By the end of this section, you will be able to:Understand the etymology of the word “psychology”Define psychologyUnderstand the merits of an education in psychology

This module on learning introduces classical and operant conditioning and social/observational learning and is appropriate for an undergraduate psychology course, either as a first introduction to the topic or as a refresher for more advanced courses.It includes a brief overview of the topic, module level objectives, readings (online free textbook and a website), links to YouTube videos explaining the three major learning theories, a low-stakes quiz sample, one required discussion, an optional discussion, and a choice of three different assignments.Links are active at time of upload, but that may change, of course.

The first chapter provides an overview of the textbook and reviews the history of psychology and its methodology. Psychology is described as a science studying how hereditary (nature) and experiential (nurture) variables interact to influence the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals. The remainder of the text will be organized in sections entitled “Mostly Nature” (Biological Psychology; Sensation & Perception; Motivation & Emotion), “Mostly Nurture” (Direct Learning; Indirect Learning (i.e., observational learning and language); Cognition), and “Nature/Nurture” (Human Development; Personality; Social Psychology; Maladaptive Behavior; Professional Psychology and Human Potential).

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. This book can be modified: feel free to add or remove modules to better suit your specific needs.Please note that the publisher requires you to login to access and download the textbooks.

Provides standard introduction to psychology course content with a specific emphasis on social aspects of psychology. This includes expanded content related to social cognition, aggression, attraction and similar topics.

This book has a positive starting point, which is, instead of focusing on all the problems and stress factors of today’s working life this research concentrates on the positive sides of work and success (Almost and Spence Laschinger 2002; Spence Laschinger et al . 2004 ). But what is success at work? How can it be defined, and whose definition counts? In this book, we analyse the concept of success from a particular point of view.
The purpose is to explain our viewpoint and open up the fundamental idea of considering success as something positive. But in what way is it positive? Is success manifested in some other, perhaps material, dimension? Does it mean that successful people are also happy? Could it mean that? In this book, we discuss success as a form of positive human development.

This course investigates the psychosocial aspects of vision loss. Coping techniques and issues of self-esteem are explored, along with principles of self-determination. Other topics include the psychosocial aspects of personal life management such as orientation and mobility, use of volunteers, sexuality, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Psychosocial issues specific to people from diverse cultures are also addressed.

With this textbook, we introduce students to the fundamental principles of what it is like to think like a psychology researcher. We also hope to connect with the Canadian audience to show them the fantastic research being generated in Canada as well as provide them with an accurate picture of the Canadian context for ethical human research.

The present adaptation constitutes the second Canadian edition and was co-authored by Rajiv S. Jhangiani (Kwantlen Polytechnic University) and I-Chant A. Chiang (Quest University Canada) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Revisions include the following:

This fourth edition (published in 2019) was co-authored by Rajiv S. Jhangiani (Kwantlen Polytechnic University), Carrie Cuttler (Washington State University), and Dana C. Leighton (Texas A&M University—Texarkana) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Revisions throughout the current edition include changing the chapter and section numbering system to better accommodate adaptions that remove or reorder chapters; continued reversion from the Canadian edition; general grammatical edits; replacement of “he/she” to “they” and “his/her” to “their”; removal or update of dead links; embedded videos that were not embedded; moved key takeaways and exercises from the end of each chapter section to the end of each chapter; a new cover design. In addition, the following revisions were made to specific chapters:

The purpose of this project was to create a set of ancillary materials for the open textbook Research Methods in Psychology, a textbook intended to be used for psychology research methods courses. At the start of this grant, the textbook was available through the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library (open.lib.umn.edu/psychologyresearchmethods/) and could be found in most open material repositories. Since this grant was proposed, however, a more recent version of the text has been released by Price, Jhangiani, Chiang, Leighton, and Cuttler (https://opentext.wsu.edu/carriecuttler/). The resources developed for this grant can be used for the new edition of the text, although they were written for the earlier version.

This textbook is an adaptation of the Research Methods in Psychology that is available on this site in US and Canadian editions. This New Zealand edition is an adaptation to the New Zealand context. The main changes are in Chapters 1 and 3 and the spelling, grammar, and terminology are changed throughout. This textbook is adopted at the University of Waikato in our 200-level research methods in psychology class.

This subject introduces the history of science from antiquity to the present. Students consider the impact of philosophy, art, magic, social structure, and folk knowledge on the development of what has come to be called "science" in the Western tradition, including those fields today designated as physics, biology, chemistry, medicine, astronomy and the mind sciences. Topics include concepts of matter, nature, motion, body, heavens, and mind as these have been shaped over the course of history. Students read original works by Aristotle, Vesalius, Newton, Lavoisier, Darwin, Freud, and Einstein, among others.

How much is intelligence determined by our childhood environment vs. our genetics? Are there things we can do later in life to become more intelligent? What exactly is intelligence, anyway? This session explores the strengths and weaknesses of IQ testing, various models of intelligence, some underlying neural mechanisms, the influences of nature and nurture on intelligence, and perspectives on influences of race, effort, and practice.

This session is an introduction to the subject of psychology: the scientific study of how we think, feel and act. The lecture features some fascinating examples and fun demonstrations on topics like optical illusions, limits of visual attention, the power of suggestion in memories, and the relationship between how we feel and how we act.

Language is an amazing thing. How do we learn and use language in our everyday lives? How does the brain make this happen? This session explores the brain basis of language perception and comprehension, how language contributes to our understanding of our environment, and how we learn languages.