All lessons use the open-source statistics program, R (and its associated packages).
Formats: Online, eBook, PDF, and Word
Research Methods in Psychology, 3rd Canadian Edition
Rajiv S. Jhangiani (Kwantlen Polytechnic University), I-Chant A. Chiang (Quest University Canada), Carrie Cuttler (Washington State University), Dana C. Leighton (Texas A&M University), and Molly A. Metz
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This adaptation constitutes the fourth edition of this textbook, and builds upon the second Canadian edition, the second American edition, and the third American edition and feedback from several peer reviewers coordinated by the Rebus Community. This peer-reviewed open textbook introduces students to the fundamental principles of what it is like to think like a psychology researcher. Psychology, like most other sciences, has its own set of tools to investigate the important research questions of its field. Unlike other sciences, psychology is a relatively new field with methods and practices that are evolving at a rapid rate. With this textbook, we introduce students to the fundamental principles of what it is like to think like a psychology researcher. A comprehensive textbook for research methods classes. A peer-reviewed inter-institutional project.
Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB, and MOBI
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Statistical Thinking for the 21st Century
Russell Poldrack (Stanford University)
2022
Licence: CC BY-NC
A stats books designed for psychology students that teaches the approaches that are increasingly used in real statistical practice in the 21st century.
Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Statistics 250 – Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis
Brenda Gunderson (University of Michigan)
2015
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This class covers applied statistical methodology from an analysis-of-data viewpoint. Topics covered include frequency distributions; measures of location; mean, median, mode; measures of dispersion; variance; graphic presentation; elementary probability; populations and samples; sampling distributions; one sample univariate inference problems, and two sample problems; categorical data; regression and correlation; and analysis of variance. Use of computers in data analysis is also explored.
Formats: PDF and Word
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Think Bayes: Bayesian Statistics Made Simple
Allen Downey
2022
Licence: CC BY-NC
This statistics text covers introductory concepts in Bayesian statistics, from computational statistics to dimensions.
Formats: Online
Suggested for: PSYC 304
Together: The Science of Social Psychology
Robert Biswas-Diener (Noba)
2016
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
The science of social psychology investigates the ways other people affect our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It is an exciting field of study because it is so familiar and relevant to our day-to-day lives. Social psychologists study a wide range of topics that can roughly be grouped into 5 categories: attraction, attitudes, peace & conflict, social influence, and social cognition. This textbook presents core concepts common to introductory social psychology courses. The 8 units include 27 modules covering key social psych topics such as research methods, group processes, social influence, and relationships.
Formats: Online and PDF
