On 28 Oct 2002 at 8:44, Esther Yoder Strahan wrote: > While I have no insight to shed on the cover of Gazzaniga's textbook, I > have a good friend who tells some revealing stories about the process of > publishing a successful intro psych textbook. One of these is that the > publishers obtained a second author, without the knowledge of the first > author, for the Canadian market. Apparently their marketing surveys showed > that the Canadian audience was sensitive to issues of American cultural > imperialism >:) and that a Canadian co-author was essential.
I'm currently assigning the Canadianized version of David Shaffer's child development textbook. I certainly didn't agitate for a Canadian version, believing that research is research, and I would hate to see studies of lesser quality mentioned in a textbook merely because they were Canadian. Nevertheless,I think it's reasonable that Canadian students should have a selection of examples drawn from their own country, and Canadian statistics. It sometimes seems we know more about our neighbour to the south than about our own country. But there is a downside. One is that this brand-new Canadianized version is based on the old edition of Shaffer's book, at exactly the same time as he's released a new edition. . Of course, these editions come out far too often anyway. In fact, the new Canadianized version is so close to the older edition (word-for-word with a bit of Canadian content added) that I'm letting students use either the new Canadian or the old regular version. Another problem is that the Canadian coverage needs some tweaking. I've been corresponding with the Canadian author over an obviously wrong statistic claiming a preposterous number of triplets born in Canada. The source given doesn't help because it has an error of a different kind. There's also the glaring omission of the shameful story of Canada's most famous multiples, the Dionne quintuplets, and the failure to discuss the infamous U. Toronto psychologist William Blatz who controlled their upbringing. Perhaps the Canadianizers wanted to sanitize Canadian psychology history for students, shielding them from its darker elements. But I tell 'em anyway. Stephen _______________________________________________________ Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips ________________________________________________________ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
