Portraits of a discipline: An examination of introductory psychology textbooks in America.

Abstract

The time has gone by when any one person could hope to write an adequate textbook of psychology. The science has now so many branches, so many methods, so many fields of application, and such an immense mass of data of observation is now on record, that no one person can hope to have the necessary familiarity with the whole.-An author of an introductory psychology textIf we compare general psychology textbooks of today with those of from ten to twenty years ago we note an undeniable trend toward amelio-We are indebted to several people who provided helpful information in responding to our survey discussed in the second half of the chapter, including Solomon Diamond for calling attention to

Three Decades of Social Psychology: A Longitudinal Analysis of Baron and Byrne's Textbook

“…Table 1 also reveals an increase in the use of color, in the number of cartoons, and in the number of photos, particularly in the last two editions. 1 These changes in this advanced text reflect similar changes in the introductory psychology textbook market that occurred during the 1970s and 1980s (see Weiten & Wight, 1992). Griggs and Jackson (1996) also found a similar increase in the use of color and photos in their Hilgard (1953) analysis.…”

Instructional Manuals of Boundary-Work: Psychology Textbooks, Student Subjectivities, and Disciplinary Historiographies

“…In comparison, potentially both the historians' and the scientists' view on textbooks have a deflating note, looking down on them from the pedestals of historical contingency (historians of science) or uncompromising objectivity (practicing scientists). The carving of this niche in the face of scientists' derision is evident from the way Weiten and Wight (1992) conclude the chapter: "[I]t seems shortsighted to evaluate introductory textbooks by the canons of scholarship applied to journal articles" (p. 488).…”

“…The received view is fashioned from a large number of articles published in the journal Teaching of Psychology, and then later synthesized into a historical account in Weiten and Wight's (1992) text; while the alternative view is discussed mostly through the work of Jill Morawski and Mary Smyth. I am primarily interested in the historiography of introductory texts used in undergraduate courses teaching general psychology, but the investigation of these books is unavoidably tied to other genres of textbooks-subdisciplinespecific ones (e.g., social, developmental, abnormal psychology textbooks), or textbooks in methods and statistics.…”

Lithuanian Psychology Textbooks for General Education Schools in the First Half of the 20th Century

“…Tai atsispindėjo ir to laikotarpio vadovėliuose. Juos įvairiais aspektais analizuoja Vakarų šalių bei Rusijos mokslininkai, tiriantys tiek psichologijos mokslo, tiek jos mokymo raidą (Weiten ir Wight, 1992;Fuchs, 2000;Byford, 2008;Mülberger, 2009; Tolstych, 2010 ir kt.). Aptariamo laikotarpio įvairių dalykų lietuviški vadovėliai kol kas nėra tapę išsamių įvairialypių mokslinių tyrimų objektu, daugiausia juos yra nagrinėję terminologai.…”